Courtney DittmarJanuary 18, 2021Ng Han GuanComment

Shopping and dining out: Wuhan a year later

Courtney DittmarJanuary 18, 2021Ng Han GuanComment

Couples go on dates, families dine out at restaurants, shoppers flock to stores. Face masks aside, people are going about their daily life pretty much as normal in the Chinese city that was first hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It's a remarkable turnaround for the 11 million residents of Wuhan, a city devastated by the coronavirus. The commercial hub on the mighty Yangtze river spent 76 days in lockdown last year, from January to April.

A dog rests as residents stand near meat hung out to dry in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Visitors wear masks as they visit the iconic Yellow Crane Tower, a popular tourist site in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

People wearing face masks walk down a deserted street in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province on Jan. 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Arek Rataj)

Medical workers treat patients in the isolated intensive care unit at a hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. (Chinatopix via AP)

A worker walks among beds in a convention center that has been converted into a temporary hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020. (Chinatopix via AP)

Overwhelmed hospitals sent the less seriously ill home, where they infected others. More than 3,800 people died, accounting for nearly 90% of the official coronavirus deaths in mainland China.

Today, some residents marvel that what was once considered the most dangerous place because of the pandemic may now be one of the safest. Bundled up against the winter cold, they walk briskly down a pedestrian-only shopping street that was a ghost town at the height of the outbreak.

Authorities remain on guard ahead of next month’s Lunar New Year holiday, when Chinese typically return to their hometowns for family gatherings. Even a World Health Organization team, which arrived from overseas this week to investigate the origins of the virus, is being made to quarantine for 14 days.