China:Forced resettlements are the human cost of the city's makeover, writes Clifford Coonanin Beijing.
The floor needs sweeping, there is a pile of papers by the rice cooker and dusty boxes are lined up near a table which holds the flour needed to make local speciality dumplings, jiaozi. Sun Ruoyu apologises for the state of her restaurant in Beijing's historical Qianmen district, but explains how she was forced to close rather hurriedly last week to stop the wrecking ball claiming her livelihood.
A Beijing-born Australian citizen, she is fighting to save the restaurant her family has run for 160 years from being knocked down to make way for the Olympic marathon route. Much of the surrounding area, once a bustling mix of ancient Mongol, Manchu and Han architecture, has been flattened and her restaurant stands out starkly as the only building left on what used to be a busy restaurant area just south of Tiananmen Square.
"I'm so sorry, it's normally much nicer than this. But we got the notice on August 3rd that they want to knock it down any time after August 6th, so we haven't been operating lately," says Sun, an energetic 55-year-old, straightening a lazy susan in the middle of a round table. She's already seen off one bulldozer, but she's sure more are on the way.
The eating area is still bedecked with red lanterns to bring good luck, and a Chinese and an Australian flag are draped at the entrance.
"They are trying to rob us. The police come many times and advise us to take the money and go. They say if we don't go, that hundreds of workers will come and knock it down by force," she said.
The chai character, meaning "demolish", is painted on to walls over the city, prompting some wags to say Beijing is the capital of "Chai-na".
This month has seen repeated messages of how the stadiums will be finished on time and the subway lines and roads to service the gleaming new metropolis will be up and running. However, the Suns's plight shows the human cost of this metamorphosis.
Many have been forcibly resettled in the transformation of Beijing, which has seen ancient courtyard houses and hutong alleys demolished by unscrupulous developers, some in league with corrupt officials, eager for profit.
The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions reckons 1.5 million people will have been relocated for Olympics-related projects, compared with government estimates of just over 6,000.
The hutongs have been replaced by shopping malls and office buildings and for the residents there is little chance of getting a hearing in the courts.
Most are moved to new tower blocks on the outskirts, and complain of a lack of community feeling - as well as the lengthy commute to their jobs in the city.
Sun's husband was studying in Australia at the time of the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, and she joined him there in 1994. She came back in May to fight for the restaurant started by her great-grandfather.
Originally it was a bakery, selling sweet Chinese pastries. The family rented the property until 1936, when they bought freehold. In 1956, seven years after the revolution that brought the communists to power, the shop was nationalised and became a regular food shop and restaurant, and the family bought it back in 2001.
Qianmen, the heart of the ancient city, is what western estate agents would call "a coming area" and some two-thirds of its 20,000 residents have moved.
Officials have offered the Suns about 1.6 million yuan (€160,000) for the building, too little to allow them to move back to the area once it has been redeveloped.
"We want to live here, where our family has been for a long time. We're not opposed to change. But this is a functioning restaurant and we want to keep that," she said.
In March, restaurateur Wu Ping in the southwestern city of Chongqing famously resisted the bulldozers trying to drive them out to make way for a shopping mall. Their house became known as a "nail house", a pun on the Chinese phrase for troublemakers who stick up like nails and refuse to bow down. They received compensation and the promise of a similar site elsewhere in the city.
"We were very happy to see that. If we can have that result, we'd be satisfied. She got more money and a nice new site for her restaurant," said Sun.
"After Qianmen Street is rebuilt we want to move back here in a nice new space too. The higher-up officials said maybe we can come back after the Olympics but the local officials say no," she said.
Making way for the Olympic marathon route is one of the reasons given for why the Sun family has to move. The planning authority of the Chongwen district government has also said it needs to widen the road, or create a green belt, or simply create more room for development.
"We're very happy, proud and excited about the 2008 Olympics. My daughter is very interested in gymnastics and wants to cheer on China. We think the Olympics are great. But we're not happy with the way the demolition is being handled, and the way our rights are not respected. What's happening here is illegal," said Sun.