A Teacher Recounts the Misery of Escaping Shanghai

A transit officer, wearing protective gear, controls access to a tunnel near Shanghai's Pudong district during the lockdown on March 28, 2022. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

A college teacher and his wife were trapped in Shanghai for 48 days during the city’s lockdown, and worried about their 12-year-old boy who was at home by himself. In despair, they decided to leave and get back to their home.

They went to Shanghai on March 3 for a business trip and ended up stuck there, 100 miles northeast of their hometown of Hangzhou, when the city lockdown began on March 13.