Tech, Fashion and Design Stores Set Up Shop
on Nanjing Rd W.
Nanjing Road W., one of Shanghai's busiest shopping districts, is seeing new tech, culture, fashion, and home design stores.
September 28 saw the first 2026 NSW Tech & Culture Innovation Festival open with live music, robot martial arts, and a human-machine dance performance. Running through October 7, the festival brought events to the Shanghai Exhibition Center, Jing'an Park, Wujiang Road, Reel Mall and other venues.
Over 20 technology companies participated in Jing'an's first AI-themed street market on Yongyuan Road, where visitors could watch robots make coffee, interact with robotic displays, and hear AI-generated music. The festival included street performances and a bus parade that turned Jing'an Park into an open-air stage in the evening.
On September 28, JD.com opened 101HOME near Jing'an Temple. The four-story, roughly 10,000-square-meter space brings together more than 300 home and design brands, including more than 30 making their China debut. It also houses Juanzong Books, Kyoto Here Cafe's first store in China, and New York streetwear brand Devine'r.
International fashion labels are expanding in the district. The Los Angeles lifestyle brand ALO is opening eight stores in seven Chinese cities, including two in Jing'an. One opened in Zhangyuan on September 28, and HKRI Taikoo Hui will soon have a flagship. NikeSKIMS opened its first Chinese experience space at HKRI Taikoo Hui, which will stay open until February 2027.
Jing'an has spent years building the commercial and cultural infrastructure to attract international brands and new product launches, resulting in a cluster of new openings.
Around Nanjing Road W., landmarks including Plaza 66, HKRI Taikoo Hui and Zhangyuan offer a range of settings, from large flagship stores to pop-ups, exhibitions and public events.
The district has also streamlined customs clearance and product launches and offered site selection, regulatory approvals, legal, accounting, and consulting services to companies entering the Chinese market.
A Zhangyuan bonded warehouse model and other measures aim to speed up and lower the cost of introducing new international products to Chinese consumers.
Artificial intelligence, audiovisual production, and digital content businesses support the area's economy. That allows brands to combine retail with technology, culture, and entertainment, expanding Nanjing Road W.'s role beyond shopping.
Jing'an Comes Alive
During National Day Holiday
Jing'an drew large crowds during the National Day holiday, as cultural events, new stores and shopping promotions brought visitors to streets, parks and commercial centers across the district.
Tourist attractions in the district recorded 339,100 visits during the seven-day holiday from October 1 to 7. Daily traffic peaked at 56,800 on October 5, up 19.83 percent from a year earlier.
Average occupancy at star-rated hotels was 70.4 percent, while inbound travelers accounted for an average of 23.87 percent of overnight guests. The district's 11 theaters staged 105 performances of 25 productions, drawing nearly 50,000 people.
The International Audio-Visual Arts Carnival was one of the main attractions, bringing performances, art installations and interactive experiences to parks, historic streets, shopping areas and waterfront spaces.
In Jing'an Park and Zhangyuan, large retro radio installations anchored the festivities. Event guides, audio-visual activities, robot-made coffee, and themed ice cream were available. Zhangyuan hosted unplugged concerts, robot fashion shows, swing dancing, and outdoor mixed-reality screenings.
Light shows and interactive installations were staged along Nanjing Road W., in Suhe Bay and in Daning. Along Suzhou Creek, an official second venue for the Rolex Shanghai Masters, themed buses and sightseeing boats brought the tournament into the waterfront setting.
Retail sales also picked up during the holiday. From October 1 to 6, the district's monitoring of 35 major commercial businesses revealed a 16.35 percent year-on-year increase in sales. Jing'an issued consumer vouchers and distributed more than 10,000 holiday spending wristbands through its "Huanxianghai Go" mini program, offering promotions at more than 1,000 local merchants.
New stores, pop-ups and exhibitions also drew shoppers, particularly along Nanjing Road W. NikeSKIMS opened a pop-up at HKRI Taikoo Hui, while Los Angeles-based lifestyle brand ALO opened a store at Zhangyuan ahead of the planned launch of its flagship at HKRI Taikoo Hui. Exhibitions featuring Chiikawa and Vision Street Wear also took place during the holiday.
At HKRI Taikoo Hui, daily visitor numbers approached 80,000, and sales rose about 15 percent year on year. Zhangyuan and Maoming Road N. together drew more than 80,000 visitors in a day, while sales at Zhangyuan peaked 200 percent above the same period last year.
Jing'an Joy City in Suhe Bay hosted eight IP-themed pop-ups and interactive attractions, with daily foot traffic exceeding 100,000. In Daning, outdoor concerts, a music fountain and a seasonal fair at Daning Park attracted families and younger visitors. Jiuguang Center held a dessert festival featuring more than 40 brands from China and abroad, along with activities for journaling enthusiasts.
Jing'an Builds On Its Role
As A Financial Hub
Invest Jing'an
This new column highlights Jing'an's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) achievements, including a better business environment, competitive industries and thriving emerging sectors. It also highlights the district's efforts to develop key industrial clusters and the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) to create a modern industrial system with a (3+3) + (1+3+X) framework. The "Invest Jing'an" section highlights the district's efforts in this area.
More than 100 financial professionals from China and overseas attended the Global Asset Management Forum·2026 Shanghai Suhewan Conference in Jing'an this month.
Held at the Shanghai Exhibition Center on October 16 and 17, the conference brought together financial executives, investors and other industry professionals to discuss the opening of China's financial sector, artificial intelligence and asset management, and investment and trade in a changing global economy.
Participants also launched an initiative to develop a shared computing platform for financial institutions. The platform lets institutions share computing resources to lower computing infrastructure costs and accelerate financial industry AI adoption.
The Suhewan Conference, now in its seventh year, brings together financial institutions, investors, technology companies, and industrial groups to discuss new investment and business opportunities.
During China's 14th Five-Year Plan period from 2021 to 2025, the value added of Jing'an's financial sector grew at an average annual rate of 6.8 percent to nearly 60 billion yuan (US$8.4 billion), according to local authorities.
The district has attracted a growing mix of domestic and international financial institutions, including AllianceBernstein, Schroders Bank of Communications Wealth Management, and True Light (Shanghai) Private Equity.
The Nanjing Road W. area, home to Jing'an Kerry Center, Plaza 66 and HKRI Taikoo Hui, has also emerged as a major private equity hub. More than 100 yuan- and dollar-denominated funds operate in the area, where major investment and M&A deals are negotiated and completed.
A broader financial ecosystem
For financial institutions, Jing'an's appeal lies in three areas in particular: capital-market services, asset management and private equity investment.
It has expanded financial services for companies across their growth cycle, from early-stage financing to preparations for public listings. Since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan, 12 companies in the district have been newly listed or admitted to trading, including the first Jing'an companies to list on the Shanghai STAR Market.
State-backed capital is also helping the district attract private investment in emerging industries. Local authorities say its state-owned investment platforms have invested in nearly 40 funds and projects with 5 billion yuan in committed capital, attracting nearly 66 billion yuan in private capital.
Large language models, open-source AI ecosystems, blockchain, and other emerging industries have received investment beyond domestic graphics processing units and embodied AI.
Private equity activity has also remained strong. In the first three quarters of this year, Jing'an received applications for 42 new funds with a combined target size of about 7.4 billion yuan, according to local authorities. Both were records for the district.
Cross-border business is another area of growth. As Chinese companies expand overseas, demand is rising for cross-border financing, overseas investment, global cash management and related professional services. International investors are also paying closer attention to opportunities in yuan-denominated assets.
Jing'an has stepped up international outreach this year, including exchanges with businesses and investors in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and New York. The district is expanding services for overseas investment and cross-border fund management through mechanisms including free-trade accounts and overseas direct investment accounts.
It is also creating a taxation, legal, and HR one-stop platform for international companies. The first cross-border data service center in central Shanghai helps companies comply with data-compliance requirements across markets.
（资料：区新闻办、上海日报）
