Nine weeks into Beijing’s lockdown and there seems to be a real bifurcation in how the consumer side of the economy is responding. I went out to get my hair cut today (the first time since early February) and was surprised to see quite a lot of people at the salon, including...

...two couples who came with young kids, which suggests to me that their fairly well-off parents were beginning to feel quite optimistic about the risks of catching Covid-19. As was leaving I asked the manager to what extent business had recovered and she said business was...

almost back to normal. The main difference, she said, was that the salon had to close at 8 pm, rather than their normal 10 pm.

As in the past 2-3 weeks there were lots of people wandering around both outside and inside the shopping mall, and while cafes and such were quite...

...busy, other shops were still mostly empty, although a little less empty than even last week. It seems to me that any shop that sells things that you can buy online – clothes, jewelry, perfume, electronic goods, etc. – had few clients. On the other hands shops that sell...

...things that you must “collect” in person – hair salons, cafes, ice cream, etc. – were almost back to normal.

I don’t know if this means consumption has substantially recovered but moved online, or if it means that only certain types of consumption have recovered, but one...

...important caveat: Sanlitun is considered fairly upscale, so it can only tell us what middle and upper-middle class Chinese are doing. Because they were less affected economically by Covid-19 than those who are less well off, more downscale consumption might still be badly hit.