The government has just released the policy regarding working hours during the Olympics for Beijing here. So the working hours will be 9:30-17:30 from July 20, 2008 to September 20, 2008. That shaves of an hour from our normal work schedules in our Beijing office for an entire 2 months. This is extended well into September too, past the time when many companies had expected things to be back to normal.

SMEs in Beijing (just like in Athens and Sydney, during their respective Olympics) are going to suffer during the Olympics. Hotels are going to suffer, restaurants are going to suffer, and white-collar businesses are going to suffer. The owner of a chain of Japanese restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai is rumored to be closing two of his Beijing venues for the Olympics so he doesn't deal with the hassles — one could incorrectly assume the Olympics would be a boon to him, but he's probably not in the mood to deal with placating officialdom or dealing with human resource issues.

I just flew back to China last night on an Air China flight from JFK-PEK-SHA. The inbound flight was 40% full. I took the same flight about 7 weeks ago and it was overbooked. Maybe just dumb luck, or the expected downturn for pre-Olympics travel?

On the flip-side, I am very much looking forward to Shanghai 2010 World Expo — that will be a great benefit to the entire city of Shanghai and is sustained for many months, compared to the meager Olympic weaks [sic].