Foreigners and young Beijingers looking for a night out in the Chinese capital will soon have more to enjoy than just drinking and dancing in the city's famous Sanlitun pub street.

A daytime scene from Sanlitun South Street, a resort for Beijing bar-goers. [baidu] 

The Beijing Municipal Government has recently decided to enlarge and enrich the street's amenities so that visitors will also have easy access to more vivid and colorful recreation centers, such as gymnasiums, shopping malls, cinemas and even a pond.

A new Sanlitun street, covering an area of more than 50,000 square meters, will be established across the street from the pub street. All the buildings on either side of the new street will be four-storied and not higher than 18 meters.

The old Sanlitun street is near 68 foreign missions in one of Beijing's two main embassy districts and its first pub moved in in 1989 and by 1998 it had been followed by more than 80 pubs. The street became a place where people from around the world as well as young Beijingers could drink, sing, dance and chat.

In 2002, the year when latest statistics are available for, the pubs on the street had a total annual sales revenue of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.23 million).

(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2005)