The other day I went to pump up my tyres. The man I go to has a metal wardrobe on the pavement and a carpet as his "workshop". When I arrived his wardrobe was gone. I found him eating a pear down an alleyway with his wardrobe. It's the Olympic Games. He has to go, to reappear in September sometime. All small traders must disappear - security or tidiness, I am not sure which. Probably the latter. He is a happy man, with a nice story. After a philosophical chat, he gave me a pear and I left.

It's ironical really, as he could be doing well. Bicycles have been affected by the traffic arrangements - now with only half the cars on the road, people want bikes. Bike theft has rocketed and I'm told you can't buy cheap bikes any more. Cheap bikes cost about 8o- to 120 they have all gone and the only ones left seem to begin at 700.

Horse drawn carts and pavement traders have gone too as their contribution to the Games. There are usually hundreds of horse drawn carts and traders selling vegetables and fruit all over the place. So where will they get their income? I needed a hat the other day in the blinding heat and tried the great covered market - closed down too. No hat. No incomes either.

I have been coming to Beijing for about ten years now. Never has it looked like this. Nor have I ever travelled on such great buses in this city. Will it last? We shall see. Any building that can be painted has been painted. True. In a radius of about five miles from the centre, every single building that is not made of glass or faced with tiles has been redone. Every single one – by order. Lamp posts too. Paint suppliers have all retired to mansions, I guess. New waste bins on every street. Countless flower pots that, I suspect, would be footballs in my country, are untouched everywhere and perfectly timed to be in bloom. Zebra crossings have been painted, though as a pedestrian I am not sure what their function is - which is something I share with all drivers. Shop signs replaced absolutely everywhere - all modernized, brightened, re-plasticked. The thousands, perhaps millions, of trees planted since 2003 have really changed the place. And transport has been revolutionized, from trains that go at 350 kph every three minutes, to new underground lines, where you are scanned as you enter just like an airport.