Located at Wangfujing Street in downtown Beijing, the F1 tie-in store is opened on Friday, showing to local racing fans with a good deal of F1 products ranging from clothes, car models, banners , games, cosmetics to souvenirs.

Zhang Yan, general manager of the store, told china.org.cn that there are so many racing fans in China who are crazy about the inaugural China GP, that all 150,000 tickets in nine classes had been sold out for the Shanghai race. What's worth noticing is that among the US$36 million of total ticket revenue, one third or more were bought by Beijing fans. Zhang Yan is obviously happy with the great market potential saying that before these fans come to Shanghai to see the race or after, they may visit his store to buy these interesting products.
 
Actually, selling spin-offs is only a small part of what China would benefit from the F1 race. With the great pulling power associated with the event, other industrial opportunities can also be slotted in including car sales.

Auto production in China exceeded 2 million vehicles in 2003 and is expected to reach 4.5 million in 2006. Now the country is believed to have a potential car-buyer group with a population over 100 million. "China with 1.3 billion people who for the first time are coming into contact with formula One will have a bright future in this regard," said BMW motors port head Mario. According to him. This year BMW will sell about 50 cars in China and the goal for 2005 is 100.

Jaguar of Ford began its marketing in China this year with the first 20 buyers promised that they would have heir names put on the grand prix car.

The seven-year contract to host Formula One has made China a vast untapped market for the sports' sponsors.

Apparently, F1 will be an opportunity for other sectors in China. Statistics from the Shanghai tourist agencies show that the 3-day event is expected to bring over 150,000 spectators, with 30 percent from Shanghai, 55 percent other provinces and 20 percent abroad. With an ambitious plan in mind Shanghai city will invest huge sum to build a racing park. The city management is also expecting that the sport event may help promote Shanghai as the GP racing will be seen by estimated 300 million TV audience all over the world.

China F1 GP Timetable:

Friday 24 September   
  11:00-12:00   Friday Practice 1
  14:00-15:00   Friday Practice 2
    
Saturday 25 September   
  09:00-09:45   Saturday Practice 1
  10:15-11:00   Saturday Practice 2
  13:00   Saturday Pre-Qual
  14:00   Saturday Qualifying
     
Sunday 26 September   
  14:00   Race

(China.org.cn by Li Xiao September 24, 2004)