Capital targets role as global consumption center

Slew of policies and upgrades to increase consumer gain

Beijing is striving to build itself into an international consumption center with global influence as the capital's consumer goods market continues to recover under the regular and targeted epidemic prevention and control measures.

Data from the Beijing Bureau of Commerce show a total of 22 traditional business districts such as Wangfujing have fundamentally completed the upgrading and transformation.

In 2021, the city attracted 901 first stores of global brands and established six new consumer brand pilot bases.

There are 90,000 basic convenience commercial outlets in the city, realizing the full coverage of community commercial services. The average number of chain convenience stores per million people increased from 282 in 2020 to 310.

From January to November 2021, the sales of key enterprises in Beijing increased by 10.8 percent compared with the same period in 2019, and the passenger flow of key business districts increased by 15.16 percent year-on-year. The city's total consumption, service, and retail sales increased by 13.1 percent, 15.5 percent, and 10.4 percent year-on-year.

On July 19, since the State Council approved five cities including Beijing to develop international consumption centers, the capital has launched 10 special projects and 17 regional schemes.

Bai Ming, deputy director of international market research at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said Beijing leads the country in the fields of science and technology, education, culture, and medical care, and service consumption accounts for a high proportion of the city's total consumption.

"Road and rail traffic radiates across the country, there are many international flights and international personnel exchanges, and it has a good foundation for high-end consumption. These are the outstanding advantages of Beijing.

"To build Beijing into an international consumption center, we must give full play to the influence of Beijing itself and become a leader in the new consumption field," he said.

Liu Bin, deputy director of the Beijing Bureau of Culture and Tourism, said that in the cultural tourism industry, Beijing has launched 10 global theme park tourism routes and more than 200 themed tour zones around the Central Axis, the Grand Canal Cultural Belt, the Great Wall Cultural Belt and the Xishan Yongding River Cultural Belt.

In addition, the city has opened up regional routes such as the 40-kilometer cruise along the Tongzhou section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, a boutique homestay and cycling slow-tour system at the foot of the Great Wall and ancient town sightseeing.

It has released nearly 200 fashionable and modern cultural and tourism consumption sites, as well as the Beijing Red tourism map for the first time.

Meng Qianghua, deputy director of the Beijing Sports Bureau, said the city should make good use of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to guide and promote ice and snow consumption.

The capital will launch 60 municipal-level sports tourism boutique projects with more than 16,000 market players.

Since January, Beijing has issued more than 46,500 ice and snow experience coupons.

During the Spring Festival holiday, 54 ice and snow venues were opened, receiving 740,000 visitors, a year-on-year increase of 253 percent.

To improve the service consumption experience, Beijing's financial service of digital renminbi has landed on 403,000 Winter Olympics scenes, released the 2022 Beijing Ice and Snow Consumption Map, and launched 22 Beijing ice and snow theme tour routes and 10 Spring Festival fashion travel routes in the Year of the Tiger.

The overall consumer market has recovered to the pre-epidemic level in 2019.

At the same time, Beijing has renovated and upgraded traditional business districts. Xidan business district has fully upgraded its digital business sales model; Chaoyang Liangma River has opened water routes to create a waterside night economy; the opening of the first phase of Universal Beijing Resort has led to substantial growth in the surrounding accommodation and catering industries; Wangfujing was rated as a National Demonstration Pedestrian Street last year.

Since the 1990s, Wangfujing has undergone developments five times, forming a block-style development pattern with pedestrian streets as the core and the Golden Cross as the framework, radiating 1.66 square kilometers. In the wave of the new national tide, it has also begun to get involved in the field of short videos.

It has introduced new brands and created a variety of short videos for new customers.

The street also set up a Pingguo bureau in 2019, which is an authentic restoration of the past century, a new check-in place for the younger generation and a new landmark in the business district.

The Wangfujing district management committee stated that it is setting up a special class for the Golden Triangle of Culture.

In the future, the street will strengthen linkage between the Forbidden City, Wangfujing and Longfusi neighborhoods to promote the integration of Beijing's local customs, consumer culture and art.

Since 2021, a number of traditional shopping malls in Beijing have been upgraded. Six of the 111 key projects have been implemented. For example, Xidan 77th Street has been upgraded to Xidan Renewal Market; others include Shoukai Longhu Xiyuetian Street, Shouchuang Longhu Lizetian Street, Meikedong Academy and Jinhai Lake International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Zhao Wenzhe, deputy dean of the School of Economics at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that the international consumption center is an important means to promote the development pattern of domestic and international dual circulation as the main body.

"Central cities have unique advantages in absorbing resources and agglomerating commodity services, so they have a demonstration, leading and driving role in the process of new urbanization," he said.

Guo Xinmei, a professor at the School of Economics of Beijing Technology and Business University, said in recent years, the country has been using consumption to drive economic growth, especially the emergence of new types of consumption. The introduction of such a policy is to encourage urban consumption, seek new consumption growth points, and then drive economic growth.

Wang Wei, director of the Institute of Market Economy of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that international consumption center cities are advanced forms of domestic consumption market upgrades, which can gather new consumption resources and further cultivate and strengthen their ability to drive wider consumption.