Taking up space: in a parking lot outside a Muslim restaurant in Haidian, west Beijing

"Still Live no. 2" was a Freudian slip on the keyboard.

The alleyways and side streets beneath my neighborhood's tower blocks are filled with activity in warmer months: bird walkers, street food and magazine vendors, bracelet-sellers, construction workers and commuters.  

Rickety chairs are everywhere: wooden ones at the bike-repairman's stall where his clients wait; metal ones with repaired legs outside the restaurant that serves searing Henanese dishes; and this rickety cane specimen hauled over from a Go game to save a VIP parking spot.

For even the VIPs need something special to ensure they get what's theirs.

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