An international beer festival is underway in the Wangfujing Street area, the busiest shopping center in Beijing.

The Third Beijing Wangfujing International Beer Plaza Event features a dozen pavilions exhibiting top brands from home and abroad.

Wangfujing receives up to 400,000 visitors daily on average, but the number of shoppers and tourists often hits up to 800,000 in holidays and festivals. The yearly sales of goods in the area exceeds 3 billion yuan (360 million US dollars).

This year, a series of outdoor exhibitions, covering tourism, automobiles, watermelons, folk customs, and peaches, have also been held.

( Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2002)