Dining in clandestine restaurants, drinking in secret bars or hiding the symptoms of the covid: some residents in Beijing defy the strict anti-covid regulations that the Chinese authorities are beginning to relax.
"It was quite hidden, you couldn’t see the lights on the second floor from outside"says a resident who visited a speakeasy hotpot restaurant.
The girl stumbled upon the joint on Xiaohongshu, the Chinese equivalent of Instagram, while searching for indoor dining places in Beijing.
when it was, was "full" of people. "I was very happy to eat out, but at the same time I felt that I had to fight underground"says the woman who asks to remain anonymous.
China is at a turning point in its virus strategy, after nearly three years mired in harsh restrictions that successfully contained initial outbreaks but caused public unrest.
After the biggest protests in the country in decades, several cities, including the capital, began to ease the requirement to present positive tests to enter certain places and the state media began to minimize the risks of the virus.
This relaxation led some residents to defy the rules. Publications of restaurants and cafes that serve indoors, something prohibited in a large part of the city, circulate through social networks with hundreds of "I like it".
An expat who asks not to be named explains that he recently enjoyed lamb stew and meat skewers at another speakeasy.
"The workers wouldn’t let me in and said they only did takeout"Explain. "But when I said that my friends were already upstairs, they winked at me and asked me to scan the QR code" before entering.
