This Day, That Year

Item from Aug 3, 1997, in China Daily: A Beijing resident selects clothing at a department store run by the high-end French retailer Galeries Lafayette. The central government has approved 16 foreign-funded ventures as the country gradually opens up its retail sector.

Major department stores are cashing in on China's insatiable appetite for foreign products.

Galeries Lafayette returned to the capital in 2013, 15 years after the French retailer closed its only store in Beijing due to poor sales.