Car sales may have been sluggish around the world but that hasn't been the case in China's capital. Beijing's auto industry saw a strong January, with 60 thousand vehicles being sold, up 17 percent from the same month last year.

Beijing Hyundai says it sold 35-thousand vehicles in January, breaking its monthly sale record since opening in 2002.

Other auto makers in Beijing such as Foton and Mercedes Benz are also releasing equally positive figures. They say orders for some products have hit the limit for the month of February.

And Beijing Benz is preparing for the launch of a new model. The capital has set the annual sales target for cars at more than 100 billion yuan for this year. That's up just over 30 percent from 2008.