Life turned quiet and simple for Qi Xiaojing in the last two nights. For most of the time, he was just watching news on television, something he seldom did before.

A bar owner running two bars in Sanlitun of Beijing, Qi usually drinks into early morning, keeping his late-leaving customers in company.

But as China entered a three-day National Mourning Period for the 40,000-strong victims of the May 12 earthquake that struck its southwestern Sichuan Province as of zero hour on Monday, Qi, like many other fellow bar owners, closed his business.

"Certainly we're going to lose money," says Qi. "But it is necessary to do this out of respect for the dead."

"This would also allow us to feel the impact of the deadly tremor more truthfully," he added.

The State Council, China's cabinet, required the cease of all public entertainment activities during the mourning period, but bars and cafes, which also provide food for customers, were not clearly defined as public amusement sites.

Nightlife in China has developed with the rapid growth of China's economy in the past three decades. More and more young people enjoy the colorful nightlife in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which some foreign tourists say is already comparable to that of New York and Paris.

Chang Xun, who usually hangs out with his friends after work, headed for the Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing instead on Monday evening. Their most frequented clubs, the Angel Club and Baby Face in the Sanlitun area, were in darkness.

Chang, a consultant for an advertising company, had read a post on Tianya.cn, one of China's most popular online forums, earlier that day. It called for a candlelight vigil at the Square for those who died in the earthquake.

In Chinese tradition, the souls of the dead wander for seven days. Relatives should hang lanterns to guide them home on the seventh day, so that they can then find their way to heaven.

At about 8:15 p.m., candles were lit near the National Museum of Chinese History, located on the east side of the Square, Chang recalls. Then people started moving toward the museum, holding their candles, singing the national anthem and chanting "Go Sichuan! Go China!"

"We are in no mood to go to clubs under such circumstances," Chang says.

A few bars remain open in Beijing, but the usual flashing neon lights and loud music or live bands to attract customers were absent.

Erin Wolf, an American teacher in Beijing, drinking a bottle of beer in a bar near Houhai, another lively nightlife area full of bars and clubs, said that at the very beginning she was not aware of the national mourning.

She even asked the bar tender to play some music. She was turned down politely, and then learnt the reason.

"I can understand that it is important to have everyone do something to show their grief," she said.

All across China, karaoke parlors, movie theaters, amusement parks and nightclubs were closed for the mourning period. Restaurants turned off background music, and live performances were canceled.