Symbol of the old ways may have had its day

Beijing's Yabao Road has seen better days. The forlorn cluster of shops off the second ring road bearing Russian signs was once bustling with traders from Russia and Eastern Europe, but is finding business tough.

Today, China is supporting Russia's application to enter the World Trade Organisation and its efforts to build a trading system based on international rules and embracing openness, transparency and predictability - just the opposite of the way business is conducted on Yabao Road.

The market there flourished in the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union, when rigidly structured bilateral trade suddenly gave way to the unfettered wheeling and dealing of private entrepreneurs. Russian traders came by rail from Siberia to buy inexpensive garments for sale to customers back home who could not afford better-quality goods.

In its heyday, around 1993, the average shop on Yabao Road had turnover of 20 million yuan a year.

Much of that trade was done through so-called grey customs clearances, which allowed customs clearance companies in Russia to provide a one-stop customs service for a planeload of cargo.

Trading companies tried to maximise profits by overloading the chartered aircraft, resulting in a number of crashes.

Business losses as a result of official seizures, defaults and hazards in transit are commonplace, and the surviving companies know that business on Yabao Road is not for the faint-hearted.