Shanghai ranks top for coming alive when sun goes down

The street bustles during a night market in Shanghai's Songjiang district on Saturday. YIN LIQIN/CHINA NEWS SERVICE

Shanghai's nighttime economy continues to rank first among Chinese cities in terms of comprehensive strength, financial media outlet Yicai announced last Wednesday during the 24-Hour City of Vibrance Forum held at the Museum of Art Pudong.

Yicai compiled a ranking of 337 cities based on six dimensions including night outings, bars, live houses, movies, lighting and public transportation, and Shanghai performed exceptionally well in all categories last year.

According to Zhao Jia, deputy editor-in-chief of Yicai, Shanghai excels in lighting intensity at night and the number of live houses, securing the top spot in the list of cities. Additionally, Shanghai has the second-highest number of bars after Chengdu, Sichuan province, and its nighttime bus services are second only to Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

Zhao further revealed that last year an average of 1.77 million people went out at night daily in Shanghai. The city boasted around 2,300 bars, 140 live houses, and screened approximately 135,700 movies.

Continuing its remarkable performance from 2021, Shanghai maintains the top position in the comprehensive strength index of the nighttime economy, followed by Beijing and Shenzhen, according to Zhao.

In addition to Yicai's report, the conference recognized and awarded 32 best-practice cases from the 2023 Shanghai Night Festival, which began on June 3.

Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Commission of Commerce, stated that nighttime expenditure had reached 42.7 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) as of June 25.Particularly during the first week of the night festival, nighttime consumption constituted 30 percent of the day's total expenditure, reaching its highest point in the past three years.

Data from on-demand service platform Meituan indicated a 75 percent increase in dine-in consumption at restaurants during the night festival compared to the same period in 2021. Nighttime bar consumption experienced a 73-percent rise, while sports and fitness consumption surged by 90 percent.

Liu highlighted that the city launched over 200 activities for the fourth Shanghai Night Festival, generating over 1 billion exposures on the short-video platform Douyin, ranking first on the city's topic list.

Liu emphasized that the night festival has become a vital platform for showcasing the vibrancy of Shanghai's nightlife.

Furthermore, Liu announced that the city now boasts 16 nighttime district governors and over 130 nightlife CEOs, who aim to promote Shanghai's nighttime economy across various fields and industries. The first Shanghai Nightlife CEO Council was formed by nearly 30 representative enterprises from business, culture, tourism, sports and other sectors, such as Bailian Group, UCCA Edge, Dark Runners and Yu Garden.

According to Liu, this council holds significant importance in fostering cross-border cooperation, enhancing collaborative governance and promoting the high-quality development of Shanghai's nighttime economy.

"Although the epidemic impacted Shanghai's nighttime economy, the city continues to show innovation vitality and development resilience during the night," Liu said. "The entrepreneurial spirit of nightlife CEOs is what has made Night Shanghai a symbol of the city."

Looking ahead, Liu added that the council will strive to attract more representatives from cross-border enterprises in various nighttime economy fields, facilitating Shanghai's evolution into a leading, inclusive, diversified, high-quality and sustainable "24-hour vibrancy demonstration city".