Beijing's Xicheng district authority has denied media reports that the Beijing Zoo Wholesale Market will be relocated to Langfang, Hebei province, Beijing Times reported.

China Business Journal reported the news on Wednesday. The report also said the governments of Langfang and Beijing's Xicheng district would sign a contract on the relocation on Thursday morning.

Beijing Times, however, reported that Xicheng district denied the report on Wednesday evening and said only a framework agreement will be signed and the Beijing Zoo Wholesale Market will not be included.

Xicheng district government announced early this year that Beijing Zoo Wholesale Market, the largest clothing wholesale distribution center in northern China, will be relocated but no timeline was set.

With a business area of more than 300,000 square meters and 13,000 stalls, the market is made up of at least six smaller wholesale markets — Dongding, Zhonghe, Tianhaocheng, Shijitianle, Tianle and Jinkailide — all managed by different companies.

The market, which lies within the Second Ring Road and dates back to the 1980s, receives about 100,000 shoppers a day and generates an annual trading volume of more than 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion). More than 30,000 people work there.

Some experts told China Daily earlier that the relocation of the market is possibly related to Beijing's plan to reduce the capital's population density.

According to data published by Beijing's bureau of statistics, as of the end of 2012, the permanent population in the capital had reached 20.69 million, far exceeding the planned target of 18 million by 2020.

Beijing saw its population increase by 6.37 million people from 2000 to 2011 and three-fourths of the increase is from a floating population.