Review Of The History Of Xiushui Street In Beijing

A sense of history is like remembrance of Beijing's alley, but its demise is also inevitable.

In Beijing in 1982, people began to sell tricycles to vegetables and fruits in the south of a small street, which is only 500 meters long and 8 meters wide.

No one would have thought that one day it would become an international road market which was known by economists as "the riverside map of Qingming on twentieth Century", which was tailored by the scissors of reform and opening up.

The month of that year

Xiushui is the nickname of Xiaojie. Chang'an Avenue and Chaoyang business circle are shouldered, but it is only the fire passage of the embassy area at the earliest, and is at the edge of old Beijing city.

Xiushui market general manager Wang Zili told reporters: "at the beginning of Xiushui lads to unemployed youth in Beijing as the main body, as well as reeducation through labor and labor reform release personnel."

The first generation of Xiushui people could not avoid "sneaking": worried about being stabbed in the neighborhood, afraid of which day would be cut "tail". All the time, we are all eyes and ears.

"The state-owned enterprise where I worked went bankrupt, or my mother secretly took out a little savings to give me a stall in Xiushui. My father knew that he was furious and drove me out. " A "old Xiushui" is very emotional in retrospect.

With the growing prosperity of the spontaneous farm market, the Chaoyang District government of Beijing finally decided to Xiushui Street Carry out unified management. In August 15, 1985, Xiushui fair was officially opened.

In 1988, Xiushui Street only welcomed the first transformation, and each merchant invested 3000 yuan to set up a fire protection kiosk. Before that, the old Xiushui either practiced "tree stalls" or used 4 bamboo poles to support the site and began to do business on the tricycle. In winter, there are fewer than a few people waiting for them in a day, but they are much more determined to walk around. Each person hung a piece of white cloth solemnly on the most prominent position on his own booth, printed with 16 words and numbers: "civilized business, hygiene, quality and quantity, and reasonable charge".

Anyway, it's legal.

After more than a year of painstaking efforts, these "old Xiushui" who had been muddled up from the planned economy era gradually realized the most simple rule of market economy: what to sell and what to sell. Because the location is unique, the earliest customers in this area are foreigners in the embassy area and Diplomatic Apartments, and then rapidly evolve into what foreigners like to sell.

Some people ran around Jiangsu and Zhejiang to purchase silk fabrics and Tang costumes with Chinese characteristics and set off the "Silk Road" sign. More flexible traders began to move. Foreign trade clothing 。 A clothing factory running to Beijing went to search for export inventories they did not know how to deal with. The rare things that are not seen in the market are cheap and of high quality, and soon the foreign guests come to Xiushui Street.

There is such a passage that is widely circulated: Li Dong told the foreigner that his clothes were numerous and sweaty and did not know how to express them. For a long time, he finally suppressed a sentence: "his is coulor, coulor and coulor." This is color, color and color. )

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Since 1980s, Xiushui Street has become an important channel for mutual understanding between China and Eastern Europe. Tens of thousands of Beijing people have witnessed the wave of Russian buyers sweeping Xiushui Street. Finding Xiushui Street is so simple. Sitting on a Charlie taxi at the airport, I asked, "where can I exchange foreign currency or buy clothes directly with foreign exchange?" the driver must answer this way: "only the Xiushui Street market." If you dare come, I dare go. Some courageous Chinese profiteers also rushed out of the country.

From the earliest to see foreigners, I don't know how to communicate and worry about international problems. Later, they beat each other's shoulders and become "good friends". Over the past 20 years, Beijing has opened up the business road to the outside world through the folk trade of this small street. And those who seize the opportunity and break through the old economic system "bottom of society", were later respected as "God" in Wang Shuo's pen, as a very Chinese style call for the world.

From "nation" to "counterfeit"

Xiushui Street Pedlar Yes. It is said that when they become the first batch of "upstarts" in the capital, Ding Lei is preparing for the college entrance examination at home, and the planning of Chaoyang District will have to wait for another 5 years.

A university teacher recalled: "before 1992, Chinese people had very few private cars, and only a few of them in Xiushui Street or in the exhibition hall could have their own cars. I was very envious of the car owners at that time. A typical mentality of a corrupt man.

It is also from the mid 90s of last century that the first generation of Xiushui people, who gradually failed to grasp the pulse in competition, began to be promoted from "profiteers" to "owners" (merchants with business licenses) and the stalls were leased to merchants from the south. Unfortunately, Xiushui Street has also had its first transformation. Wang Zili said: "it starts from the folk custom characteristic foreign market prelude, enters" takes the counterfeit "the main period.

"Do you have this?" a foreign guest asked a stall owner with a big palm paper on his hand. It was originally a photocopy of a Puma sneaker.

"Sorry, it's too new. We don't have one."

The foreign guest shook his head and walked away regretfully.

This is a scene seen by reporters on the ground floor of the new Xiushui market, which may be rewritten in "old Xiushui".

Wang Zili told reporters that foreign guests are one of the initiator of Xiushui counterfeiting phenomenon. "At that time, Xiushui's foreign-related market developed to the OEM production Commission. Many of the merchants were former shops and factories. Some Western European and North American customers began to take some brands of albums and samples to Xiushui to designate such products. They think that since Xiushui has the ability to produce, they can also produce these products they want.

Xiushui was originally a sensitive market for demand information. Even the clothes there are waist heavy, because CIS and Eastern European women are obese. Merchants have a higher profit and try to produce and sell these products to satisfy some special consumers. A silk merchants in Qipao, such as "souvenirs and fake brands with Chinese characteristics, are loved by foreign guests."

However, Wang Zi Li does not want to say that the products of Xiushui are "fake and shoddy". The biggest difference between Xiushui and other similar markets in China is the quality assurance of its products, which is recognized by customers. To be precise, it is a counterfeit product without proper channels.

A "old Xiushui" told reporters such a story: "once a Italy guest bought a shirt in the old Xiushui market which marked their country's famous brand. He always worried about buying fake goods, and returned to Italy and went to the brand store to identify it. The result was considered genuine, and the Italy tourist later became a frequent visitor to Xiushui.

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Wang Zili said, "when I first named the counterfeit goods in Xiushui market, a diplomat in the Middle East told me solemnly that he had bought this shirt in Xiushui for 10 years, and that they should belong to the" goods not produced in origin "or" quality alike ".

False is also a way, this is not easy to speak of the "gray topic", but Wang Zili thought that it was undeniable that it was the main reason why Xiushui became famous after the first transformation, and it also foreshadowed its second transformation today.

Old and new dispute

In January 6, 2005, the old Xiushui Street came to an end. With the roar of the excavator, this "living specimen of reform and opening up" disappeared in people's vision. According to national instructions, move to the nearby Xiushui Street building as a whole.

In the past 8 years, Xiushui Street has been in the turmoil of "withdrawing from the market".

In December 20, 2004, the Chaoyang District Jian Wai community economic management center posted a notice on the market closure of Xiushui market on the bulletin board of Xiushui market, and it was clear that all merchants must withdraw from the market by January 10, 2005. The announcement said that the closure of the market was due to five major problems, such as serious fire hazards, pressure on municipal pipelines, counterfeit infringement, serious nuisance and failure to apply for business licenses. Closure is imperative and irreversible.

At that time, Xiushui merchants had increased from the original 60 to 418. The news received a completely different response between the tenant and the owner.

The condition of old Xiushui is undoubtedly more difficult than the air conditioning building of new Xiushui. Some merchants said, "one foot deep snow, everyone still stands outside to hawk, too cold to drink Erguotou."

An elderly woman at a business forum talked about her being too guilty in the old market. Especially in winter, the plastic sheds are everywhere. They are not only hands and feet, but they are all covered with chilblain.

Wang Zili said: "a sense of history is like a Hutong in Beijing, which is always remembered, but its demise is also inevitable. The fire problem of old Xiushui is like a time bomb. Things can never escape. In addition, when the parking conditions were poor, the shopping bus could not come. Many tourists can do shopping in the evening, and old Xiushui closes at five or six p.m. in order to prevent fire. There are also tenants who say that they are very unrealistic in doing business in old Xiushui, and the booth is rased at intervals, sometimes up to 5 hands. They often terminate the contract with a phone call, while the rental process of new Xiushui is open, fair and impartial.

But a female boss who rented in 1988 in the old Xiushui market told reporters: "according to the owner's rentals, the rent will be tens of thousands a month. All the rents are now owned by the building. They have nothing left."

The more intense contradiction is the "brand competition". New Xiushui is a project of a real estate development company. It is shoulder to shoulder with the original Xiushui market. It has 3 floors on the ground, 5 floors on the ground, 30 thousand square meters of floor space and more than 1500 stalls. The main reason for the project to rename the "Xiushui Street market building" was that the "Xiushui" trademark was registered successfully in 1998 by the shareholders of the market management company.

"Xiushui market is the pedaling of tricycles by us businessmen. What qualifications do they have to register this trademark?" an old businessman angrily said.

All this is because Xiushui is too hot. In 2001, the international tourism elite delegation came to Beijing. Beijing was selected as a tourist attraction for foreign tourists. Besides the Great Wall and the Imperial Palace, the third attraction was Xiushui Street. The phrase "visiting the Imperial Palace, climbing the Great Wall, eating roast duck and visiting Xiushui" is annotated on Chinese travel maps in many countries.

"Thin field no one ploughs, ploughing open somebody to contend for." This is probably another typical phenomenon in reform and opening up. People who are "crossing the river by feeling the stones" and busy getting rich become more and more ignorant of many important matters, such as the definition of property rights and the ownership of brands.

"There is a Xiushui Street in Beijing", which used to be printed on the shirts worn by Lao Xiu Shui merchants in order to protect the market from being dismantled. Compared to 1997, this time they did not win the bottom line. "The court dismissed our action."

"The winter snow falls on the day of disappearance. On that day, we stand in the middle of the night and pray for her. The crowds of the crowds were over tonight, and no place can be found from the map. The name of this campus ballad is also called "Xiushui Street in Beijing".

From "counterfeiting" to "nationality"

In July 20, 2004, Wang Xiaomin, the Minister of economic affairs of the Embassy of the United States, gave a letter to the Chaoyang District government of Beijing, which made the Xiushui people feel the heavy pressure of "intellectual property".

A survey conducted by Aker & cenzie, a consultant at the Embassy of the United States at that time, showed that the value of counterfeit goods sold in Xiushui Street was between 181159-301932 US dollars per day, accounting for more than 90% of the total market revenue.

Wang Xiaomin pointed out that the "fake Street" that brought joy to many people stood unscrupulously in front of itself, which is incompatible with the position that the United States has been advocating for the protection of intellectual property rights. Although the fact is that tourists, including Americans, may visit the silk market and enjoy it, the US embassy believes that the market should not continue in the current form. We hope to adopt a symbolic decision in Xiushui market.

After the opening of the new Xiushui market, the first lawsuit that it ushered in was the 5 famous international brands that brought the Xiushui market to court for trademark infringement disputes. Xiushui market lost the lawsuit in April this year.

In early June, Xiushui and more than 20 representatives of the European Union signed a joint anti-counterfeiting agreement. It began to make two real transformations.

Wang Zili told reporters: "the new Xiushui will build a market with Chinese culture and customs, and make it fashionable."

The six Beijing old brand has entered the Xiushui market. "China silk First Street" was restored. Xiushui market will also increase the proportion of folk goods such as silk, porcelain, tea and handicrafts.

"The clothing industry has shrunk in many commercial buildings, but the garment industry in Xiushui is ranked first in the foreign market because tourists in Xiushui 80% are foreigners. The management will give support and encouragement through the way of rent reduction, and the average rent reduction will be around 20%. Rui Xiang's boss told me that Xiushui store is the best in all his branches. Originally they aimed at the Chinese, but did not expect to find the target customers in the foreign market, and the old trees sprout.

"Old Xiushui left three great legacy to Xin Xiushui. First, worldwide fame and influence. The two is the excellent merchants who will do foreigners business. Their brand, quality and reputation have been recognized by foreign consumers. Three, we need to discard the grey problem of transformation.

I am very confident in solving the problem of intellectual property rights and developing national brands. The reason why Lao Shi Shui's self-employed man can make a worldwide influence lies in quality. They just started to do business and directly faced with foreign customers. The product has a high starting point and good benefits, forming a virtuous circle. Now we just replace a trademark and use it to imitate the strength of the commodity to build our own national brand.

The intellectual property rights encountered by Xiushui are not only a problem of this market, but also a common problem faced by the whole reform and opening up to a certain stage. I hope I can take a road. "

But this road is bound to be arduous.

Vacheron Constantin, Dunhill, IOR, Chanel, urberry, Louis Weedon... These brands are not allowed to be sold in Xiushui Street, including genuine products.

However, under the "ban" of every booth, reporters still see Puma, Nike and Adidas selling like wildfire. "Don't let the samples out." The owner explained so.