Art shop owners in Beijing have vowed to stop selling phony art works in a move to bring in more customers.

Wang Xingjia, a senior staff member from the Rongbaozhai Art Shop, said that fake art works, mostly traditional Chinese calligraphy and paintings, used to sell for outrageous prices, but in recent years more and more shop owners have complained that fake art works have damaged their sales volume.

The prominent Rongbaozhai is one of the dozens of art shops in downtown Beijing's Liulichang Street, where most of the city's art and curio shops have been located for the past 400 years.

"During the past four to five years, with the strengthening of a sound market and the improvement of people's cultural taste, fakes have seriously damaged the reputation of Liulichang Street," Wang said.

"The business of the art and curio shops in Liulichang Street has reduced sharply in recent years due to the negative influence of fakes," he added.

According to Cheng Maoquan, general manager of the Hongbaotang Art Shop, situated at the entrance of Liulichang, the drop in business can only be controlled by putting an end to fakes.

Not long ago, Cheng sponsored an exhibition of vertically-hung traditional Chinese paintings in Liulichang. On the first day of the show, 50,000 yuan-worth of paintings were sold, which drew the admiration of other shop owners along the street.

"I assured the buyers that all the paintings are genuine, this is the only reason for my success," said Cheng, who grew up in a family of artists.

The selling of fake art works in Liulichang has also drawn much attention from the public. A professor who visits the street frequently said that the existence of fakes will have a huge negative impact on the country's image, since Liulichang has become one of the major channels for the outsiders to understand Beijing and its culture.

The professor suggested that the government formulate more severe rules to eliminate fakes.