Beijing's Xiushui Market, better known as the Silk Street market, has set up an Intellectual Property Rights Protection Fund in a bid to crack down on counterfeit goods.

The 30-million-yuan fund comes from revenues collected from the market's tenants, the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the first group of 30 vendors at the popular tourist shopping haunt received a total 10 million yuan in rent refunds from the market as a reward for respecting IPR protection laws last year.

General manager Wang Zili said Xiushui market would endeavor to gradually improve its images.

Xiushui has two main markets: one selling traditional goods such as silk and tea mainly to overseas customers, and the other selling fashionable clothes and ornaments mainly to domestic customers.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2006)