One Night in W U H A N
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In a crowded Wuhan beer hall, Zhang Qiong wipes birthday cake from her face after a food fight with her friends.
Qiong wipes birthday cake off her face at a beer hall.
“After experiencing the first wave of epidemic in Wuhan and then the liberation, I feel like I’m living a second life,” says Zhang, 29, who works in a textiles shop in the central Chinese city that was the original epicentre of COVID-19.
People play with toy guns outside a bar.
Outside, maskless partygoers spill onto the streets, smoking and playing street games with toy machine guns and balloons.
Nightlife in Wuhan is back in full swing almost seven months after the city lifted its stringent lockdown and the city’s young partygoers are embracing the catharsis.
People dance at a nightclub.
In scenes unimaginable in many cities around the world reeling under a resurgence of the pandemic, young Wuhan residents during a recent night out crowd-surfed, ate street food and packed the city’s nightclubs as they looked to make up for lost time.
The revival of the city’s hard-hit nightlife economy offers a glimpse into a post-pandemic lifestyle that many hope will become a reality in 2021, after the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
People wearing face masks walk out of a ferry as they pass the Yangtze River.
Wuhan hasn’t reported a new locally transmitted case of the disease since May 10, after undergoing one of the strictest lockdowns worldwide.
The city of 11 million was shut off from the rest of China in a surprise overnight lockdown beginning Jan 23, with road blocks erected and planes, trains and buses barred from entering the city. Almost 3,900 of China’s 4,634 recorded COVID-19 deaths occurred in the industrial city.
A girl arrives at a nightclub.
Students, musicians, artists and young workers – the backbone of the city’s nightlife scene – told stories of being stuck in their homes for months, many using the opportunity to prepare for a time when the city would recover.
“Some of my new music will definitely be about the pandemic time,” said Wang Xinghao, frontman of Wuhan pop rock band Mad Rat, which drew a crowd of over 100 people to a local venue on a recent Wednesday night.
Wang flailed and jumped on stage, pulling crowd-surfing fans on stage, and at one point, tossed his faux leopard skin coat into the screaming audience.
He said one of the new songs was inspired by the three months he spent living in close quarters with his mother.
A man is helped by friends to get into a taxi outside a nightclub.
Many said the end of the lockdown has inspired larger turnouts.
“During the epidemic time, Wuhan was really a dead city,” said rock music enthusiast Yi Yi after the show. “Now people are all coming out to eat and have fun. I don’t think there were as many people before the epidemic.”
People celebrate a birthday at a street restaurant at night.
Despite the thriving night scene, Wuhan business and restaurant owners say it could still be some time before the surge in turnover makes up for massive losses during the lockdown.
A man drives a car outside a nightclub.
But for patrons now flooding Wuhan’s nocturnal hotspots, the message is more straightforward.
“I just really want to cherish this time, because in life you never know when it will end," said Zhang in the Wuhan beer hall. “Make every happy day count.”
PHOTO EDITING MARIKA KOCHIASHVILI; WRITING KARISHMA SINGH; TEXT EDITING BY LINCOLN FEAST; LAYOUT JULIA DALRYMPLE
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kyun jala rahe ho
Party
World
Under
Horror
And
Night life there
So, Chinese propaganda found a way to desidime too.
chinese have acquired american culture and capitalism so quickly that even america is scared .
Chinese. The only people i despise more than ours. Cheap, filthy, disgusting pieces of shits.
o o😔 it is okay.
it is not soooo bad.
alternatively, Homo Sapiens are equally bad everywhere (maybe to varying degrees most of the time).
it is just that there are too many of us (which makes things too visible).
as Winston Churchill quipped about us ↪Famine or no famine, Indians will “breed like rabbits.”↩ and was true for Chinese too (but for the iron fist control).
Humans, and more specifically ‘Homo Sapiens’ within the broad classification of humans; were, are and will remain such. till they exist.
Due to grave error in Wuhan whether deliberate or unintentional, thousands have lost their dear ones & millions have suffered health issues.
Significant portion of world’s population have either lost their job or had to make changes to livelihood.
World at large will be better served to remember this tragedy & be cautious in dealing with the perpetrators.
Ok
Don’t believe in these Chinese propaganda. Its all scripted media showing off that communist is best.. If you read some of actual news (which may be deleted now), people are still in fear of corona-virus and its outcome in Wuhan.
Cant trust Chinese-Wuhan News…
Dey destroyed so many families… Still don’t bat an eye
Bas kar 2020 bisi
nobody is asking kitna rs khaya re bada ess post ka
wahhhh