The 2021 Chongqing Nightlife Festival with the theme of "Love for Fashionable Chongqing · Life in Sleepless Night" was officially opened at downtown Chongqing on July 22.
The citizens and tourists enjoy the start of the 2021 Chongqing Nightlife Festival at Guanyinqiao Pedestrian Street, Jiangbei District, Chongqing. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
According to the unique terrain of Chongqing, the sponsor erected an eight-dimensional stage. Supported by the light-shadow technologies for three-dimensional creative videos, a staggering conceptual video officially opened the event.
Chongqing is a newly selected city in the first batch to build an international consumption center, so its nighttime economy has gained much attention. Attendees of the opening ceremony included heads of the commercial departments and relevant project representatives from more than ten sister cities of Chongqing like Changsha, Chengdu, and Kunming, experts in the nighttime economy industry from across the country, and representatives of Hong Kong-Chongqing-Taiwan Youth Exchange Promotion Association, as well as representatives of Tencent, Alibaba, and many other enterprises.
Zhang Zhikui, director of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce, introduced that the building of Chongqing as a national pilot city for opening the service industry wider was approved this year. Chongqing is also one of the first five cities to develop and construct an international consumption center, which has brought significant development opportunities to the city and added new driving forces to its development.
"In recent years, Chongqing has stepped up its efforts to build an international consumption center and has striven to build a famous city of international shopping, food, exhibition, culture, and tourism. As it develops into a world-famous and reputed city with a developed business, convenient transportation, and high consumer satisfaction, the consumer market keeps a good momentum of steady growth," said Zhang.
He also mentioned in 2020, Chongqing's total retail sales of social consumer goods amounted to 1.18 trillion yuan, ranking fourth in the country in terms of growth rate. In the first half of this year, Chongqing's total retail sales of social consumer goods registered a year-on-year growth of 29.9%, 6.9 percentage points higher than the national average.
The opening ceremony of the 2021 Nightlife festival was held on July 22. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
In the next step, Chongqing will make every effort to grow into a new pacesetter for consumption upgrading, continuously enhance its influence and leading role, and accelerate the construction of an international consumption center with global influence and good reputation.
Zhang Yujun, the 2nd Level Inspector of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce of China, said that the 2021 Chongqing Nightlife Festival is one of the key programs of China's Consumption Promotion Month campaign.
Zhang added, "through characteristic activities integrating business, tourism, culture, and sports, we will forge new focuses of night consumption, implement the people-centered development concept, and satisfy the people's desires for a better life with better products, better services, and a better environment."
During the opening activity, a theme exhibition of "Five Nights" was held at the Guanyinqiao Pedestrian Street, i.e., the interaction and display activities of food tasting, healthcare, viewing, amusement, and shopping.
The exhibition area of Yongchuan District shows consumers the vitality of Chongqing's night economy. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
In addition, the exhibition area of district-level and county-level night economy projects gathered the representative projects of the Liangjiang New Area, Yuzhong District, Shapingba District, and other clusters of regional night economy. Through exhibitions and interactive experiences, it showed consumers the vitality of Chongqing's night economy.