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Beijing's Silk Street Market looks for new head

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-16 16:56

Silk Street Market, one of the Chinese capital's most popular clothing markets, is looking for a new general manager, as former job holder Wang Zili quit earlier this week, the company confirmed in Beijing Thursday.

The company declined to disclose the whereabouts of the former manager Wang, who has been reportedly involved in a law suit.

IntellectPro, a law firm headquartered in Beijing, filed the suit to the People's Court in Xicheng District in February, demanding from Wang an apology and payment of 500,000 yuan ($73,200) for defaming the firm by saying it collected fees from stall owners in the Silk Street to judge whether their goods infringed intellectual property right.

Related readings:  Shoppers at Silk Street get a sweetener  Traders sue market over closures  Market closes 8 more stalls over fakes  Silk market merchants sue over 'fakes' issue

Yu Tanzhen, legal consultant of the share-holding company, declined to comment on the case, but said the Silk Street Market has been entangled in intellectual property right law suits since 2005, and strived to deal with counterfeiting problems.

"The Silk Street Market offered the job with a yearly pay of 500,000 yuan for the post," said Tan.

He said the salary may not be attractive for professional managers in Western firms, but it is considered fair pay for the same level in a Chinese firm.

"The market has embarked on a big renovation, which will see the closure of 248 stalls alleged to sell fake goods," said Tan. "Their places will be taken by tailor shops, children clothes stores and shops selling Chinese flavors and handicrafts."

The market unveiled its own brand -- SILKSTREET -- in January last year, and warned that anyone who tries to counterfeit that brand will be held liable.

The shabby shopping alley near Beijing's embassy zone was naturally formed and known for fake designer goods to attract foreigners in the 1980s.

The market moved into an adjacent five-floor mall last year, as administrators wanted to root out the faked goods and build it into a market full of Chinese specialties, including silk, pearls, tea, china and handicrafts before the Beijing Olympics.