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Beijing closes 121 markets to ease congestion

Xinhua, July 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

A total of 121 markets, most of them small, were closed in Beijing in 2014 and the first half of this year, in a move to ease congestion.

This reduced the space covered by markets in the city by about 1.15 million square meters, or 8.2 percent of the total, according to survey results released by the Beijing Statistics Bureau on Tuesday.

Due to the number of customers attracted by small markets, they can easily cause traffic jams. "The move has proven effective to improving the urban environment and relieving traffic pressure," said the bureau.

More than half of the closed markets were in central districts.

Beijing has sought to address "urban diseases" such as traffic congestion and air pollution by curbing population growth and moving some facilities to nearby regions.

On Saturday, the local government announced that it would speed up construction of a "subsidiary administrative center" in the suburban district of Tongzhou while promising to limit its population to 23 million people. Endi