This Lunar New Year most Beijing people enjoyed a week-long holiday of eating, drinking, visiting friends and family and taking their children to the fair.
But one group of people had no holiday and saw nothing to celebrate - the city's taxi drivers.
For a reason no one can explain, the Government designated taxis as 'a special profession', which means drivers are not entitled to the statutory holidays everyone else enjoys. Given the huge surplus of cabs, this designation seems ridiculous.
'I have not had a day off since 1993,' said Wang Hongjun. 'The economy is getting worse, more and more people are being laid off, but we have to pay the same amount every day to our bosses. So I am working each day of the New Year holiday, to stay on top of the payments.
'There is nothing to celebrate. This year will be no better, as spending is dropping. Of course I would like to stop doing this job but I cannot find anything else. The number of unemployed is too high,' he said.
'We joke that they give a taxi licence to everyone who loses their job.' Like many locals, cabbies complain that Beijing at New Year is too quiet, because of the ban on firecrackers, which is enforced more strictly here than in other cities, with 120,000 officials prowling the streets on Lunar New Year's Eve, ears cocked for illegal noises.
'It does not feel like New Year at all,' said Liu Qiang. 'I do not know why the Government does not select special areas for letting off firecrackers, under official supervision. That would be better than nothing. As it is, this week feels just like any other.' Mr Liu said that he managed to take one day off, to visit his wife's family and other relatives and give them fruit, liquor, lai see and cooking oil in large plastic containers, at a total cost of 2,000 yuan (HK$1,860).