We’d be the first to admit that the Beijinger isn’t the prettiest website in the world, but believe me, back in good old pre-Olympic Beijing when it was first launched, it was queen of the surf. *cough*

Since then, Beijing has seen many notable events – the aforemntioned Olympics, the Special Olympics, the Worldwide Financial Crisis, the Airpocalypse, and numerous incidents involving poo – and all of the changes and awakenings of consciousness within society that such events inevitably spawn. Through it all the Beijinger website has acted as the steady, familiar, wise, somewhat haggard face to help guide you through the turmoil.

Come late tonight, however, we’re ditching the turn-of-the-millennium vibe for something altogether different, sure to raise hackles with the sitck-in-the-muds that hate change.

Brace yourselves, the site will be responsive!

That’s right folks, the biggest change you’ll note past the fresh lippy is that our new website is completely responsive to whichever device you view it on. This means a seamless viewing experience across devices of all sizes.

Just think: now you will be free to gaze into your mobile phone screen to look for a new date in our classifieds even while you are on your current date … all the while telling your new romantic-friend-to-be that you are merely taking a picture of your artfully arranged lamb kebabs!

So, expect a few bugs here and there but look past them and you’ll see the familiar face that has been around all along to reflect back the happenings of the city we may moan about but ultimately love.

We’re sure to screw something up in the process, and knowing what we know about comments sections, we’re sure to hear plenty of complaints. But we have pretty thick skins and we can’t improve if you don’t tell us what you don’t like, so let forth your stream of suggestions for the new design and we’ll do our best to fix it up before, let’s say, Beijing hosts the Winter Olympics in 2022.

In the mean time, anyone who wants to buy a nice big fat ad to attract the 50,000 unique visitors who pop by each week, immediately email Ivy at [email protected] and she’s going to hook you up with a “friend price” to end all “friend prices” – as we’re having a slowout sale for the first eight weeks of the new design.

To the future!