hmmm the fire was bad but i think closing the cafe's is not a pretty good solution. if they (beijing govn't) want to prevent those kind of accidents, they should impose some rules regarding cyber cafe's like putting a good ventilation to the place, putting fire extinguishers on an easy to find place etc... etc... and if the rules were not followed by the owner of the establishment then a more better reason to close it out.

i think cyber cafe's are really cool establishments because of several reasons one mention by AphexTwin is giving people internet access without really owning a pc and connecting to their own ISP. paying cheap internet access on a cafe is a good alternative to learn without having your own pc.