City government to open more stores at tourist spots

The municipal government has raised the sails on its first flagship store for gifts.

City authorities launched the store, which will specialize in tourism products, in the capital on Wednesday and said it will promote Chinese culture on the world stage.

The official gift shop is located near Tiantan Park, in Chongwen district, and will stock famed Chinese products, including Peking duck and cloisonne vases made of enamel and metal, as well as more modern offerings, such as contemporary art and Beijing Olympic souvenirs.

"The total income from Beijing's tourism market was 244.2 billion yuan in 2009 and tourist products contributed more than 70 billion yuan," said Zhang Guanghui, director of the Beijing municipal tourism bureau.

Zhang said the sale of tourist products was a perfect marriage of Chinese culture and the local tourism economy.

Beijing was visited by 160 million Chinese people and more than 4.05 million overseas tourists last year, said the tourism bureau.

"The municipal government aims to build Beijing into a world-class tourism city and tourism products are an important part of that development," Zhang said.

Chen Siguan, general manger of the new store, was confident it will have an impact around the world.

"Beijing has been standing for 3,056 years and has been the capital city for 857 years. The interesting places and cultural characteristics and products are attractive to visitors from home and abroad," Chen said.

"Our products will be enjoyed by families around the world in such places as London and New York within hours of people buying them."

Chen said the gift shop will follow the management mode for licensed Olympic products, which have centralized distribution and pricing systems.

More retail stores will open in major sightseeing destinations in the capital, according to Chen.

Ma Ling, a 30-year-old Beijing woman, bought a set of sculpted Peking Opera masks for a German friend and got one for herself when she visited the Badaling section of the Great Wall last year.

She said the quality of those products was not very good and she hoped the official store would be better.

"The color of the mask has become lighter and there are many cracks on the sculptures now," Ma said. "I feel bad about sending such a low-quality gift to my foreign friend."

After checking with the municipality's official gift shop, Ma said it was clear only high-quality items with strong Chinese characters were on the shelves.

"But the products sold here are more expensive than the small shops on the streets," she added.