Many factors take bite out of foreign eateries

If the new restaurant listings in expatriate magazines are anything to go by, these are the best of times for the foreign restaurant business in Beijing. Not a day passes by now without the opening of yet another chic new non-Chinese dining establishment, and some of them boast internationally known foreign celebrity chefs.

However, many of these restaurants are very short-lived.

My Beijing home, Sanlitun, which is the capital's biggest foreign dining hot spot, has recently seen numerous closures and departures. Juliette's, Belle Italia, Double Coffee, the Pullman Steakhouse, and a very recently-opened Moroccan restaurant have all closed, while the Purple Haze Thai bistro has relocated to a Dongcheng district hutong.