Shanghai, an economic hub in eastern China, has recently been described as a "ghost town" following a viral tweet showing photos of deserted streets. However, local media, The Paper, visited the sites shown in those photos and refuted the false claim.

Michael Yon, who claimed to be "America's most experienced combat correspondent," recently posted three pictures appearing to show an empty coffee shop and desolate roads in Shanghai's financial hub, Lujiazui, on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Yon said the photos were taken by his friend who was visiting Shanghai and asserted that "China is showing the most signs of an economy in trouble. Deep trouble. Shanghai is a ghost town compared to what it was."

The tweet sparked debate on X, attracting 1.5 million views and over 820 replies so far, with many questioning the credibility of the photos. Meanwhile, others posted pictures of bustling streets in Shanghai to counter Yon's narrative. "This wasn't 4 a.m. by any chance?" mocked a user. 

U.S. news magazine Newsweek cited the tweet in an article titled "Has China's Shanghai Turned Into 'Ghost Town'? What Photos Show" published on September 5, claiming that "economists have raised concerns about the state of the Chinese economy."

Although the article has incorporated some replies from X disputing that Shanghai is a "ghost town," it still used a misleading title to confuse readers.

Shanghai-based media The Paper on September 8 visited the coffee shop, overpass and roadway shown in the photos and found that the tweet was deceptive.

An employee at the coffee shop told The Paper that the store may experience low traffic early in the morning on weekdays; however, traffic tends to increase around noon and during afternoon tea time.

A security guard near the overpass said the pedestrian flow of the footbridge on weekday mornings is lower than that in the evening, and as there is an exit of the Lujiazui metro station near the footbridge, many may choose to enter their offices in the commercial buildings directly from the metro station.

Regarding the empty roadway, it turns out that the roadway was closed after the Pudong Avenue tunnel project opened to traffic on December 23, 2022.

In the second quarter of 2023, the average daily passenger flow of Shanghai rail transit on weekdays was 11.62 million while Lujiazui station saw the highest passenger flow in the morning peak outbound between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., The Paper reported.

In the first half of this year, Shanghai achieved a gross regional product of 213.9 billion yuan (about $29.53 billion), an increase of 9.7 percent year on year, with the highest total economic output among Chinese cities, according to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau.

(Cover: Visitors at the Bund in Shanghai, China, September 9, 2023. /CFP)