Beijing breakfast

These days Ms. Yuqing Li does not cook like she used to in the morning. She goes out to buy fried pancakes – a traditional Beijing breakfast served by vendors – from a farmers’ market next to her home at six in the morning. Vendors in the farmers’ market aren’t allowed to sell fried food after eight in the morning – one of the government’s new rules to improve air quality. Like Li, many of Beijing’s residents must get up early to buy their breakfast. It’s all part of helping to make Beijing’s air cleaner before the Olympics begins on Aug. 8. According to the local media outlet Qinghe Community Public Information Service, cooking fried foods using coal stoves is prohibited all day long in the capital. Since most vendors still use coal stoves to cook, they find a way to do business under the new restrictions – cook and sell their food in the early morning – before the enforcement starts at 8:00 a.m.