New Threat to the Olympics

Yesterday we went to the Cloud 9 restaurant and bar on the 87th floor of the Jin Mao Tower. The views were nice because you could see Shanghai in the dark. Since we went on a week night, most of 'decorative' lights were turned off. The government has set a mandate that 'decorative' lighting can only be on until 10PM on the weekdays. Friday and Saturday though, the lights are allowed to stay on later.

At the tower we were discussing the Olympics and one of my co-interns said that they were closing ALL shops in the subways. These shops are similar to the ones in Mexico and other third world countries. You can haggle with the owner to try to get a better price. The people who operate these stores depend on them being open daily and doing business with the Chinese and with tourists. When I heard that the government mandated that ALL shop close until the 24th, I was skeptical as something like this would NEVER happen in the US. However, when I came to work today (Wednesday) I noticed that all the shops had stickers on them saying, "closed until the 24th" (Olympics are over the 23rd). The stickers are kind of like chaperon tape at a hotel; it covers both the door and the wall so the government knows if you have accessed your shop or not. We were all in shock when our friend told us this and even more shocked to learn that the owners of these little shops are not being compensated. Now, I have no way to confirm the compensation part, but they stores are indeed closed.

We all have the opinion that these stores make China China; like the fast food makes the US the US. Ok, bad example, but the point is that the government here is trying to make this more of a diplomatic event than a world wide athletic event. I do understand that all world wide events have some kind of diplomacy, but to us it seems that the government here is trying to put on a happy face for world leaders. They seem to not be too concerned about their own citizens. That's all for now and I am officially at the two week mark.