Famous wholesale market relocates to 'slim' Beijing

Workers remove signs atop a wholesale mall at Beijing Zoo Market in the city's Xicheng district on January 11, 2015. The mall named "Tianhaocheng" was the first one in the wholesale market area that had its signs removed. Most wholesalers have already moved out of the mall. With a business area of more than 300,000 square meters and 13,000 stalls, the Beijing Zoo Market represents the largest clothing wholesale distribution center in North China. The relocation project over the market is designed to improve downtown functions and relieve overcrowding and traffic jams. [Photo: chinanews.com/ Jin Shuo]

A wholesale market in downtown Beijing has closed and is expected to relocate to neighboring Hebei Province in a move to reduce traffic congestion and reduce population density in the capital.

Tianhaocheng Market, which closed on Monday, became the first of the 12 markets in the famous clothing wholesale zone near Beijing Zoo to shut its doors.

The relocation of the Beijing Zoo wholesale market zone marks a beginning for the capital to alleviate its many functions, said Zhu Erjuan, a professor with the Capital University of Economic and Business.

Pollution, traffic and population pressures in the capital are becoming too serious to ignore and to address this Beijing has begun by closing markets that are not consistent with its role as a capital city.

When workers removed the Tianhaocheng signboard, it also marked the end of an era of affordable, fashionable clothes, users lamented on microblog Sina Weibo.

Built in the mid-1980s, the Beijing Zoo wholesale market zone was labeled as a "paradise" for young girls wanting to look fashionable on a budget. It attracts nearly 100,000 customers daily.

Stall tenants have been encouraged to move their businesses to Langfang City, Hebei Province, but this was not mandatory, said an official in charge of the closure.

According to an agreement signed by Beijing's Xicheng District and Langfang City last April, the two sides will build a logistics zone and wholesale market in Langfang, after President Xi Jinping called for integrated development of the regions around Beijing last February.

Although more than 20,000 commercial tenants in the Beijing Zoo wholesale market zone contributed 60 million yuan (about 9.8 million U.S. dollars) in annual revenue to Xicheng District, it costs the government nearly 100 million yuan to handle its transportation and environment issues, said Wang Ning, chief of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) district committee.

In 2014, the number of booths in the zone was slashed by 1,300, or 10 percent. In 2015, more than 1,000 commercial tenants will be encouraged to move.

Beijing is home to elite universities, renowned hospitals and major state-owned enterprises, Tianjin and Hebei both trail behind the capital in this respect.

If the planned integration is to succeed, the huge gap in public resources and services must be filled, said Zhao Jimin, an associate researcher with the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.

It is necessary to provide neighboring regions with talent so they can enjoy similar levels of education, health care and social security, Zhao said.

The capital can benefit a lot from regional cooperation. It should not only slim down, but also shape up, Zhao added.