These photos of house demolitions were taken the week after it was announced Beijing had been awarded the Olympic Games of 2008

Given just 10 days notice before police and bulldozers move in most families stay and resist peacefully until they are forced out.

"Usually the people get about ten days notice, then their houses are demolished.  Where do they go?  The government offers them a flat in a high-rise very far away.  But they have to pay to get it.  So some people just disappear, others take up the offer.  They get some compensation for their old site, but the new site the government says it’s more valuable because it has a toilet . Old neighborhoods are decimated, networks of relationships broken and livelihoods destroyed. "

And from Agence France-Press  Sept 7

Beijing    Residents pay price of Olympic Dream
Thousands of residents have been driven out of two old neighbourhoods in Beijing as city officials destroy their homes in the name of beatifying the city for the 2008 Olympic Games.      The destruction is happening at breakneck speed, residents said. Since the issue was first reported last month entire communities have raised.    Residents in two neighbourhoods,  were told on July 15 - two days after Beijing won  the rights to host the games - They would have to move. They were given one month to pack up their belongings and leave homes they had occupied for decades.   This week they said that developers who had been given the green light buy the district governments were using tactics including intimidation, force, deceit and violence to drive people out.  Under law residents must first agree to leaver their homes and be compensated, but many say they are intimidated into signing agreements to move out. In one of the neighbourhoods, Jiaodoakou - which has existed for 800 years - only one house in two two traditional Chinese alleys remained last week after about 2,000 households were destroyed. An 81 year old woman was seen sitting in the rubble of what once was her house.		The developer had insisted she and her daughter and son-in-law moved all their belongings out even though they had not reached an agreement with the company on compensation.   "We don't know where we are going to spend the night," the woman's daughter said.    A few meters from them, another family had already spent one night on the demolition site because the developers had reneged on a promise to provide them with temporary housing after they signed an agreement to move out.  "They should at least wait until we have a place to go before tearing down our house."    One young man who had complained about his compensation said he was beaten three times by thugs hired by developers. Many residents said they cannot afford to buy the new flats which will replace the old houses with the small amount of compensation they receive.    A Beijing resident who is writing books about the old traditional neighbourhoods called 'hutongs" said Dongecheng district, where Jiaoddaokou is located, was one of the best preserved in the city. "A city which was once like no other is fast becoming just like everywhere else,"  he said "Beijing won the Olympic bid, but what did it bring us?" Wang asked