Since February, Sixth Tone’s video team has been traveling to border towns all over China, documenting the complex legacy of three years of “zero-COVID” restrictions. Ruili, a city straddling China’s southwestern border with Myanmar, is the first stop in this series.

Before the pandemic, Ruili rose to prosperity as a center for the jade trade. But the city faced some of China’s strictest anti-COVID measures, losing a large number of its population as a result.

Now, the border has finally reopened. But as Sixth Tone’s Lü Xiao, Li Pasha and Wu Huiyuan observe, economic revival didn’t take place overnight.

Read more: http://ow.ly/3tL650Nizb2

Fresh voices from today's China: News, stories and commentaries told from a human perspective.
Find more China's stories on: https://www.sixthtone.com/

Follow us on:
Facebook:   / sixthtone  
Twitter:   / sixthtone  
Instagram:   / sixthtone