Evictions Continue As Beijing Prepares for Olympics

<p>With less than a month left before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, residents in the Chinese metropolis are still being evicted to make way for event-related construction.</p>

July 17, 2008, 5am PDT | Nate Berg

"As officials step up efforts to beautify Beijing, especially along the Olympic torch relay route where the shop is located, the Yu family and their neighbors are left to wait, worry and appeal for sympathy."

"More than 1.25 million people in Beijing - at times as many as 13,000 people a week - have been evicted since the city won its Olympic bid in 2001, according to the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions."

"These residents are facing an issue that surfaces in every Olympics, gentrification in the name of improving a city's image. But in China, where the government is clamping down hard on anything that incites instability, those trying to fend off what appears to be inevitable have fewer options and face greater risk."

"Some have posted homemade signs vowing to protect their homes until death, but others have looked for room to negotiate."

Full Story:

As Olympics near, many Chinese homes face wrecking ball

Published on Wednesday, July 16, 2008 in The Washington Post via the Boston Globe