Qualla: Lanjisu Internet Cafe Fire

Lanjisu Internet Cafe Fire: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

At 2:40 in the morning on June 16, 2002, fire engulfed a two-story internet cafe in Haidian, Beijing's university district. Twenty-five people died. Thirteen more were injured. Most of the dead were university students, young people who had stayed late into the night doing what millions of Chinese were doing in those early internet years -- browsing, chatting, gaming in the smoky glow of CRT monitors. The fire at the Lanjisu -- "Blue Speed" -- internet cafe was the deadliest fire in Beijing in more than fifty years, and it was not an accident. It was arson, set by two boys who had been turned away at the door.

Lanjisu Internet Cafe Fire: An Unlicensed World

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Lanjisu operated without a license, but in that it was far from unusual. In 2002, Chinese authorities estimated that only 200 of the roughly 2,400 internet cafes in Beijing held proper permits. The cafes had proliferated faster than regulation could follow, filling storefront...

Lanjisu Internet Cafe Fire: A Dispute and a Can of Gasoline

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The fire was set by two boys -- a 14-year-old identified as Song and a 13-year-old identified as Zhang. They had been refused entry to the cafe, apparently after a dispute with staff. Their response was catastrophic. At 11:00 PM on June 15, a few hours before the attack, they pur...

Lanjisu Internet Cafe Fire: Twenty-Five Lives

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The dead were overwhelmingly young. Many were students at the universities that cluster in Haidian District -- Peking University, Tsinghua, and others whose campuses define the neighborhood. They had come to the cafe for the same reasons students everywhere seek out late-night ga...

Lanjisu Internet Cafe Fire: Aftermath and Reckoning

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The consequences were swift and far-reaching. Cafe owner Zheng Wenjing turned himself in. Of the four people held responsible, the two boys who set the fire were sentenced to life in prison, a female accomplice received a twelve-year sentence, and another boy was sent to a reform...