Beijing is emerging from a wave of Covid infections, as people return to the streets.
During the Monday morning rush hour, traffic in Beijing increased by about 90 percent from a week ago.
According to 21st Century Business Herald, ticket orders for Beijing city attractions doubled over the weekend. CNBC couldn't confirm the figures.
The weekend saw a noticeable increase in foot traffic at malls and City Walk. Some stores are still not open. Christmas is not a public holiday in mainland China.
In contrast to Beijing, which saw a surge in traffic on Monday, Shanghai and Shenzhen saw very low levels of congestion. Beijing began to see a wave of Covid infections.
The rebound in social activity in Beijing over the last few days is an indication of how long it will take for the country to shake off the economic impact of zero- Covid controls.
A month ago, Beijing residents were dealing with a surge in apartment lock downs. Many Covid controls were ended in December due to a surge in infections.
The city said there was a 16-fold increase in the number of people going to the clinics. The number went from 73,000 to 73,000 in four days. About 22 million people live in the city.
According to the report, the share of elderly patients has increased. The director at the hospital said the share of visits by the elderly had increased from 20% to 50%.
China's elderly have lower Covid vaccination rates and are more vulnerable to the virus. Deaths have gone up.
There aren't as many official disclosures. China stopped sharing daily figures on Covid infections and deaths on Sunday.
The national health system would struggle to handle a surge in infections if strict Covid controls were maintained.
Some of the most detailed official numbers on Covid were shared by Zhejiang province.
According to the province, Covid infections in the region will likely double to a peak of 2 million a day around New Year's. More than 70% of the province's population lives in cities such as Hangzhou, which is home to the e- commerce company, Alibaba.
There is a daily capacity of 600,000 in the province. According to authorities, there were more than 12,000 intensive care unit beds in the province.
Traffic was very light on Monday.
Some parts of China are seeing an increase in infections, but other parts of the country are seeing a recovery in social activity.
There was a big jump in road traffic in the southwestern cities of Chengdu and Chongqing.
People are going to travel more.
Trips.com said cross-provincial travel bookings for the New Year's Day holiday were up 34% compared to a year ago. The top 10 popular tourist cities were listed by the company.
The local tourism board said passenger trips at Sanya's airport exceeded 36,000 on December 15.
The risk of being stranded far from home due to Covid policies was a motivator for people to stay nearby.
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