Visiting Panjiayuan Flea Market has become a "must see" for foreign tourists in Beijing after walking on the Great Wall, eating roasted duck and visiting the Forbidden City. On October 27 the Beijing Minister of Commerce officially named the famous Flea Market as the capital's first ever special trading location. 

Prior to the 2008 Olympics Games the city will designate activities at the Panjiayuan Flea Market as a starting point from which to cultivate several types of commodity trading markets providing unique styles and tastes for consumers from home and abroad.

The Flea Market was developed as trading location for antiques and the arts. Currently it has secured its place as the most popular market of historic items in China. At weekends between sixty and seventy thousand people visit with 10,000 of them being foreigners. The Flea Market is an absolute dream for collectors and the largest folk art distribution center in China.
 
(Chinanews.cn October 31, 2006)