I USED to see the same faces outside my Beijing apartment every day. There was the man with one leg who sat with his hand out, the woman with nut-brown features whose child pulled at foreigners' jackets and the sharp guys who whispered "CD roms?".
Yesterday they had gone. So too had the pavement sellers and the stall-holders near Silk Alley. And driving round the city I discovered that everywhere the familiar roadside kiosks had been banished from long stretches of the main thoroughfares.
Before the return of Hong Kong on July 1st, the Chinese capital is undergoing a major clean-up for what officials called the nation's "most festive celebrations ever planned".
The authorities are also tightening up on information reaching the capital in what will be a tense time for a government wary of public demonstrations turning into an expression of grievances. Yesterday, copies of Newsweek which are sold only in Western-style hotels, appeared with an article entitled "Hong Kong - Democrats Under Siege" ripped out.
To prepare for the emotional days ahead, a mobilisation and "oath-taking rally" of 2,000 Beijing public security bureau officials was held in the music theatre of Zhongshan Park, where they pledged to maintain tranquility during the handover period.
At the same time, China has placed its three-million strong army on alert against unrest in the run up to the celebrations, particularly in areas of high unemployment, according to Chinese sources quoted by Reuters.
After removing the unsightly kiosks, the city's cosmetic drive will be enhanced with 100 000 coloured banners and 800 000 pots of flowers, according to the festival organiser, Mr Ji Lin.
Two mammoth evening parties will be held in Beijing on June 30th and July 1st, both of which will be televised live throughout the world.
They will use up more electricity than for any event in Beijing's history.
The June 30th celebration in Tiananmen Square will last until 5 a.m., and will be attended by 100,000 specially-invited guests, cadres, journalists and selected representatives of industry, agriculture and the intelligentsia.
There will be fireworks and theatrical performances and three mammoth screens will provide live television coverage of the handover ceremony in Hong Kong.
The Municipal Committee of the Communist Party Beijing announced that "ordinary people" would be forbidden to attend the celebrations at Tiananmen Square and at a city stadium.
Mr Long Xinmin, deputy chief of the Beijing Propaganda Department, said most of the city's 12 million residents must be excluded from attending festivities "or it's going to be like hell with traffic jams and the like". It was an organised event and "ordinary people are advised not to go to Tiananmen, and to stay home and watch television".
The Chinese media has been ordered to emphasise positive events in the handover period. Radio and television producers should "stick to the correct orientation" and "create a favourable atmosphere" for the occasion, said Mr Ding Guangen of the Communist Party Politburo.
President Jiang Zemin of China will hasten back from the ceremony in Hong Kong, a three-hour flight away, for the July 1st party at the Workers' Stadium concert, with performances by a 1,000-piece orchestra, 10,000-member chorus and a 18,000 flag-waving participants.