Chongqing - At the On-site Promotion Conference on the Renovation and Upgrading of Pedestrian Streets Across the Country held in Nanjing on July 23, the Ministry of Commerce presented plaques to the first batch of five national exemplary pedestrian streets including Chongqing Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street. Why can Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street get the distinction?

Jiefangbei CBD in Chongqing, China.

Now, Jiefangbei Pedestrian Street is home to nearly 40 over-10,000-square-meter commercial facilities, with their combined area reaching up to 2.07 million square meters. Among others, commercial establishments such as Bayi Square, PARK108, Metropolitan Oriental Plaza and Chongqing Department Store have seen the emergence of new elements such as sports, fashion, and leisure in addition to original traditional business formats through the "second upgrading"; traditional stores like Gucci, Qianye Optical Chains and McDonald have completed the transformation towards new business formats and models such as experience store, crossover store and concept store.

As the core of the "mother town" Yuzhong District, Jiefangbei Area boasts excellent historical and cultural richness and houses a dazzling array of urban landmarks. Notably, there are 14 key national cultural relic preservation units, such as Chongqing People's Liberation Monument, Former Site of China-UK Liaison Office, and Ba Manzi Tomb. In addition to historical and cultural heritage, there are also about 20 scenic attractions such as Hongya Cave and Yangtze River Cableway, and a batch of large public cultural facilities and municipal art troupes such as Chongqing Guotai Arts Center and Chongqing Municipal Peking Opera Troupe.

An abundance of high-rise buildings has given Yuzhong District a strength in developing high-rise business formats. By depending on high-rise buildings, the district has created characteristic consumption scenarios and innovated high-rise economic development. For example, Chongqing Raffles and Chongqing World Financial Centre have rolled out air sightseeing project, and the Westin Chongqing Liberation Square and other high-rise buildings have launched a series of characteristic high-rise consumption scenarios such as infinity pool, fine dining, and private home dining. The high-rise economy centered around Jiefangbei has started to take shape.