Beijing Youth Daily reports the popular tourist shopping haunt, the Silk Market, is cutting it's vendor rental fees by 30 percent. 

For 20 years, the silk alley was home to 400 merchants. The outdoor market was famous among foreign tourists for inexpensive silk products and Chinese souvenirs. 30-thousand people visited the market each day. It was closed down at the end of last year to make way for a new indoor facility. But soaring rental fees have kept many shopkeepers from renewing their contracts.

The average monthly rent for a single booth will be up to 20-thousand yuan - or more than 24-hundred dollars.

Now the developer has decided to lower rental rates. The new market has more than 16-hundred retail booths. So far, 700 vacancies are still available.

(CRI.com January 17, 2005)