Cup of Cha
This is China

For better or for worse, the old Beijing–June old, not Ming old–is slowing reappearing.

While the bizarre ban on outdoor seating was only fully enforced for a week or two, it now appears to be completely gone.

A friend informed me that DVD stores are now fully stocked again. He also said prices went up 25%, presumably because owners lost months of business. Apparently IPR issues are only relevant during the Olympics. Once all of the foreigners (that China didn’t allow into the country anyway) go home, no one cares.

This weekend the traffic restrictions officially expire, although they have slowly been relaxing them farther from the city center for a few weeks now.

China has new food safety crises popping up again.

The Shanghai stock market is down a stunning 63% on the year (in fairness this continued more or less through the Olympics).

Huge new mall-style shopping plazas, which opened to time with the Olympics, now have to face the reality of life without the frantic Games. The Village in Sanlitun seems to be in good shape, with major brands like Apple, adidas and Puma driving business there. In contrast, Solena near Lucky Street looked like a total strip-mall disaster last night when I went to the empty three-floor Qingdao Brewery (68 kuai drafts weren’t helping the cause and neither was last night’s downpour).

But the most noticeable reversal is that people are really back to business as usual. During the Olympics it felt like the only people working hard were reporters. And most of them were freaking out because the bureaus were asking them to file two stories or more a day–and nothing newsworthy was happening. Now? You would never guess that something so big just happened. But you would guess that Beijing is no longer building toward anything in particular.

Tags: dvds, Olympics, shanghai markets
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