It looks like Beijing has run out of time to hide all of its old neighborhoods and non-western shops. This work was being performed on a wall that was hiding some older shops just a few blocks from the Forbidden City. The shot was taken after midnight to give you an idea how hard these folks are working to get the job done.

They have so many workers that they don't typically use a front-end loader to do the work; usually its just bamboo scaffolding. I guess they brought in some assistance to speed their work up. Its funny that this machine was being used as a ladder when there were so many big jobs for big shovels all over town.