Monday, August 04, 2008

We few, we happy few

Crazy Chris e-mailed me the other day to check how things were going in The Jing without him. He commented that the place had already been beginning to feel pretty deserted when he left a couple of weeks ago, and wondered if things were even worse now.

Well......

The other day, when The Choirboy and I breezed into Room 101 to meet up with The Bengali after our traditional Sunday evening chuanr fest, we were the only customers they'd seen all night. A trio of our journo chums showed up shortly afterwards, but they really were just having 'the one' on their way home from a busy day of news-manufacturing up at the Olympic Village.

The Pool Bar was not that much livelier: only a handful of the diehard regulars, the quietest Sunday evening I've seen in there for a long time.

Friday and Saturday were very quiet too. And the main bar district of Sanlitun seemed extremely subdued on Friday - although admittedly I only passed through briefly, and relatively early.

Yep, our wonderful government really has done a pretty good job of purging the city of 'undesirable elements' - like foreign barflies. Things haven't been this quiet since SARS.


Hark, is that the rustle of a tumbleweed skittering down the street?

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