Knives

We've been in the process of buying stuff for our kitchen in the hopes of someday being able to concoct something edible, ie, a delicious Asian meal. So we had everything we needed--pots, wok, chopsticks, dishes, spaulta, ladle, EVERYTHING, but we still needed knives. Chopping knives, paring knives, etc. So after we had asked at like 3 supermarkets, we began to get suspicious. Where are the knives??? Where can we buy them?
We finally hailed a taxi and were like, hello, do you know anywhere to buy knives? and can you take us there? The driver was quite pleasant and did not object to having two crazed knife-seeking foreigners in his vehicle. He took us to ANOTHER supermarket, where we looked and looked and finally asked.
The reply was, oh, you can't buy knives.
OOOOh-kaaaay....Why not?
Well, because of the Olympics.
OK, so there's NOWHERE we can go to buy a knife?
Nope, nowhere, sorry.
Like, not anywhere?
You'll be able to buy knives after the Paralympics are over on the 20th.

So in the entire city of Beijing, there is not one knife for sale for another month. GREAT. Yay for totalitarian governments who can restrict life in whatever way they choose at any moment, including forcing some poor starved foreigners to chop vegetables with a butter knife and scissors.