Being a resident of the Olympic host city has its advantages, but not everything is plain sailing.

Roadside barbecues: Sitting by a roadside barbecue is an extremely popular way of spending a summer evening in Beijing. But to safeguard food safety and keep the streets clean, the city government has banned them for the duration of the Games. This will leave some locals going hungry, and in the words of a song, a hungry man is an angry man …

A traffic policeman is guiding the vehicles on a crossroad of Beijing.

Traffic: To improve air quality and reduce traffic jams during the Games, a temporary order will take half the city's 3 million private cars off the road every day by restricting odd and even license numbers to alternate days. The government is laying on 200 extra buses and opening new subway lines, but no doubt motorists are going to feel hard done by.

Like many big cities in the world, Beijing has thousands of unlicensed cabs. During the Games, stricter enforcement of taxi regulations is going to make getting home more difficult for some.

Toilets: In an unprecedented move, for the duration of the Games, Beijing's public toilets will be equipped with toilet paper, soap and towels. At last something for locals to feel cheerful about!

(China.org.cn July 9, 2008)