wangfujing commercial area

after a construction face-lift, the 700-year-old wangfujing (the well of the prince's mansion) street or golden street, one of china's oldest and most famous commercial areas, was meant to be well-known in the world through the renovation, look brand new to people on september 11, 1999 when it opened to the public. the wangfujing street lives up to its glorious past, but with a new look. to give it a new look they completely got rid of the street's poor infrastructure at a price of over 1 billion yuan (us$120.5 million). the new infrastructure can sustain the commercial area of 300 square metres to run smoothly for 50 years, with specially designed sup- plies of electricity, water, gas, communications and transportation. along the 810-metre-long street and in an area of about 810 square metres are over 200 shops. a 60-member clean-up team for a single commercial area might have been remarkable in scale in beijing, but expecting them to keep 500,000 visitors, the estimated average daily volume of visitors in the area; to keep the area clean was just unrealistic. the new street can also provide convenience for pedestrians and motorists alike. take the transportation as an example. gone for good are the old days of narrow streets jam-packed with people. the area has no problems at its entry and exit even with a half million people and l, 020 vehicles. also, in spite of being modern and new, the renovated wangfujing street has retained its traditional cultural atmosphere. the street is a kind of beauty perfectly combining tradition, modernity, culture and commerce. with a group of sculptures depicting the lives of the people of beijing in the old times was established before the modern sun dong an plaza, a 70-square-metre relief sculpture recalling the operation of the 12 old famous shops in the area was set on the southern wall of the women's department store. also the ancient well, from which the street got its name, was also symbolically re- stored.

the street came into being in the yuan dynasty (1279-1368) more than 700 years ago. wangfujing street is said to have received its name in the ming dynasty more than 500 years ago. one of the emperors was said to want all his l0 brothers to build their mansions in the place now known as wangfujing so as to make it easy for him to keep a wary eye on them for fear that they might pose a direct threat to him. therefore, the street was then named shiwangfu, meaning mansions for l0 imperial brothers. nowadays, the street is one of the busy shopping areas in beijing. there are more than 200 shops on the 810-metre-long street from nankou of wangfujing to jinyu (goldfish) hutong (lane). tourists love to go shopping here. within 8 years from 1992 to 1999, 1 billion yuan (us$120 million) was spent on renovating the whole wangfujing street, and shops with more than 1.8 million square metres of all kinds of buildings along the street. according to statistics, before 1992, the highest flow of visitors numbered 450, 000 every day in wangfujing street. every day about 200, 000 shoppers came to beijing department store, but later, about 50,000 came to do shopping at beijing department store. to change the situation, the beijing municipal government decided to restore all the shops and the street so that they can attract more people to come to the street reputed as a "golden street" by the people of beijing.

wangfujing street has presented a shining new face after the second phase of its extension project was completed on september 11, 2000. the traffic conditions in the wangfujing area have been greatly improved thanks to the construction of new roads, such as the department store west road, running parallel to wangfujing, and the expansion of old ones like dengshikou xijie street, which runs perpendicular to wangfujing. more than 330 public and private buildings have been removed to make way for roads, trees and lawns. donghuamen night fair, the centre of the street, has received a face-lift and serves as a food court for visitors. the 340-million-yuan (us$41 million) project aims to make wangfujing street the capital's biggest shopping centre. the street has been extended from 810 metres to 1,150 metres (wangfujing nankou to dengshi xikou), and expanded to include shopping, entertainment, tourism and business. ac- cording to the practices of developed countries, places for entertainment and tourism should occupy half of the commercial centre as a whole; wangfujing was brought up to this standard after renovation. the jinyu (goldfish) hutong on the east side of the street has been turned into an avenue of hotels and restaurants, while a back street on the west side has been built into a street of snack bars and was reopened to the public on september 11, 2000.

the oriental plaza has a 100,000osquare-metre shopping centre. wangfujing area has become the city's central business district because of its easy access to major roads, high land prices and high density of retail and service business, as well as its high degree of population flow. nowadays, the wangfujing area has been formed naturally in the city's centre, in much the same way as most central business districts have sprung up in other international cities.

at present, there are five major commercial areas such as wangfujing commercial area, xidan commercial area, dazhalan commercial area, longfusi commercial area and chaoyangmenwai commercial area.

 

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