Sculpting and Time and The Bridge

The last time I wondered about an untold story (the story behind New Beijing, Great Olympics and New Beijing, New Olympics), I randomly ran across a told version in Peter Hessler’s Oracle Bones (a great book, maybe more on that later).

Right now I’m sitting in the Wudaokou Sculpting in Time cafe wondering about another untold story, and a cursory Google search didn’t give me an answer.

Sculpting in Time has been around for a long time. I used to go to the original one outside of the PKU east gate, but that one was bulldozed long ago and they’ve since expanded into several new locations. One of the earliest locations was right next to the Wudaokou subway station.

Well, a while back the Wudaokou branch moved next door, and a new cafe, called The Bridge, opened in their old location. This would not be all that odd, except for the fact that The Bridge is almost exactly the same as the old Sculpting in time–down to the posters on the wall.

So I wonder, what happened? Did SIT just move and someone snatched up their location? Did some rogue employee mess with their lease and kick them out of their old location? Are they secretly owned by the same proprietor? I feel like there must be some sort of intrigue involved.

I guess I could just ask the waiter. Or maybe I’ll read about it in a book somewhere.