Say Goodbye to Your Favorite Wholesale Market

Say goodbye to your favorite wholesale market.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, authorities aim to get rid of all wholesale markets within the Fourth Ring Road by 2020.

RELATED: Good Riddance to Beijing's Biggest Embarrassment, the Donghuamen Night Market

The move is part of an effort to shrink Beijing’s population by 15 percent by 2020 – roughly equivalent to getting rid of 2 million people.

Central to the plan is shifting shift “low-end businesses” and wholesale markets to Hebei province.

Already over 150 markets have been shut down since the effort started in earnest last year. The hope is that by shutting down businesses, the people will follow.

The campaign has been going on as early as 2014 when we blogged that a bunch of wholesale markets were being moved out of the city.

The government also shut down and relocated 174 factories in the first half of this year.

There are currently almost 22 million people living in greater Beijing at the moment – a 6 million increase in just 10 years.

That rapid increase is putting so much pressure on the city that researchers believe the city is literally sinking through overuse of groundwater.

Of course, overpopulation is also contributing to problems like high pollution and rush-hour traffic clogging city streets for three hours a day, up from two hours per day in 2013, according to the Journal.

Photo: the Beijinger