Beijing's wholesale market has dramatically evolved from a bustling center of vendors into a modern financial innovation hub, symbolizing the city's high-quality development and strategic urban planning.
Once a bustling wholesale market located in Xicheng District with over 11,000 vendors, the area was known for its congestion and logistical difficulties. In 2014, it began relocating vendors to make way for the development of a modern financial district.
According to management authorities, the most challenging issue during the large-scale relocation process was disputes over property rights.
Through a series of mergers, restructuring, and financing efforts, Xicheng District, once home to a bustling wholesale trade network, now boasts sleek office buildings filled with startups and financial enterprises. Despite an obvious reduction in its workforce - now just a quarter of what it was decade ago - the district's GDP has more than doubled.
A striking sculpture made from 1,000 hangers and 2,000 welding points now stands as a tribute to the vendors who once thrived here. Shaped like a mythological creature, this art work symbolizes both the district's past and its bright future as a hub for financial technology (fintech) and innovation.
Today, the area has become a magnet for tech startups and financial companies, offering rent discounts, tax incentives, and robust support for new projects. In 2021, Beijing Interstella Glory Space Technology, a commercial rocket company, established its headquarters here for the district's attractive business environment.
"In fact, the business environment is extremely important for companies. Additionally, for businesses that have plans for future listings, aspects such as specialized training and guidance for financing, as well as talent acquisition, are also crucial," said Cai Jingqi, a representative from the company.
To phase out non-essential industries and promote coordinated development across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China's top economic planner introduced a three-year action plan recently, with 19 measures aimed at improving the business environment and supporting key sectors such as advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and financial services.
Beijing's wholesale market transforms into dynamic financial innovation hub
A United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson has underscored the urgent necessity for reconstruction work in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and highlighted the fragile state of mental health among people in the Gaza Strip, particularly children, who have endured 15 months of intense bombardment.
Tess Ingram, a communications manager for UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa region, said the agency has significantly increased its aid delivery in the first week of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, with around 350 truckloads of aid specifically for children heading into the enclave, a significant increase from the previous month when the entire UN was averaging just 50 trucks a day for all aid.
The essential aid includes a variety of supplies for children, such as nutrition supplies, vaccines, winter clothes, and tarpaulins for shelter, Ingram said. In addition, UNICEF has supplied materials to rebuild and restart water and sanitation systems as it looks to address the critical clean water shortage in Gaza, she said.
"One of the things that I've consistently heard here in Gaza City is that access to water is really difficult. People are having to walk quite a long way to find a water point and then the water is not always necessarily safe water. So what we're trying to do is bring in cement and pipes to rebuild the water systems that have been damaged by the bombs, and also fuel to run generators and pumps to get that water flowing again," she said.
The long-awaited ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel took effect on Jan. 19, with the six-week-long first phase of the agreement seeing the withdrawal of troops, the release of hostages, and allowing for the safe passage of humanitarian aid to reach war-torn Gaza.
Ingram highlighted the importance of maintaining the ceasefire once this initial phase ends, urging the international community to ensure all parties adhere to it.
She also underscored the harrowing psychological impact that the long-running conflict has had, particularly for children who have endured 15 months of bombardment since the conflict erupted in October 2023.
"They've probably been displaced from their home, on the move multiple times, living in unsafe places, maybe under a piece of plastic on the street or sheltering inside a school that's been badly damaged by bombs, unsure if another bomb might hit it. They've probably lost people that they love, either through a lack of access to telecommunications or maybe those loved ones have been killed. Many children here have been injured, and they have physical scars. But, of course, from all of this, they have emotional scars as well," said Ingram.
She noted that UNICEF has stressed the need for appropriate mental health care for children to address the trauma of war, handle the issues associated with displacement, and face the other ongoing challenges.
Ingram also noted how many children had hoped for something of a return to normalcy now that the ceasefire is in effect, but many have been left distraught by the harsh reality of returning to Gaza only to find their former homes left in ruin.
"I think that people's hope that they hung onto for 15 months is turning to a sense of heaviness, including for children, that they were holding on to this idea of returning home, to being safe again. And that is not what is happening, because people are returning to rubble. They're returning to a city without access to services like health, like water. And so people's mental health is still very fragile and I think what needs to happen now is that children need to receive mental health care to deal with that trauma of the war, the trauma of fleeing and enduring bombardments, but also for dealing with this new reality that they're dealing with," she said.
UNICEF increases aid, urges mental health support for Gaza children