Grab your shanxian Prada and Louis Vuitton while you can—a Chaoyang District representative admitted yesterday that all of Beijing’s garment and wholesale markets will be relocated by 2016.
More than 30 markets, including Yabao Lu “Alien Street,” Tianya and others will be moved by the end of this year, and another 245 markets are slated to relocate by 2016. They could well include foreigner magnets, Yashow and the Silk Market. Prospective locations include Tianjin and parts of Hebei province.
This relocation follows Beijing mayor Wang Anshun's agenda to make population control a priority for the year 2014, claiming that exponential population growth had contributed to problems such as pollution, traffic congestion and the deteriorating appearance of Beijing.
A major goal of Wang's population control plan was to chase low-end industries from the city – a policy in line with the government’s recent effort to edge out low-end manufacturing, garment wholesale markets, small commodities markets and construction material markets – all of which draw in large population numbers yet generate little GDP – from Beijing proper.
That leaves just two short years to stock up on knock-off goods. Best head to "Alien Street" now before you’re forced to spring for the real thing.
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