Does Metro still accept the old blue (free) membership card to shop at their store?
For some time now they've been pushing their "premium" service (paid) while at the same time the items I actually want are disappearing from the shelves.

@Alex, it rather depends on which railway station you mean.

In an earlier post you indicated you would travel by high speed rail.

The HSR station is now called Kunming south and it can be reached directly by lines 1 and 4.
The old north station is a few steps from the Metro at line 2.

I don't know about the OLD south station, which is at the south end of Beijing Road, but that's the one that had the 10 minute walk around.

I'm going to start believing in miracles.

This morning I deleted the health code apps on both WeChat and AliPay as I've done several times in the past.

Today, however, when I again scanned the code in AliPay, I first got the registration screen, followed immediately with the green shield.

I guess it pay to not give up.

Can you not simply purchase foreign currency (in this case US $) at a bank?

We've done this in the past to purchase Canadian or Pound Sterling.
I've also purchased US $ at the foreign exchange kiosk at the airport, perhaps at a higher rate, but still convenient.

I'm glad to see they're opening up for a second time.

I have a friend who was in hospital for surgery and could not get it the first time.