Related stories

Call for Toilets in Business Venues to Open to Public District Head: Come to Xuanwu for Business, Culture January 2008: A Bloody Month for the Stock Market HSBC Receives Approval for Joint Venture Fund Management Company in China Criteria Set for Banks to Select Overseas Investors

Indoor‘Silk Market’ Open For Business

Beijing's famous open market for foreign visitors, the Xiushui Market, known as the Silk Market in English, took on a new look on March 20.

In order to add to the attraction, most of the 1,500 businesses are offering unusually low prices during their first week of operation in Xiushui's new five-floor building.

The developer has promised that goods sold in the new market would cost substantially less than those sold in the old largely open-air market. During the new-look market's first day of business, policemen were checking stores to ensure no cheap pirated goods were being sold.

Tong Keke, spokesman for Chaoyang District Government, said that counterfeit brands would be forbidden in Silk Market. He added that Chaoyang District has been cooperating with chambers of commerce from America and Europe in China since November 2003, fixing on nine brands for special protection, such as Louise Vuitton and Chanel.

It is estimated that the number of visitors to the new Xiushui will rise to four to five million every year.