After the sudden end of China’s “dynamic zero” Covid policy, photographers capture the lingering relics of the country’s pandemic prevention apparatus
As China‘s “dynamic zero” Covid policy came to an abrupt end around December last year, the infrastructure of pandemic prevention also began to crumble. Nucleic acid testing booths were empty, hazmat suits discarded, QR codes to enter public areas torn up or left to fade. With every passing day, it seemed, the vestiges of tracking and containing the virus that had become part of everyday life over the past three years (the temperature checks, the health code apps, the cotton swabs), became consigned to memory.
But as the country’s Covid policies evolve, and the physical reminders of the pandemic slowly disappear, traces of three years of battling the virus remain. Some of these relics of “zero Covid” are captured here on camera:
In March 2023, a sign asking visitors to wear a mask remains in a tourist attraction in Tumen, Jilin province (Siyi Chu)
A locked and seemingly abandoned Beijing establishment still displays signs telling patrons to ”scan the Beijing Health Kit and take your temperature” (Soth)
The streets of Shenyang, Liaoning province, is dotted by carts selling strawberries from nearby Dandong city. The pandemic saw them converted into testing booths, but now they are back in normal business (Siyi Chu)
A small pagoda in Tianshui, Gansu province, once repurposed as a Covid testing booth, is now cordoned off from the public (Soth)
Unmasked pedestrians stroll by a closed down testing booth in Xicheng district, Beijing (Soth)
A Beijing Health Kit QR code covered under a dusting of snow. Previously, visitors had to scan QR codes, which would reveal their travel history and Covid testing status, to enter public areas. (Wang Jiawei)
A solitary client at a testing booth in Beijing’s CBD on January 8 (Bo Chen)
Bottles of disinfectant behind a window in Luoyang, Henan province (Soth)
Thousands of Covid testing booths across China are now superfluous, with some even being sold online. (Wang Jiawei)
An eerie disused testing booth at night in Jinan, Shandong province (Bo Chen)
A desolate former testing location in Yanji, Jilin province, still has signs on the door still reminding passersby of testing times, and cautioning them against the slippery floor (now covered in dust). (Siyi Chu)
Signs in Tumen Port, a border crossing point between China and North Korea, cites ”local policy” and ask visitors to wear N95 masks. With the border still closed as of early March, this tourist spot is still awaiting its return to prosperity. (Siyi Chu)
Scores of testing booths have been removed from street corners and now sit idle in a Beijing park (Wang Jiawei)
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