Smile now guys, because once you get to China, you won't be smiling for long.

News out of China today or yesterday or tomorrow, I'm not really sure, is that local Chinese bar owners may have singed pledges to not serve black people or Mongolians.

Yes it is the year 2008 and no this isn't a joke. Here is an passage from Friday's South China Morning Post (via Shanghaiist & The Sporting Blog):

Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.

"Uniformed Public Security Bureau officers came into the bar recently and told me not to serve black people or Mongolians," said the co-owner of a western-style bar, who asked not to be named.

Take that Genghis Khan. 

There's been some question about the legitimacy of this story, as all the sources in it were anonymous, but the paper hasn't retracted the story.

I really don't see how this could be enforced plus this kind of goes against the "One World, One Dream" theme that the Olympics has adopted this year. Then again, what do I know. Maybe this is what some people in China think is the best way to unite the world.