With the massive outbreak of Covid-19 in mainland China, most if not all businesses have shut down, leaving citizens to seclude themselves at home, only stepping out to purchase groceries and run errands.
One shop in Hunan though, has reopened to much fanfare.
Queue 1.5m apart
An "internet famous" bubble tea shop resumed business in the city of Changsha on Feb. 23.
The popularity of the shop drew flocks of people wanting to feed their milk tea addiction.
China News reported that the shop, which has not been named, is so popular that the queue at its re-opening extended to 100 metres long, with a wait time of between one and two hours.
The shop even implemented some precautionary measures in light of the virus outbreak.
Customers are required to queue 1.5 metres apart.
Screenshot from China Live / YouTube
Photo from This is Hunan / FB
Rather helpful yellow line markers have even been placed on the ground to indicate where customers should stand.
Those joining the queue also have to mask up.
Screenshot from China Live / YouTube
The instruction above says:
"Please wear a mask, and queue behind the yellow line!"
Screenshot from China Live / YouTube
Temperature checks and hand sanitisers too
Customers who reach the front of the queue have their temperatures taken too.
Photo from This is Hunan / FB
And subsequently a spritz of hand sanitiser, before they are served.
Photo from This is Hunan / FB
Restaurants slowly reopening
Hunan is the province located next to Wuhan, which has been hit hard by the outbreak.
In early February. the province was hit with a double whammy of a H5N1 bird flu.
Catering businesses and food establishments were also previously suspended, according to China Daily.
Recently however, as the rate of new infections started to slow down in China, the local government introduced suggestions and requirements for restaurants looking to resume dine-in services.
These include disinfection, allocating sufficient space between seats, and taking the temperatures of customers -- measures which were implemented by the bubble tea shop above.
Another restaurant which serves rice noodles, a local staple in Hunan, reopened to happy customers missing their typical morning breakfast, reported China Daily.
"It's never been so long between bowls of rice noodles in all my 30 years," said Yang Fa, a Changsha resident, to China Daily.
The restaurant has also taken to conducting temperature checks, and swapping out big tables for smaller individual tables which are spaced further apart.
Top photo from China Daily.