Xinfadi market
Xinfadi Market (, Beijing Xinfadi Agricultural Produce Wholesale Market) is a covered wholesale food market in the southern Beijing district of Fengtai. As of 2020, the market provides more than 90% of Beijing's fruits and vegetables according to state media. and meat, and it distributes produce to many smaller markets in Beijing. Accordingly, it is nicknamed the "vegetable basket" and "fruit bowl" of the city.
Xinfandi Market opened on May 16, 1988. Covering an area of 112 hectares, it is the largest wholesale food market in Beijing and claims to be the largest in Asia, with more than 10,000 workers
History
Background and establishment
Xinfadi Village, where the market is located, was originally named "Xinfendi" (, literally "new grave land"), because in 1958 a graveyard located there was leveled in to create farmland. The area gradually turned into a settlement, and the name was changed to "Xinfadi" (roughly "newly developed land"). The village mainly contains sandy, loamy, brown soil, suitable for planting vegetables.
On May 10, 1985, the Beijing Bureau of Commodity Prices decided to relax control of the prices of seven key agricultural products: pork, beef, mutton, eggs, poultry, marine fish, and vegetables. On May 30, the municipal Party committee and city government convened a vegetable work conference and decided to "revitalize buying and selling" and "allow food from other parts of the country to come into Beijing". As a result, after farmers from near Xinfadi Village handed over the required quantity of vegetables to the government, they began to set up roadside stands to sell the remainder. These stands gradually turned into a street market. Many famers from outside Beijing joined the street market, resulting in disorganized commerce and traffic jams. Local officials repeatedly tried to drive them out, without success, so a member of the Fengtai District Bureau of Industry and Commerce recommended that a wholesale market be established in the village, welcoming the farmers instead of trying to drive them out. Xinfadi Village Vegetable Company manager Zhang Yuxi () decided to build a market. On May 16, 1988, 15 villagers, led by Zhang, used wire netting to enclose one hectare in Xinfadi Village. They used 150,000 yuan of funding (50,000 each from the district, township, and village) to establish a farmers' market.
Growth
By 1989, the area used by Xinfadi Market grew to 1.7 hectares; in 1992, it grew to nearly 7 ha; and in 1999, it grew to close to 70 ha. In 2003, Xinfadi Village established 19 residential buildings, dubbed "Xinfadi Executive Paradise" (), to provide housing for managers at Xinfadi Market who were from other places. In 2004, businesspeople started to move in.
In 2010, Xinfadi Market occupied 100 hectares, with transactions worth 36 billion RMB. the public health authority temporarily closed the Xinfadi market due to a COVID-19 outbreak. A "wartime mechanism" was put in place.
Mass popular testing at the market in week 20 "detected more than 50 new infections". Tourism to the capital has been curtailed as a result, as well as sporting events. Cai said on 13 June that "We must ponder our pains, draw lessons from it, and always tighten the string of epidemic prevention and control." The authorities, who had been urged by the CCP "to act decisively", had found over the previous two days "confirmed cases and positive infections via nucleic acid testing for two consecutive days" as of the morning of 13 June. Analysis from 40 environmental samples also tested positive for COVID-19. It was reported that workers in the market and local residents were required to undergo PCR testing. People who had been to the market since 30 May must receive COVID-19 tests. Soldiers were seen in full uniform trooping in lock step to control the marketplace.<ref namedt13j/><ref namegtyt/>
Eleven neighbourhoods near the market were put under lockdown to control the outbreak.<ref name"Reuters wartime emergency"/> Officials announced that they would arrange temporary stands to sell fruits and vegetables, so that produce would still be available in Beijing while the market was closed.<ref name"NYT 2020-06-13"/>
Xinfandi Market opened on May 16, 1988. Covering an area of 112 hectares, it is the largest wholesale food market in Beijing and claims to be the largest in Asia, with more than 10,000 workers
History
Background and establishment
Xinfadi Village, where the market is located, was originally named "Xinfendi" (, literally "new grave land"), because in 1958 a graveyard located there was leveled in to create farmland. The area gradually turned into a settlement, and the name was changed to "Xinfadi" (roughly "newly developed land"). The village mainly contains sandy, loamy, brown soil, suitable for planting vegetables.
On May 10, 1985, the Beijing Bureau of Commodity Prices decided to relax control of the prices of seven key agricultural products: pork, beef, mutton, eggs, poultry, marine fish, and vegetables. On May 30, the municipal Party committee and city government convened a vegetable work conference and decided to "revitalize buying and selling" and "allow food from other parts of the country to come into Beijing". As a result, after farmers from near Xinfadi Village handed over the required quantity of vegetables to the government, they began to set up roadside stands to sell the remainder. These stands gradually turned into a street market. Many famers from outside Beijing joined the street market, resulting in disorganized commerce and traffic jams. Local officials repeatedly tried to drive them out, without success, so a member of the Fengtai District Bureau of Industry and Commerce recommended that a wholesale market be established in the village, welcoming the farmers instead of trying to drive them out. Xinfadi Village Vegetable Company manager Zhang Yuxi () decided to build a market. On May 16, 1988, 15 villagers, led by Zhang, used wire netting to enclose one hectare in Xinfadi Village. They used 150,000 yuan of funding (50,000 each from the district, township, and village) to establish a farmers' market.
Growth
By 1989, the area used by Xinfadi Market grew to 1.7 hectares; in 1992, it grew to nearly 7 ha; and in 1999, it grew to close to 70 ha. In 2003, Xinfadi Village established 19 residential buildings, dubbed "Xinfadi Executive Paradise" (), to provide housing for managers at Xinfadi Market who were from other places. In 2004, businesspeople started to move in.
In 2010, Xinfadi Market occupied 100 hectares, with transactions worth 36 billion RMB. the public health authority temporarily closed the Xinfadi market due to a COVID-19 outbreak. A "wartime mechanism" was put in place.
Mass popular testing at the market in week 20 "detected more than 50 new infections". Tourism to the capital has been curtailed as a result, as well as sporting events. Cai said on 13 June that "We must ponder our pains, draw lessons from it, and always tighten the string of epidemic prevention and control." The authorities, who had been urged by the CCP "to act decisively", had found over the previous two days "confirmed cases and positive infections via nucleic acid testing for two consecutive days" as of the morning of 13 June. Analysis from 40 environmental samples also tested positive for COVID-19. It was reported that workers in the market and local residents were required to undergo PCR testing. People who had been to the market since 30 May must receive COVID-19 tests. Soldiers were seen in full uniform trooping in lock step to control the marketplace.<ref namedt13j/><ref namegtyt/>
Eleven neighbourhoods near the market were put under lockdown to control the outbreak.<ref name"Reuters wartime emergency"/> Officials announced that they would arrange temporary stands to sell fruits and vegetables, so that produce would still be available in Beijing while the market was closed.<ref name"NYT 2020-06-13"/>
Comments