Almost all the stores on my block have been demolished. The government will kick me out eventually, but I'm going to stick it out and see what I can get before they make me leave.

I have a little hardware store near the South Gate of Beijing Communications University. We sell wires, screwdrivers, piping, brooms, things everyone needs around the house.

In December of 2005, people from a government-employed construction company came and spray painted a big, red chai character on the front of every building on this street. Chai means "demolish." In China, construction crews spray paint this character on the side of buildings that will be torn down.

I went to the university and asked what was going on.

An official told me: "The government has decided that they are going to widen the road in front of your store.They might need to tear down your building."

Might? I asked him how can you spray paint chai on the front of the store if they "might" need to tear down the building? "You're not tearing it down right now, why are you already spray painting on my store?" I asked.

I told him that if they're going to tear down the building I'm renting before our contract's up, we should come to some sort of an agreement first.

But the university always squirmed it's way out of these questions. "It's not something we can control." They said. "We have to listen to the construction company."

The construction company said they had given the university money and put them in charge of getting the buildings clear.

Later, the university came and offered people money to leave. I heard people say that the university was giving 20,000 yuan for each lot. They never actually offered me this, some of the other people who left told me.

I talked to the university and told them they needed to give me more money, my store is bigger than others. There is a law that people displaced from government-owned property before their contract runs out must be given between 1,500 and 2,000 yuan per square meter. My store is 40 square meters. They should give me between 60,000 and 80,000 yuan. The university says they're only giving out a set amount per store.

The university says they can't give more, they don't have enough money. Probably they're telling the truth. At every level someone takes a cut from the money. And why not - wouldn't you? But in the end there isn't very much left.

To this day I've never been told an exact amount of money they're willing to pay. No one's in a rush. Up the road there's a bridge being built. That's going to take a few more months. Before that bridge is done, the construction company can't get to work on this road.

This situation doesn't hurt me very much. I have other businesses. I have another store like this one near Peking University. I sell supplies to construction companies.

Across the street they're building a huge luxury apartment complex. That's also me. Wiring, piping, it all comes from me. I'm doing well. I have a car, I have a house. This little store is just a small part of my business. It just gives me some money to buy food. So I can wait.

The people who left already, they couldn't stand it. They just took what was offered and got out. About a year ago the electricity and water were cut off. There is a family a couple stores down with twin infants. The whole family is living where their store used to be. With no electricity, how can they heat up milk for the babies? This situation is really hard on people like that.

I don't need electricity or water to sell hardware. My wife or my brother come to look after the store. After the chai was painted, the university stopped charging me rent. Our contract ended in 2006, but they haven't made me leave. I get a few customers here and there. How can I not make money? Why would I leave now?

Really, it was very silly of the government to make a fuss so early on. If they had just waited until my contract ended, then I wouldn't have any claim. Now it's 2007, all the stores that people left have been torn down, but they still haven't started work on the road. Why did they need to bother my business before my contract had run out?

This is the problem with government management. Nobody cares about how the job gets done. They don't think things through and plan out their steps. People just go out and do what they're told and collect their few thousand yuan every month. If I don't leave, it doesn't matter to them, they still get their paycheck.

Now nobody's doing anything. The construction company is still preoccupied with the bridge. The university won't bother with me until the construction company pressures them. Eventually I'll have to leave.

If worst comes to worst they'll send in riot police and throw all my stuff on the street. But I'll still get at least 20,000 yuan. I won't make a big fuss. I know the road has to get built. I don't want to cause the country trouble. The Olympics are coming. We're showing the world that China has got some status. Nobody here wants to stand in the way of that.

I'm just going to stick around and see what I can get. I don't expect the whole 60,000 yuan, but the longer I can hold out the more I win.

Lao Wu is a 39-year-old businessman from AnHui. He told his story to Sweeble correspondent Michael Armstrong in Beijing.