As Beijing celebrated last night, there was quiet unease among members of the city's underclass that the victory could threaten their tenuous livelihood on the fringes of society.
Among those who live and work illegally in the capital, there is a nagging suspicion that Beijing will send home many waidiren, or outsiders, to show a prosperous, but sanitised, face to the world.
'Will I have a job?' asked a young woman from Hunan, who now works as a nightclub hostess. 'Will they close down the clubs?' It is no idle fear. Beijing has a history of keeping what it finds distasteful out of view.
When it staged the Asian Games in 1990, it closed bars and other 'objectionable' forms of entertainment and kept 'undesirables' out of sight. These included dissidents and even mentally handicapped residents.
More recently, the capital went to great lengths to spruce itself up, even spray-painting the grass green ahead of the arrival of the inspection team from the International Olympic Committee.
As well as its nearly 13 million official residents, the city has a 'floating population' of three million, many of them waidiren, who stay without permission.
