“Hotels and small guest houses are closed. The snack stalls were shut several days ago. Tourists can try shopping and go out to eat probably outside the 4th Ring Road.”

Many of the affected restaurants and shops have posted notices saying business will resume after Friday.

One Beijing woman who went shopping in Wangfujing said she was a bit disappointed snack street “has no snacks at all”. But the inconvenience was not too much, given it was only for a few days, she said.

WATCH: Beijing prepares for military parade

Much of the city centre will be off-limits to traffic from Wednesday night until Thursday afternoon.

Subway Line 1, which runs east and west, will suspend service, while more than 20 stations on seven other lines in the downtown area will be closed from Wednesday midnight to 1pm on Thursday. Many roads within the 2nd Ring Road have also closed.

Tourist attractions close to Changan Avenue, such as the Palace Museum and the National Museum as well as the Wanfujing and Qianmen shopping streets will shut, too.

An owner of a retail store near the Dongsi area expressed frustration over the forced closure.

She said she would have no business on Wednesday or Thursday, but would still be paying 400 yuan (US$63) in rent for the two days.

“No business, nowhere to go, even the grocery store and supermarket will be closed. I have been stocking food and will do nothing but watch television for two days,” she said.

Yet Beijingers who do switch on their televisions will find themselves bombarded with nothing but programmes about Chinese heroes fighting Japanese forces before and during the second world war.

Broadcasters have been instructed by media authorities to run a steady stream of programmes about the war or the revolution for five days, including children’s cartoons, beginning on Tuesday.

The capital’s lockdown has even extended to birds. Pigeon owners have been temporarily banned from allowing the birds to fly or risk facing a possible criminal charge, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.

Yet not all residents are complaining. Ellen Hu who works in the Oriental Plaza, where a temporary green securtiy fence has been erected due to its proximity to Tiananmen Square, said staff were glad for the extra holidays. The hotel had been shut since Tuesday.

“Many colleagues applied for a day of leave on Monday and have the whole week off to travel. We support the military parade very much.”

How Beijingers fare:

Winners:

• Residents, who have enjoyed 12 consecutive days of improved air
• Taxi drivers, who say traffic-control measures have eased congestion and allowed them to make extra cash

Losers:

• Business owners in locked-down areas that have seen customers driven away
• Birds near a military air base, which have had their nests tossed out of trees by trained monkeys. The birds were cleared from the area to minimise safety risks to aircraft taking part in drills
• 10,000 factories in neighbouring provinces, which were shut to reduce air pollution in Beijing
• Car owners in Beijing and neighboring provinces, who can only drive on alternate days