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SCMP Reporter

While strolling along the thoroughfares surrounding the 'Bird's Nest' and the 'Water Cube', two Beijing landmarks left by last year's Games, visitors may be surprised to see vendors still touting small Olympics souvenirs. 
At first glance, these hawkers seem no different from any others.
But soon it becomes apparent that they aren't as relaxed as their colleagues selling other wares. They are alert, and they have to be: police and security guards are everywhere. 
The Olympic mementoes are allowed to be sold only in franchised stores.
If caught, unlicensed vendors will forfeit all their souvenirs and be fined 50 yuan (HK$57).
'Hi, do you like this? It's just 10 yuan,' asked Li Qiuju in a low voice, flashing a crystalline paperweight to several tourists  in front of the National Indoor Stadium, opposite  the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. 
'In the franchised store right over there, they will ask 68 yuan for this,' said Ms Li, flipping on the switch in the base, which gives off a spectrum of light rays that light up the miniature Bird's Nest and Water Cube inside. 
 None of the tourists showed any interest. Ms Li quickly wrapped up the souvenir and put it back in her small  bag - which also bulges with Olympic-themed badges, coins and ashtrays - and walked away. 'I should say thanks to the Beijing Olympics, because it gave me a new job,' said Ms Li, 38, from Heilongjiang  province in the northeast.
'But what's annoying is that I cannot sell the souvenirs publicly here. I feel like a thief every day.' 
Ms Li lost her job when the small factory where she worked went bankrupt three years ago. In September, she came to Beijing to see whether the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube were as grand as they looked on television. But as she wandered through the expansive plaza amid the Olympic complexes, she said she was amazed not at their architecture, but at how easy it was to earn money selling the souvenirs. 
'Even today, I still can't understand why people were so crazy about these Olympics souvenirs,' she said.
'The sellers didn't even need to pester tourists to buy.'   
She learned where to obtain the souvenirs and became a vendor herself. 'Those were golden days,' she said. 'Every day, I sold a whole trunk of things. I usually came to the square at 9.30am, and by 3pm my trunk would be empty. Can you believe it? I once sold a paperweight that was the same as this one but a bit bigger for 1,800 yuan! In five months, my bank account grew to a number I could expect only from eight years of hard work in the past.'
She went home for the Lunar New Year holidays and came back to Beijing - with her sister in tow - to find that things had changed.
'There were fewer tourists here and many more vendors. Old vendors were bringing their relatives - like I brought my sister - from their hometowns  to do the same business. We had to cut prices again and again to sell more.
'The franchised stores blamed us for taking away their business. They complained to the government, and the police and security guards then got tough on us. That was really unfair. Newspapers say it's the global financial crisis and swine flu that have dampened the business, not us.' 




Golden days are over for the unlicensed vendors still selling Olympic souvenirs