To tackle the ongoing global financial crisis, Beijing's Xiushui Market, better known as the Silk Street market, has taken measures to protect the rights of its proprietors and consumers, the Beijing News reports.
Silk Market announced Wednesday that it will add 100 million yuan to its Intellectual Property Rights Protection Fund to aid merchants.
With the fund, some 1000 of the current 1200 merchants registered at Xiushui Market received three to six month rental returns, worth 80 million yuan in total.
Silk Market set up a 30-million-yuan Intellectual Property Rights Protection Fund in September 2006 to help crack down on the illegal trade of counterfeit goods.
Foreign consumers are important for Silk Market. However, more and more foreign visitors are restricting their spending.
To appeal to foreign consumers, Silk Market has issued 20 million yuan worth of 'international consumption coupons', which are mainly provided for foreign consumers. The coupons come in denominations of 50 and 100 yuan, and can be directly used by the coupon holder who visits the market. There are also further discount coupons which offer discounts of between five and 20 percent at more than 200 booths.