Jing'an District a hive of activity in spring
Top economic contributors awarded
Jing'an has recognized 200 top companies for their economic contributions to the district last year.
Gucci, Hermes, L'Oreal, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior – all with Chinese headquarters based in Jing'an – and domestic giants Guotai Junan Securities, Ping An Asset Management and SAIC Finance maintained their positions in the top 10.
SAP and China Railway Shanghai Group were the new entrants into the top 10.
"New faces" in the list include some small businesses, such as Universal Music Publishing (UMP) China's Shanghai office and Shanghai Bosideng Marketing Management Co.
Statistics showed that the district's general public budget revenue grew 3 percent from a year earlier and reached 28.78 billion yuan (US$3.98 billion) in 2023, making it first place in the city's downtown districts.
In a year, the district introduced 156 projects which brought tax revenue of over 10 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 39 percent, and 12 regional headquarters of multinational companies.
Major projects begin construction
Three of the district's major projects with a total investment of more than 2.5 billion yuan began construction this month.
A 2.2-billion-yuan urban renewal project in Zhongxing Community is set to cover a floor area of 34,000 square meters, east to Gognxing Road, south to Yongxing Road, west to Zhabei No. 3 Central Primary School, and north to Xiangshan residential complex.
In three years, one residential high-rise and 10 shikumen (stone gate)-style villas will be built.
By the end of 2025, a rain storage facility will be completed near Daning Park, and a kindergarten will open on Wenshui Road.
Child-friendly reading venues
Shanghai has unveiled the first 20 child-friendly reading venues on the International Children's Book Day on April 2. Two are in Jing'an.
The Caojiadu Subdistrict Children's Library, on the second floor of No. 56 Lane 767 Wanhangdu Road, covers a reading area of over 330 square meters and holds a collection of over 7,000 books. There's an area zoned for comics of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, which has produced a series of popular animations such as "The Monkey King," "Calabash Brothers" and "Shuke and Beita." Beyond reading, the library has organized children's museum visits, traditional Chinese culture experiences and walks along the city's historic roads.
The Children's Reading Area of Linfen Road Subdistrict Library, on the third floor of 181 Baode Road, features a collection of parenting books and provides various family activities.
Free tulips
This spring, hundreds of thousands of tulips have burst out into a rainbow of colors across the district, from parks to roadside corners.
As the tulip season is about to end, the district's greenery authority decided to give 200 bunches of tulips planted in the Jing'an Sculpture Park to residents as a spring gift.
Aesthetic education
Jing'an Culture Center hosted more than 20 themed events on March 30 to celebrate the "City Aesthetic Education Day" of the Shanghai Citizens Art Festival.
Local residents, including some expats, took part in activities such as rooftop yoga, an exhibition of exquisite qipao (cheongsam), and making qingtuan – a glutinous rice ball and traditional snack for the Qingming Festival.
Some "amateur art curators" have been invited to participate in live broadcasts to introduce the cultural events they once initiated and hosted.
They came from all walks of life, and got the chance to organize a series of public cultural activities in the district, such as roadside concerts, family reading salons and learning heritage-listed woodblock printing techniques.
One of them, Huang Dingfeng, a judge, showed visitors around his watercolor landscape paintings on display in an exhibition on the first floor of the center.
The center said such activities are designed to get closer to ordinary people and it works to promote aesthetic education among the public.
Experiencing Chinese culture
Overseas students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University recently visited the Guoxue Pavilion in the Tianmu Road W. Subdistrict to experience traditional Chinese culture.
Guoxue refers to traditional Chinese studies and classics.
As its name suggests, the pavilion, at the subdistrict's community cultural activity center at 150 Hutai Road, is adorned with classic beauty and antique ornaments, and allows visitors to experience traditional Chinese calligraphy, painting, music, chess, tea, incense, poetry and medicine.
At the scene, overseas students put on hanfu (traditional Chinese Han-style attire), learnt about ancient Chinese rituals and experienced a traditional tea ceremony and tasted iconic Longjing green tea.
'First store' guide
Jing'an has released a guide to "first stores" for visitors to experience the best commerce in the district.
The guide includes boutiques, eateries, cafes and flagship stores.
Some of the recently-landed global "first stores" include the first Arc'teryx Museum, Christian Louboutin's first Loubi Family theme space and L'Oreal PRO's first global flagship salon.
Since Jing'an was appointed as one of the city's demonstration areas to launch "first stores" and new products in 2019, the district had introduced 1012 "first stores" by the end of February, including 16 "first stores" globally, 14 in Asia and 156 in China.
