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Is eating hotpot for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper too much hotpot?

Well, according to a woman who just did exactly that for three days, yes.

Woman trapped in hotpot restaurant

The woman, surnamed Wang, was trapped in a hotpot restaurant in Zhengzhou, the capital of east-central China's Henan province, when it had to shutter immediately after one of its earlier patrons tested positive for Covid-19.

China has so far approached the pandemic with a zero-Covid policy, where it has adopted an iron fist approach and shut down venues immediately in the event of a positive Covid-19 case.

This is to snuff out potential Covid-19 clusters, and to stop the virus from spreading.

This was the case in Zhengzhou, where there was one case of Covid-19 on Mar. 18, as reported by local Chinese media, Wu Tong Video.

While infected, the individual had visited several places, including dining in at the hotpot restaurant some time after around 11:01am on Mar. 18.

Just one minute shy from escaping

On that same day, Wang was having dinner with four other friends at the same hotpot restaurant at around 10:30pm, some 12 hours later.

Three of Wang's friends had left the restaurant at around 11:20pm, while Wang stayed behind to catch up with another friend whom she had not met for some time.

When Wang was about to make a move from the restaurant around 20 minutes later, she realised that the building the restaurant was situated in had been shut.

But alas, it was too little too late.

More specifically, Wang was just one minute shy from escaping from the building's premises before she was sealed in.

Restaurant kept those quarantined well-fed

As a result, Wang, along with 30 to 40 other lucky or unlucky patrons, found themselves having to prolong their stay at the restaurant, where they would serve their quarantine.

Over the course of the next three days, Wang said the 10 to 20 employees at the restaurant would busy themselves by displaying immaculate hospitality and ensuring that the food was constantly flowing.

The restaurant employees would prepare noodles for patrons at around 3am for supper, serve up a stir fry for breakfast, and provide free food for lunch.

This was on top of the unlimited free hotpot, and patrons could order whatever they felt like eating.

To say that Wang was well-fed was an understatement, and she began to cry uncle by the third consecutive day of hotpot.

Despite the restaurant's stellar service, Wang said she could not eat any further and called her experience an "outrageous" one.

You can watch Wang's experience below:

Not the first time

Wang's predicament is not a unique one.

Earlier in January 2022, some 100 visitors at 1788 Square found themselves locked in the shopping mall in Jing'an, Shanghai, according to Radii China.

The mall had closed after two staff from a nearby bubble tea shop were found to have been infected with Covid-19.

As a result, all of the mall's visitors and office workers had to get tested, and this resulted in some of them spending the night inside the mall.

During the same period of time, a similar scenario played out at a Uniqlo retail outlet just five minutes away from 1788 Square, where shoppers were stranded for 48 hours, according to Yahoo.

Covid-19 situation in China

China is experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases due to an Omicron wave, and there were 4,770 Covid-19 cases on Mar. 22, according to CNA.

On the same day, Reuters reported that Shanghai logged a record number of daily locally transmitted asymptomatic Covid-19 cases for the fifth consecutive day.

A lockdown has been imposed in Shengyang, a city in Liaoning province, where there are 9 million people, after 47 cases were reported on Mar. 22.

The country also reported two deaths on Mar. 19, the first Covid-19 death in over a year since Jan. 25, 2021, according to CNA.

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Top image screenshot from video from Wu Tong Video