With the country's biggest birthday bash looming, the urgency to leave its borders feels all the more pressing. Even with just rehearsals and practices, people's lives have been affected. In the days leading to THE big day, traffic restrictions and other immigration controls have been heightened. For example, from 16 Sept 09 to 18 Sept 09, some roads are cordoned off for the whole day or a certain period of time during the day, subways do not stop at certain stations, etc. Commoners, like myself and my colleagues, are inevitably affected by these measures. Some companies are releasing employees earlier, shops are cutting short opening hours, and customers, predictably, will stay at home and amuse themselves with home cooking and lousy TV probably.

But getting out during this period of time proves to be an expensive affair. We were, unfortunately, too late (and too lazy) to book our tickets using mileage in advance.

"Any seats left to Tokyo?" I asked
"No," came the reply from the customer service officer.
"Fukuoka?"
"No."
"Osaka?"
"No."
"Bali?"
"No."
......

This conversation was probably the most"rejecting" I have had in my life. So what do we do now?

1. Spend the money and get our arses on a flight out
2. Be good, stay in Beijing, and try to enjoy the celebrations here

Can we take a vote from the masses, please?