Anne Zhang

    zhangy49@gmail.com

    BUSTLING Huaqiangbei area in Shenzhen’s Futian District, China’s biggest electronics market, is also home to an unattractive, old building cluster — Jianian foreign trade market compound. For more than a dozen years, Jianian has been a paradise for shoppers from home and abroad looking for cheap, stylish clothes, ornaments, videos, etc.

    However, the market will soon close because the city plans to upgrade it to a luxury shopping center, according to the Huangqiangbei sub-district office.

    Last days

    Located at the back of the Moi Department Store in Huangqiangbei, the Jianian compound consists of three foreign trade clothing markets — Jiahua, Tongbao and Jijianian, which house more than 1,000 shops.

    Shop owners were informed of the market’s closing at the end of last year and were given a four-month grace period to clear out their stock and look for new locations, according to the Huangqiangbei sub-district office.

    “Considering the upcoming May Day holiday that will spur a shopping spree, we’ve extended the grace period to May 3,” an officer said, adding that the market will be closed and water and electricity supplies will be cut off by midnight, Saturday.

    The deadline draws near, but the market is still as busy as usual. Many shops are launching promotions to attract more customers in their last few days. Shoppers are flocking in to get good bargains.

    “It’s too bad that the market is going to be shut down. Hopefully I can hunt some good stuff before it closes,” said Liu Yan, a 25-year-old company employee who visits the market once or twice a month to buy clothes, shoes, purses and other accessories.

    A long history

    The Jianian foreign trade market compound was built in 1997 in a printing house owned by Shenzhen Jianian Industrial Co. The company still owns the market compound today.

    Built with steel skeletons and plastic sheds, the market looks shabby and unattractive from the outside. Narrow lanes inside and numerous stores along both sides of the lanes may leave new shoppers in a daze. However, in the last 17 years, the market became well-known as a foreign trade clothes center in Shenzhen.

    “You can always find the latest clothing styles and most fashionable items here,” an experienced shopper surnamed Zhu said. She listed off a few shop names and locations where people can buy high-quality sports clothes and equipment, nice children’s clothes, a surplus of high-end clothing and bag brands, all at comparatively low prices.

    To find her favorites, Zhu always has to search piece by piece among numerous products. “That’s the biggest joy of shopping here,” she said.

    News about the market closing down has always been a threat. An official upgrading plan went public in April 2009 in which the Futian District government said the area would be transformed into a high-end shopping center. Talk about the market’s transformation heated up in 2010 along with an increasing need for city renewal as Universiade, an international sports game being held in Shenzhen in 2011, drew near. In 2011, Shenzhen’s urban planning and land resource commission gave a nod to the upgrading plan that would tear down buildings of more than 28,000 square meters in the Jianian compound.

    A men’s clothes seller surnamed Jin said he began hearing rumors about the closing down back in 2005, a year after he opened his business in Jiahua market.

    “Every year people were talking about it, but it never happened,” Jin said. “It’s like they’ve cried wolf so many times, so no one believes that the wolf is really coming this time.”

    Where to go?

    A silk scarf seller surnamed Liu didn’t take the shutdown calls seriously until she was asked to sign a move-out consent in January. She said she hasn’t found a new place for business and still has many scarves; her stock is worth more than 60,000 yuan.

    “I am selling my scarves at cut-throat prices to get more cash in hand before the shutdown,” she said. “It will take a while to open a new shop with a satisfying location and rent in Huangqiangbei. I am under so much pressure because I have a family to support.”

    The market compound generated about 300 million yuan (US$49 million) in sales and paid 6 million yuan in taxes every year, supporting more than 2,000 sellers and their families, according to previous media reports.

    Besides extending the grace period, the Jianian Company gave sellers one month rent free to ease pressure. Some shops will move to nearby shopping malls, but at least half of the sellers haven’t found new locations, Liu said.

    Many of them hoped the market would stay open until the end of May so that they can sell as much as the remaining stock during one of the best selling months. Sellers gathered April 22 to express this request; five of them were detained by police.

    “May 3 is the last day for sure, but where do we go after that?” one of them asked.