消费赋予城市发展新面貌 - 2026-07-29

China's economy is changing in ways that conventional indicators only partly capture. In the first half of 2026, services value accounted for 59.5 percent of GDP, while per capita services made up 49.1 percent of household consumption expenditure.

These figures suggest that Chinese consumers are moving beyond buying more goods to seeking higher-quality services, richer experiences and a higher quality of life.

This change is visible across major cities. Cafés have increasingly become workplaces and meeting spots. Markets and restaurants draw evening crowds. Concerts, sporting events and nighttime businesses keep urban districts lively long after sunset.

Social media inspires people to travel across cities for a meal, a football match or a favorite singer. Service consumption is reshaping the growth of China's economy.

For decades, cities competed primarily through production, with local governments focusing on factories, infrastructure and industrial investment. While those priorities remain important, they are no longer enough.

As incomes rise, the service economy expands and digital technologies become embedded in everyday life, cities must answer new questions: Who wants to come? Why do they stay? And how can a brief visit become a longer-term connection — or even a decision to settle? The growing appeal of cities such as Chengdu, Hangzhou and Changsha among young people suggests that these questions are increasingly defining urban competitiveness.

Population density is often seen as the cause of congestion and pressure on public services. Yet density also creates larger markets, more diverse demand and closer connections between consumers and providers.

It enables independent bookstores, artisan markets or pet photography studios to survive. A niche interest that cannot support a business in a small town may flourish in a large city because enough people share it. Behind the concentration of shops lies a concentration of people, preferences and everyday interactions.

Consumption spaces also need to be viewed differently. Cities have traditionally valued places where people live and work and paid less attention to where they gather, socialize and spend. Yet these spaces increasingly generate innovation as well as consumption.

Shanghai's "Silicon Alley" in Changning district illustrates the point. Cafés there are not merely places to buy coffee; they have become informal meeting points where entrepreneurs, researchers, investors and public officials exchange ideas.

In today's service economy, the boundary between production and consumption is getting blurred. A cup of coffee may also create the conditions for a new partnership or business venture, even if that value never appears in the café's accounts.

Governance should also evolve from merely regulating consumption to enabling it. Public authorities rightly prioritize safety, sanitation and order. Those responsibilities remain essential. But cities focused only on preventing problems may be suppressing vitality. Building a thriving consumer economy requires more than short-term measures such as shopping vouchers or trade-in subsidies. It requires creating an environment in which new businesses and new forms of consumption can flourish.

Shanghai's Sijing Night Market offers a useful example. Rather than choosing between shutting the market down or allowing disorder to continue, local authorities redefined responsibilities.

The government established clear rules, professional operators managed daily operations and vendors participated in maintaining the rules.

The result was a vibrant marketplace with more effective governance. Successful urban management is not about eliminating street life but making it sustainable.

Online platforms have changed the way people explore cities. They help consumers search, compare and make purchase decisions, but they cannot replicate the experience of being somewhere. The barbecue boom in Zibo, Shandong province, demonstrated this vividly.

Social media first attracted national attention, but visitors recommended the city because of what they experienced after arriving: lively streets, genuine hospitality and a local government that delivered on its promises. The internet made Zibo visible; the city itself made it memorable.

The same logic applies more broadly. Digital platforms increase efficiency, but successful services still depend on real concentrations of people. Large concerts now draw substantial numbers of visitors from other cities. Technology lowers the cost of finding events and arranging travel, yet consumption happens only when people choose to make the journey.

In the industrial era, cities competed for factories and output. Today they compete for visitors, attention and tourist time. Jiangsu's hugely popular intercity football league is a telling example. Host cities have linked matches with tourism, dining, shopping and public events so that spectators become customers across the local economy.

The value of a ticket lies not only in admission revenue but also in the spending generated across hotels, restaurants, transportation and entertainment.

The real challenge is not attracting a surge of visitors for one event but turning a single visit into a longer stay and, ultimately, a return trip.

The metrics by which cities are judged should evolve accordingly. Investment, industrial output and tax revenue will remain important, but they no longer tell the whole story. Equally important are questions such as how many people choose to visit, how long they remain and whether they want to come back.

A successful consumer city is built on abundant services, welcoming public spaces, open markets and governance that is both effective and people-centered. Online attention may create a moment of popularity, but only consistently good experiences, reliable services and thoughtful long-term management can transform short-lived traffic into lasting growth.

Source: China Daily