New life, new hope as old market phases out

The brand new, bustling "Dongpi" wholesale market in Langfang City, north China's Hebei Province, manifests a sense of nostalgia for shop owner Zhang Yongsheng.

Zhang used to run a couture shop in the old "Dongpi", the Chinese abbreviation of the Bejing Zoo wholesale market in downtown Beijing, touting female garments to passers-by as they shopped for affordable, fashionable clothes.

At a time when e-commerce was nowhere to be found, the old "Dongpi" was once a favorite for the capital city's low-income residents. Over the course of 30 years, the historic location created huge economic benefits and countless job vacancies for tenants like Zhang.

However, as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional development program gains steam, the famous clothing wholesale zone near Beijing Zoo is being phased out and gradually relocated to nearby areas, an effort to reduce traffic congestion and curtail population density in Beijing.

Zhang has seen how the old "Dongpi" evolved from a small morning and night market into the city's biggest clothing wholesale center, after twenty years of struggling to support his family there.

"It's hard for me to say goodbye," said the 54-year-old man.

OLD MARKET FADES AWAY

For the past two decades, countless shopkeepers like Zheng from around the country came to Beijing to seek business opportunities. According to official statistics, Beijing's population soared to 21.51 million in 2014 from 11.25 million within twenty years. Of the residents, 8.18 million are non-native, up from a little more than 600,000 in 1994.

While the incoming population did contribute to the local economy, a spate of problems arise, including traffic congestion, shortage of resources and a sense of insecurity. In recent years, the difficulties of purchasing houses, buying cars, seeing doctors and receiving education in Beijing have frequently snagged headlines.

Earlier this month, when reporting the government's work to national lawmakers, Premier Li Keqiang called on stepping up coordinated development for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and ensuring that the region takes the lead in making substantive breakthroughs in areas such as integrated transportation, ecological conservation, environmental protection, and industry upgrades and relocation.

To make that happen, the Beijing government plans to relocate about 13,000 tenants in "Dongpi" to nearby areas by 2020, and some 1,300 already moved last year.

The new "Dongpi", 60 kilometers from Beijing, forms part of that relocation project. So far, some 1,500 commercial tenants have settled there, including Zhang Yongsheng, and more are expected to come this year.

NEW LIFE, NEW HOPE

In the eyes of Zhang, the new site is "not that far away anyway" thanks to convenient transportation. Zhang, who still lives in south Beijing with his wife and daughter, takes a bus to Langfang every morning and returns to Beijing in the afternoon.

"I feel like I have never left Beijing," he said.

To make Langfang's new "Dongpi" more attractive, a series of preferential measures have been rolled out, according to Liu Zhiyong, the new market's president.

"For newcomers, we offer the booths free of charge for up to three years," said Liu, adding that procedures of opening stalls there and getting bank loans will be streamlined. Tenants only have to provide a deposit of 10,000 yuan (1,614 U.S. dollars), which will be returned should their businesses fail.

But the picture is not all rosy, as tenants are still struggling to lure enough customers to support businesses.

"Customers are still thin on the ground at the moment," Zhang said.

Unlike the old "Dongpi", which lured myriad shoppers from Beijing and neighboring cities, the new one's customers are mainly from the vicinity of Langfang, a city with 4.2 million people. It also lags behind the old one in terms of logistics services, he added.

But Zhang is optimistic about his future as the new market develops under the wing of the government.

"I am still trying my luck here, and if it works out, I will bring my wife and daughter here to start a new life," he said.