Over the past weekend in China, many places seemed to resemble life before, without any traces of any coronavirus ever happening, aside from the masks covering most faces. 

The Chinese populace has started to empty into the streets once again in an effort to return to normal life before the coronavirus and the shutdown of all major Chinese cities like Wuhan, Shanghai, and Beijing. 

The coronavirus has seemingly passed for now in China, while the virus runs rampant in the US. What was once a crisis Americans observed from far away has now become reality at home. The US has already reached over 370,000 cases, the most in the world, and unfortunately, that number is still growing rapidly. 

Meanwhile, in China, cities have started lifting their lockdowns and stay at home restrictions, as they think it is time to return to normalcy. Last week, Wuhan, the original epicenter of the virus, reportedly passed its first week with no new cases, so malls began to slowly reopen and residents began to come back out into the world. Some metro services had been opened again, in addition to the borders into the city, for the first time in months. 

Elsewhere in China, many popular sites opened for the now-past holiday weekend of the Qingming Festival and received the attention of tens of thousands. Several popular tourist attractions opened again and encouraged visitors, as the local governments intended to boost tourism and bring China back to life while people seemed to forget about the still-existing risk of COVID-19.

One of these tourist attractions is the Huangshan Mountain Park in Anhui province, which waived entrance fees in order to encourage tourists. In the early morning, the park already declared that they had reached the maximum daily capacity of 20,000 visitors. In pictures circulating on China’s social media platform, Weibo, the number of people and their close proximity is absurd to look at, as the virus still is hitting other countries around the world hard.

In other major cities like Shanghai, the once-abandoned Bund and other shopping malls opened again to fill with an abundance of people. In the capital city of Beijing, residents flocked to parks and open spaces, perhaps hoping for fresh air and a glimpse of interaction. 

However, Chinese officials are warning residents not to gather just yet, as the asymptomatic carriers and the risks associated with the virus still remain at an all-time high, in addition to the uncertainty. 

Seeing photos of all these people gathered so closely together as recently as this past weekend is extremely alarming not only for the millions of Chinese people still concerned but also for the rest of the world, as they wonder if the country has learned its lesson and are taking any precaution. The fact that social distancing is being ignored and some people seem not to care anymore about the huge risks that still remain is frightening for the vast majority of the Chinese population, just as things appeared to be getting better for the first time. 

As Wuhan looks to officially reopen the city and lift lockdown on Wednesday, April 8th, the question remains: will people be cautious and abide by social distancing and other precautions or will the bustling city return to life as before and become lively once again? Only time will tell what the 11 million people of Wuhan, who have been under lockdown since January 23, will do. 

This past weekend was just a glimpse for the Chinese people as lockdowns will become officially removed very soon. The outrage and concern over another wave of the coronavirus may just be enough to sway the population from going out and experiencing the sense of normalcy and traditional life that they crave for a few more weeks.