Pedestrian mall's extension ready to open
Preparations for the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall extension on Friday.
A sanitation worker cleans the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall on Friday.
People tour Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall on Friday.
The extension of the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall will open to residents and tourists on Saturday, coinciding with the opening of the 31st Shanghai Tourism Festival.
The extended section spans 500 meters. As part of the festival’s opening ceremony, street lamps on the extension between Henan Road M. and the Bund will be illuminated one after another to commemorate China's first electric street lamp.
The first lamp was illuminated on Jiangxi and Nanjing roads by the Shanghai Electric Company on July 26, 1882, marking the beginning of the city's modern development. A lamp in the same style has been erected on the original site.
Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall has been decorated with banners for the Shanghai Tourism Festival.
Sanitation workers clean Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall on Friday.
Preparations for the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall extension are in their final stages on Friday.
Some cultural, business and tourist venues on the street will open to midnight on Saturday to mark the opening of the festival, the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism announced earlier.
The opening ceremony will be held at the pedestrian mall at 7:30pm on Saturday, during which a "cloud tourism" platform for the festival will be launched.
The ceremony will last 20 minutes and officially mark the opening of the east extension of Nanjing Road E., originally built in 1851 as one of the city's first modern roads at the time.
The Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall is decorated with display banners for the Shanghai Tourism Festival launch on Saturday.
A sanitation worker cleans Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall on Friday.
