Asia: ”Covid-19: China’s nightlife during the coronavirus pandemic”

Getting into Zhao Dai, an underground nightclub in a fashionable part of Beijing, involves a little more faff than it once did.

Party animals must prove that they have not travelled anywhere they might have picked up Covid-19, by showing doormen a code generated by a government mobile app.

Once inside, however, the smoke-filled basement is just as sweaty as usual. On a recent Saturday a hundred unmasked revellers bopped to techno tunes. No one bothered to maintain social distancing while dancing.

The pandemic posed an enormous threat to China’s fragile club scene. Nightspots in Beijing were forced to shut in January.