Shopping Festival of Chengdu - Jan 27 to Feb 11

The Shopping Festival of Chengdu is being held January 27th to February 11th. The downtown is covered with signs like the one above proclaiming this major shopping period. In the Chunxi square they have constructed a large Pepsi Stage for special presentations and entertainment.

The local government has constructed booths on Chunxi Lu and Hongxing Square and the connecting pedestrian streets which they rent to merchants for the Shopping Festival. At least three of the booths were taken by "wedding shops" and were packed each time I walked along the street. Weddings are really a big business in Chengdu. There must be hundreds of weddings every weekend.


Real estate sales also played a major role. With the massive construction of new apartments going on in Chengdu, there are many, many apartments to sell. Folks tell me that they are almost always sold out before the new buildings open. The demand for new and better housing must be very large.

Besides the booths, of course, all the merchants had special sales in their stores. The booths covered a wide range of products, including jeans .......

... and shoes ....

... and Coca-Cola had a special booth at the entrance to Hongxing Square on Chunxi East ....

... miscellaneous food stuffs ....

... the normal range of meats and fowl ...

... including special sauages ...chickens, ducks, tongue, etc. ....

and, on one of the stages, the ever present art auction.

The Shopping Festival leads up to Valentine's Day, the Spring Festival and the celebration of the Chinese New Year on February 18th.