Events across Beijing to enhance consumer experience this year

An actor and actress stage a performance at Universal Beijing Resort where the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Consumption Season takes place on March 1.

More than 10,000 stores sign up to Consumption Season promotions

The 2022 Beijing Consumption Season project, which was launched on March 1, will last until the end of the year. Activities in eight categories are to be held, including 24 citywide events.

More than 10,000 stores are participating, organizing nearly 1,000 consumption promotions that involve such sectors as catering, e-commerce, cultural tourism, automobiles, leisure and medicine.

The project aims to continuously boost the high-quality development of consumption, and better meet people's needs for diversified and personalized consumer experiences. It will also help Beijing become an international consumption center with global influence, competitiveness and reputation, local officials said.

Also, as a part of this year's National Consumption Promotion Month, the project is expected to create an atmosphere of participation and consumption, further stimulate market vitality, unleash consumption potential and boost the sustained recovery and upgrading of consumption, said officials from the Beijing Commerce Bureau.

One of the biggest highlights of this year's Beijing Consumption Season is "guochao", which refers to a fashion trend featuring Chinese culture. It has driven demand for domestic brands and products incorporating traditional Chinese culture and style.

Part of the consumption season, a festival featuring "guochao and Beijing brands" has gathered more than 150 time-honored enterprises, new brands and related colleges, universities and institutions to hold 10 key promotional activities. Based on these, about 300 online and offline events will be held by related companies.

The festival also includes a design competition. It has attracted several universities like Communication University of China, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and Beijing Union University, as well as a number of time-honored companies and new brands, to promote Chinese clothing.

Some time-honored fashion brands including Snow Lotus, Longqingxiang and Topnew, will perform traditional Chinese clothing shows, and Ruifuxiang Silk and Neiliansheng Shoes will display their intangible cultural heritage skills and sell their unique products.

This year, Beijing's Wangfujing, Sanlitun and other major business districts will make more effort to launch flagship stores of foreign brands.

The Joy City shopping mall, for instance, plans to introduce more than 30 flagship stores by the end of the year.

They will also carry out a series of themed activities to bring rich cultural and entertainment consumption experiences to residents.

For example, Sanlitun's thriving Taikoo Li shopping street will cooperate with Dior, Polo Ralph Lauren, Gentle Monster and other renowned brands to launch popup stores. Intime Department Store, meanwhile, will carry out cosmetics-related activities for customers.

In addition to offline activities, e-commerce platforms such as JD, Dmall, Alibaba and Suning are participating in the Beijing Consumption Season by hosting promotional activities centering on occasions like International Women's Day, May Day and Double Eleven shopping festival.

Beijing has large potential for consumption. In 2021, the per capita disposable income of its residents grew by 8 percent year-on-year to 75,002 yuan ($11,880). The city's per capita consumption expenditure was 43,640 yuan, an increase of 12.2 percent year-on-year, according to government data.

The city's GDP exceeded 4 trillion yuan last year, and its per capita GDP reached 184,000 yuan with a permanent resident population of 21.89 million.