Know what this street needs? Rich entertainment companies...
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China Daily reports that, “The managers of Nanluoguxiang, one of Beijing’s most popular streets with a 742-year history, plan to restrict the number of bars and cafes in the popular tourist precinct.”
According to the story, the vice-director of the government office that manages the street, says the plan is to “work with rich entertainment companies to turn the street in an area promoting popular culture.” The article further states:
“All businesses in Nanluoguxiang contribute a total of no more than 500,000 yuan in tax every year,” [vice director] Yu said.
“There are more than 120 shops registered in this area, but they are all family businesses. To play up the cultural aspect of the area, we would prefer to cooperate with entertainment companies and performance theaters with a strong cultural background.”
“We will use a total of 13 million yuan to develop the quality and diversity of culture represented by the street by 2011,” he said.
Yes, “rich” entertainment companies fit the feel of Nanluoguxing instead of those pesky family business. Um, maybe not.
The China Daily cites one of the owners:
“The rent for a 30-sq-m shop was 1,000 yuan per month back in 2005, but now I have to pay more than 10,000 yuan. The rent has been raised by 10 times, which makes my business tougher,” said Yin Qi, owner of Chinese painting shop Color Together….
“I mainly relay on my regular customers to maintain my business, and I am worried that I could even lose them if Nanluoguxiang changes to a so-called culture featured street without the traditional Chinese art elements.”
I think the real problem is that too many people are having a good time in Nanluoguxiang. In other words, the place works. We can’t be having that now, can we?
(Hat tip to Vegemite Vinyl)
I hope they just fell victim to dyslexia – they should not limit the number of Bars, but the number of damn Cars in the alley. Since they widened and opened it, it has become as crammed as the second ring road. The benefit is that you can conveniently puke into cab windows while remaining seated in the bar. As an educational effort directed at taxi drivers, I encourage everybody to try this.
It would be great if one could find out which “entertainment companies” are going to fit better into Nanluoguxiang, and see just how many government employees have connections.
With the sky high rents being charged for shop spaces on Nanluoguxiang now, smaller cafes/restaurants and independent retailers are already being weeded out and replaced with larger, more established organizations which can support purely marketing (non-profit generating) ventures. A natural economic-based “filtering” process is already under way, without the help or encouragement of the local government.
Sooner or later, only “rich companies” will be able to afford the rent in this area anyway, unless the government enforces some kind of rent control or support for independent retailers and artists that gives the neighborhood a unique culture.
The widening of the street already took away a lot of the charm of the place and these “rich entertainment companies” look set to do the rest. Sounds like K-tv and
ladybars for the tourists…
I’ve heard that the Wudaoying Hutong – where the Vineyard is – is supposed to become “a new Nanluoguxiang”. I assume something like Nanluguoxiang the way it is now. Doesn’t have quite the same history of course, but in terms of being a historic street Nanluoguxiang is pretty much destroyed anyway.
Ever notice how whenever the government says something about “investing in” or “improving” an organic, pleasant area, it tends to provoke the same reaction in listeners as when a three year-old child says “I’m helping” near a band saw? And of course in the case of Nan Luogu Xiang, this would be like a three year-old who was already minus three limbs and an ear.
People have been saying that Wudaoying Hutong will be the next big thing for a while. I don’t see it — it’s just nowhere near as nice as Nan Luogu Xiang used to be (and still sometimes is) — not a single tree, not enough cross-streets, and you can still hear the traffic from the Second Ring Road and Yonghegong. I hope I’ll be proven wrong — there needs to be a new nice area, now that Nan Luogu Xiang has been ruined.
My vote is that it’ll be the areas around Gulou Dong Da Jie: they get enough traffic (unlike Wudaoying Hutong) to be viable, but are still pleasant and generally pretty quiet, and there are some nice restaurants opening up around there.