Overworked, underpaid and thoroughly fed up, Wang's troubles deepened even further when authorities abruptly locked down the delivery driver's Beijing apartment block earlier this month.

Officials in the Chinese capital have doubled down on the country's hallmark zero-Covid policy in recent weeks, one of an array of cities to impose sweeping shutdowns, mass testing and teleworking mandates as caseloads have hit all-time highs.

Wang is not alone in feeling frustrated.

The ruling Communist Party's uncompromising zero-Covid strategy -- now in force for about three years -- has stoked anger and resentment, with widespread and sometimes violent protests kicking off across China's major cities.

Pandemic fatigue has been on the rise for some time, as a recent lightening of virus curbs has coincided with record infection tallies, prompting a patchwork of onerous restrictions in multiple major cities.

China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, but maintaining relatively low numbers of cases and deaths has constrained its economic recovery, disrupted supply chains and hammered employment.

- 'I have no choice' -

Demand for deliveries has soared under the tightening curbs as millions of housebound urbanites have turned to an army of low-paid couriers -- mostly migrants from other provinces -- to supply takeaway lunches and grocery orders.

But this time the restrictions have crept deep into places where drivers live, shutting many inside without pay and forcing others to choose between having a place to sleep and earning enough money to survive.

Wang, who scoots back and forth across a wealthy financial district delivering food orders for internet giant Meituan, said his housing compound was cordoned off on November 7 after two Covid cases were discovered.

Desperate not to lose his income -- about 250 yuan ($34) a day -- the 20-year-old broke lockdown rules by vaulting a fence to make his shifts, sneaking back in under cover of darkness.

"I have no choice. If I don't make money, I can't pay rent," said the native of the industrial northern province of Shanxi.

"Lots of delivery guys don't have anywhere to live at the moment," he told AFP outside a deserted office block on a cold winter afternoon last week.

"I'm really dissatisfied with the Chinese government, because other countries aren't strict about Covid any more," he said.

"We're going to such great lengths... and I don't feel it's necessary, because nobody is dying from it."

AFP withheld Wang's full name to protect him from potential repercussions for breaking lockdown and criticising the state.

- Sleeping rough -

When a shutdown loomed over Gu Qiang's housing compound last week, the Meituan driver chose to sleep in his car.

"Spending 30 yuan to keep the engine running all night is still cheaper than getting a hotel," the gruff northeast China native said.

"Some of my friends are living outside -- they dare not go home."

Several couriers interviewed by AFP described heavier workloads in recent weeks as lockdowns have left their companies short of labour.

While some said they were happy to take on money-spinning extra orders, most said they had endured longer working hours, extra stress and more negative interactions with customers.

They also said they had not received any additional support from Meituan or the companies to which delivery services have been outsourced.

Authorities last year launched an investigation into food delivery platforms following claims of exploitative labour practices including algorithms that effectively forced couriers to drive dangerously to meet tight delivery times.

Meituan did not respond to an AFP request for comment prior to publication.

But the company told the state-run China Daily newspaper last week that it had paid for hotel rooms for some stranded workers and welcomed calls for help from couriers in similar situations.

Wordplay, blank signs, music: how China is protesting zero-Covid
Beijing (AFP) Nov 28, 2022 - Holding up blank pieces of paper, co-opting the national anthem, complicated wordplays: protesters in China are devising a myriad of creative ways to voice dissent against the government and its zero-Covid policy.

Here's how many Chinese have attempted to evade censorship to demonstrate their anger and show support for protests:

- Blank signs -

Protesters in multiple cities, including Beijing on Sunday, held up blank A4-sized sheets of white paper in a sign of solidarity and a nod to the lack of free speech in China. Others posted white squares on their WeChat social media profiles.

Viral photos also appeared to show students from top Chinese university Tsinghua holding up signs showing Friedmann equations -- chosen for the similarity between the physicist's name and the phrase "freed man" or "freedom".

And after authorities blocked more obvious keywords and place names from internet searches, nonsensical posts comprising repeated characters with "positive" meanings went viral on the WeChat super-app and the Twitter-like Weibo, including some that simply read "right right right right right" and "good good good".

By Monday, many of the earlier nonsense posts and references to "A4 paper" had been wiped from social sites, though similar posts continued to spread.

Social media users also turned to advanced wordplay to discuss the protests, using terms like "banana peel", which has the same initials as President Xi Jinping's name in Chinese, and "shrimp moss", which sounds similar to the phrase "step down".

- Sarcasm -

Some crowds over the weekend called explicitly for Xi to step down, and yelled slogans like "No to Covid tests, yes to freedom," referencing a banner hung up by a solo protester in Beijing just before the Communist Party Congress in October.

Others were more cautious, holding what appeared to be silent protests and offering flowers and candles to commemorate victims of a deadly fire in Xinjiang last week that prompted the latest wave of anger.

In Beijing, a crowd at the Liangma River on Sunday night shouted "I want to do Covid tests! I want to scan my health code," inspiring Weibo users to post similarly sarcastic phrases.

Video clips of Xi as well as quotes from the president have been repurposed to support mass demonstrations, including one clip of him saying: "Now the Chinese people are organised and aren't to be trifled with."

- Music, football -

Groups in multiple locations across China sang the national anthem and the Internationale at their gatherings, pre-empting accusations by Beijing that protests were unpatriotic or instigated by foreign forces.

And one viral video that was swiftly taken down by censors purportedly showed students at a university dormitory singing the song "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies" by Cantonese pop band Beyond -- an ode to freedom also adopted by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong before the pandemic.

Netizens also spread memes about the ongoing World Cup in Qatar, using images of unmasked football fans to mock China's strict zero-Covid policy.

In one widely shared video that has since been censored, a social media user overlaid audio of people screaming "put your mask on!" and "do a Covid test" on scenes of cheering World Cup spectators.

- Jumping the firewall -

International social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram are blocked by China's virtual Great Firewall, but tech-savvy residents have been able to post information on the protests using special Virtual Private Network (VPN) software.

To get the message out beyond China's borders, anonymously run Twitter accounts are opening up their inboxes to video submissions from across the country, while several protest live streams have been hosted on Instagram.

And Chinese students studying abroad have organised similar demonstrations around the world, including in several North American and European cities.

In one Instagram video geolocated by AFP, singing protestors put up a mock street sign from Shanghai's Urumqi Road on a lamppost outside China's consulate in Toronto, Canada.

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