It's said the sky is clearer, the traffic smoother, security tighter, and the people more civilized... Here you'll find a potpourri of posts by staff from the Economic Observer reflecting on changes to the quality of life that the Games have brought, along with more general musings and discoveries.

Blog team (in alphabetical order):

Cheng Mingxia, our fearless supervising editor and Yoda of all things news.

Lin Li, journalist, jack-of-all-tongues, and Olympic chain smoker who bemoans the now-smoke-free restaurants and residential areas in Beijing.

Liu Peng, a young, coy, media green-hand hailing from Shandong province where he double-majored in Counterstrike and the Oxford abridged dictionary.

Ren Yujie, twenty-something translator and subway connaisseur, now so steeped in troglodyte ways that she could never leave Beijing.

Rui Bingyou, editor, translator, and web-fu dilettante. Isn't the bird's nest a dish?

Zuo Maohong, translator and journalist torn between loopy Beijing r's and Zhejiang chirps...

...with special contributions from a host of other editors and journalists at the paper.