Beijing's municipal tourism bureau has issued a plan that will create three new exhibition zones in the downtown areas of Dongcheng and Xicheng districts; Chaoyang and Haidian districts; and Shunyi.

Beijing currently has 12 conference and exhibition halls, with a total floor space 237,000 sqm.

Local media reports that Beijing will complete construction of the three conference centers by 2010. These include a 30,000 sqm conference center in the Olympic Park in north Beijing, a 200,000 sqm exhibition hall in Shunyi and a 100,000 sqm exhibition hall in the eastern part of the city.

Beijing hosted 174,000 conferences and 2,367 exhibitions last year.