West Bund in fast lane with mobile food vans
A coffee truck
Four food trucks and container shops have been set up along Huangpu River in Xuhui District's West Bund area to meet the demands of residents and tourists.
They serve coffee, ice-cream and light meals.
These food trucks and containers are placed near the Long Museum and Start Museum in the West Bund area.
In May, another six such food trucks and containers will be placed in riverfront areas, with more to come.
An ice-cream truck
"There will be more catering options such as cakes, hamburgers and even roujiamo, the Chinese-style burger, from these facilities in the future," according to Gan Jin, with Shanghai West Bund Development (Group) Co Ltd.
"Cafes are the top option as the West Bund features a laid-back, exquisite and artistic lifestyle."
According to Gan, it can take up to an hour to buy a coffee from conventional cafes during busy time.
"There are many young people, sports buffs, families with children, and those bringing pets here, and we hope they can have a pleasant and comfortable experience while enjoying the beautiful riverfront scenery, touring art exhibitions and savoring some delicacies," Gan added.
A container shop serving ice cream
"We selected locations with the most visitors or no catering facilities and will increase spots to place these facilities in the future," she said. "The food choice is based on our survey of residents and tourists."
One of the containers is placed at the skateboard park. A location near a basketball court is a potential future option.
A Starbucks food van
Meanwhile, some idle art installations and riverside buildings have been opened to the public as supplementary commercial supporting facilities to satisfy the demand of residents and tourists for light meals, tea houses and minsu (the Chinese version of B&B).
"We plan to further improve the layout of commercial facilities along the river and open more supporting facilities in the area to introduce more innovative businesses, thus providing more diversified services to residents and tourists as well as boosting consumption," Gan said.
An art installation turned into a catering facility
Behind these food trucks and containers are the efforts of market regulators in Xuhui.
"It is a breakthrough of current policy, and the aim is to satisfy the demand of residents and tourists while safeguarding food safety at the same time," said Wu Jianguo, deputy director of Xuhui District Food and Drug Safety Office, on Friday.
Because the business venue of these food trucks and containers is temporary, they confronted the difficulty of entry thresholds for food businesses.
To tackle the problem, the district's market regulators marked an address number for these facilities.
A container serving ice cream.
Moreover, a guideline was worked out for small catering businesses in public open spaces along the river in Xuhui to safeguard safety.
The guideline covers everything from the qualification of food operators and location, to hardware facilities and food processing and operation.
It rules the business scope of these facilities.
Foods with high risks are banned, and operators of food trucks and containers should have a complete supply channel, standard operating procedures and complaint handling channel.
An art installing turned into a catering facility
For example, fresh-squeezed juice is not allowed for these food trucks and containers.
Ice cream made by machines is allowed, while manual made ice cream is banned.
"We will also enhance supervision and management on these facilities," said Wu.
A worker surnamed Chen, with newly opened container serving ice cream, said the shop could sell more than 100 boxes of ice cream on a sunny weekend.
