CHINA Traffic in Beijing’s central business district came to a standstill last Monday. Police cordoned off a 200-metre stretch of busy Guanghua road, plainclothes officers swarmed the street filming bystanders and journalists and security guards in helmets stood in tight rows.
At the centre of the action were three elderly local residents who had taken their stools and sat down in the middle of the road outside their apartment block. The reason for their sit-in: the lift in their building was not working.
