THE GREAT WALL OF ZHONG GUAN CUN

We've been here a week and are finally getting used to the time change. Everything else we are already pretty much used to-- finding signs of constant change, evidence of improvements in daily life (which come in both good and bad flavors) and unexpected weather. We thought it would be cold and miserable and it's been a lot better than that.
Across the street from our apartment here, there used to be a fence with a gate that led to, among other things, the boys' barber. Then there used to be a brick wall and some large (this is, after all, China) planters. Then there were a number of small shops and then there weren't. Then the planters vanished and the sidewalk became extremely wide. And now we return to find the brick wall which had replaced the old fence has been replaced by a wall about eight or nine feet tall and a city block long. In stone, or a really good imitation and carved in clear (modern) Chinese telling us... Well I haven't figured that out yet. I'll get a friend to help me translate.
It's a nice wall, very pretty, and the old planters were sometimes well tended and sometimes not, so the wall and the wider sidewalk marks both a change and an improvement (of the good sort) but it is something of a mystery. Why here? Why now? I suspect the Unseen Hand of Olympic Beautification. After all, this is a city where you can find "Olympic Math" and "Olympic English" classes. The only surprising thing is that I haven't seen "Olympic Chocolate Bars" and "Olympic Sports Drink". But I'll keep looking-- that, or something else just as probable, might be waiting for me just around the next corner.