I was walking on the squeaky-clean floor that leads to the Dongdan station of subway line No 5 one morning when a young man spat as he walked past me.

He was doing this in a most casual way, as old farmers do in the remote countryside. I frowned and - forgive me - I didn't say anything to the man about his lack of propriety. Instead, I suddenly missed the good old days, when Beijing residents were drafted to catch spitters and fine them 10 yuan for every instance of "bad manners".

I've found there are so many good manners and practices that have disappeared in Beijing in recent years, especially since the 2008 Olympic Games' conclusion.

To prepare for the Beijing Games, the capital's taxis had apparatuses installed to allow passengers to pay with the same transportation cards they swipe on buses and metros.

Today, however, nine out of 10 drivers will persuade passengers to pay with cash. They say that since the Games, they have faced great difficulty - usually having to go through complicated procedures - to claim the money compared to if passengers pay in cash.

Customers' use of the cards would not only be convenient for them but also could prove a blessing for the drivers. Potential muggers would know cabbies wouldn't have stacks of bills in their wallets but rather digital data stored in the apparatuses.

But that's not the only taxi service that has fallen by the wayside.

A dozen years ago, when there were only yellow minivan cabs zipping along Beijing's streets, drivers would get out to help passengers load their luggage. Today, cabdrivers remain seated, press a button to open the trunk and let passengers do the rest.

The rules for the sector seem to have become increasingly slack. Drivers, for example, will turn on the radio or play a CD at full volume, regaling themselves with traffic broadcasts or entertainment programs without heed for those in their back seats, who might want a quiet hour and a quick ride.

Sometimes cabs reek so much of garlic or what seems to be rotten rats that it takes guts for passengers to even enter them. This, some senior drivers claim, is because a flurry of suburban farmers has joined the army of cabbies.

To fully appreciate how good practices often sour in Beijing, one can look at how trash is collected. Before the Games, the city government had asked residents to sort recyclable and non-recyclable garbage into different bins. The municipality still promotes the practice.

But, unfortunately, what happens these days ruins the sorting work. In Sun Star City, a glossy new community in northern Beijing, waste trucks rush to collect garbage every day, only to indiscriminately mix all the waste -recyclable and non-recyclable - in their immense containers.

Some old restaurant brands seem to have degraded in terms of service, too.

Two weeks ago, I went to an outlet of Bianyifang, a time-honored roast duck restaurant in Beijing's Haidian district.

It was 3 pm - slightly after the peak hour for dining. What I saw before I placed my order totally spoiled my appetite: Workers were mopping the floor with tablecloths they had snatched from the tables.

I averted my eyes from the inscriptions on the wall, which say the roast duck eatery has a history of nearly 600 years.

The Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, the municipality's top think tank, said in its latest research that the Chinese capital's development is almost 30 years behind that of New York, London and Tokyo.

The academy factored in a basket of financial, cultural and social indicators, and asserts that by 2050, Beijing will join the ranks of the world's first-tier cities.

Will it be able to if it continues disinheriting good practices? Perhaps only time will tell.

China Daily