Though every restaurant has their air-conditioners turned on, most customers would rather sit outside to have dinner.

"Because we can breathe fresh air outside and I feel comfortable here. It's really stuffy with so many people in the restaurant."

A restaurant manager says she had few customers before setting up outdoor seating. But as soon as she put tables and chairs outside, many people flooded in.

"Customers like to eat outside. I often ask them to go back to the restaurant to have dinner, but they say they would rather stay outside, even though the three air-conditioners in our restaurant is turned on. And not only our restaurant, you can see that almost all restaurants have put their tables and chairs outside."

It seems that setting up outdoor seating is welcomed by both restaurant owners and customers. However, the noise of eating on the street sometimes disturbs nearby residents and litters the area.

So the "outdoor restaurant" poses a difficult question to the administrative department. Since setting up outdoor stalls violates the city's appearance ordinance, they should put an end to such activities. But most citizens neither understand nor accept their intervention. And even if the restaurant owners packed up their stalls, they would be set up again as soon as the officials leave.

"We often fell into a dilemma. So we had to be very patient to explain the relevant regulations to restaurant owners and their customers, in a bid to make them understand why we have to do this."

Guijie is one of the most famous food and beverage streets in Beijing, where business is particularly good at night. However, none of these scores of restaurants has put tables outside.

"We are not allowed to put tables outside the restaurant on Guijie Street, though we really want to and customers seem like to eat outside."

To prevent Guijie's restaurant owners from setting up outdoor stalls, the administrative department officials have taken many measures, such as inspecting that area frequently and installing monitoring devices. Now the restaurants would rather ask their customers to wait in front of their doors than set up outdoor stalls.

It is reported that Beijing has a regulation on restaurants setting up outdoor stalls, which stipulates that the maximum number of such restaurants will be one hundred. However, when some restaurant owners tried to apply for the license, they couldn't find the right departments.

Mr. Feng is one of them. He first called the commerce bureau.

"You should go through some formalities in your district's government. I'm not very clear which department there is in charge of the examination and approval. You should ask them yourself."

But the district's government asked him to consult the industry and commerce bureau. Then, he made the third call.

"We don't know where you should submit your application. We are not in charge of the examination and approval."

It is good that the government is regulating outdoor food stalls, but now that they are giving permission to one hundred restaurants, every restaurant should have an equal chance. However, restaurant owners like Mr. Feng don't even know where and how to apply for the license.

The Administrative Licensing Law took effect on Thursday. It streamlines administrative approval procedures and removes restrictions considered unnecessary. Experts say the law helps increase the transparency of the administrative approval procedures.

Those who have had similar experiences as Mr. Feng hope with the help of the new law, they won't encounter such difficulties.

(CRI July 5, 2004)