Having secured the title of "the leading city in total retail sales of consumer goods", what has Chongqing's commercial sector done right in the past five years?
Chongqing is emerging as a new landmark of consumption in China.
In 2025, the total retail sales of consumer goods of Chongqing hit 1,668.85 billion yuan, surpassing Shanghai for the first time to claim the title of "Top City in Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods". Its first-store economy delivers outstanding performance: 435 high-quality first stores and 304 debut events were introduced throughout the year, ranking steadily in the top 10 of "Cities Most Favored by First Stores" for three consecutive years.
During this year's National Day holiday, the total consumption of Chongqing registered a year-on-year increase of 4.6%, and the key monitored A-level scenic spots received a total of 9.1 million tourists.
Behind these figures lies a city that has turned its "8D magic" features — bomb shelters, cliff walls, rooftop terraces and back alleys — into daily consumption scenarios. Since being approved as one of the first batch of pilot cities for the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities in 2021, Chongqing's commercial sector has blazed a unique evolution path different from other cities: more international and more three-dimensional.
01.
70 new shopping malls added in five years, with 2 million square meters of new supply ready for launch
According to the big data of Winshang, by the end of 2025, Chongqing had 241 commercial projects in stock, covering a total area of 22.89 million square meters. A total of 70 new projects with a gross floor area of 5.36 million square meters were added in the past five years (statistical scope: shopping centers, independent department stores and outlet malls).
Judging from the incremental performance over the years, Chongqing's commercial market presents a phased rhythm of "peak - correction - recovery":
2021 was the peak of increment in the past five years. The first project of Hongkong Land's Light-Aura series nationwide — Chongqing Light-Aura Shopping Park opened to the public; Longfor Chongqing Park Tianjie, Chongqing Joy City, and Central Park Wuyue Plaza opened one after another, making the Central Park business district emerge as a new force. In the same year, a number of cultural tourism projects for urban renewal such as Chongqing Shibati, Chongqing Ciqikou Block and Chongqing Shancheng Lane were unveiled, kicking off the construction of the international consumption center city.
In 2022, impacted by the external environment, the increment corrected. Jiangjin District welcomed the opening of projects including Chongqing Jiangjin Wuyue Plaza, Chongqing Jiangjin Wanda Plaza, and Chongqing Jiangjin Yunfeng Aishangli Shopping Mall (formerly Chongqing Jiangjin Aegean Shopping Park) within one year; the popular online block Chongqing Xiahaoli, and Longfor's 9th Tianjie in Chongqing — Longfor Chongqing Hi-Tech Tianjie were launched to the market one after another.
In 2023, the market saw a slight recovery. Projects including Chongqing Impression City, Chongqing Beibei Wuyue Plaza, Longfor Chongqing Lijia Tianjie North Bank, Chongqing Mixc North Zone, Chongqing Fangyuan LIVE, and Chongqing Robinson Shopping Plaza entered the market, with multiple operators deploying their businesses simultaneously.
2024 witnessed the lowest point of increment. The first JD MALL in Chongqing transformed from stock assets and Longfor Chongqing Xinghui Tianjie opened, alongside Longfor Chongqing Yunling Tianjie and Chongqing CapitaMalls · Chapter Nine. In the same period, traditional shopping malls such as Chongqing Wangfujing Department Store and Bailian Nan'an Shanghai City Shopping Mall closed down, with the "entry" of the incremental end and the "exit" of the stock end proceeding in parallel.
In 2025, the increment rebounded with diversified modes. Projects including Chongqing Central Park Light-Aura Garden City, Longfor Chongqing Jiang'an Tianjie, Longfor Chongqing Longxing Tianjie, and the industrial park supporting commercial facility "Chongqing Longsheng Xinyuehui" co-operated by Longfor Smart Living opened. In terms of stock transformation, Chongqing Sun Century City Outlet Banan Hub was launched after renewal.
Looking at the period from 2021 to 2025, Chongqing's commercial market has three major characteristics: First, Longfor and New Town have continued to cultivate the market deeply, the Tianjie product line has extended from the core of the main urban area to areas such as Longxing and Jiangjin, and Wuyue Plaza has been intensively deployed in Beibei, Tongliang, Jiangjin, Central Park, Dazu and other places, becoming the backbone of Chongqing's commercial increment. Second, non-standard cultural tourism projects have exploded in a concentrated manner, giving full play to the characteristics of the mountain city. Third, the transformation of old stock assets has accelerated, entering a new stage of high-quality development.
Winshang Big Data shows that in the next three years (2026~2028), at least 25 new commercial projects will enter the Chongqing market, with a planned new supply of over 2 million square meters, continuously contributing to the cultivation and construction of the international consumption center city. The transformation of old stock assets will become the mainstream trend.
Chongqing Chaotianmen · Chengli, which opened in April this year, is jointly built by Chongqing Chengtou Group and Longfor Smart Living, positioned as a "theater-style cultural tourism commercial complex". In July, Chongqing Department Store Dream Field, the country's first two-dimensional complex centered on domestic animation, activities and user experience, landed in Guanyinqiao business district. The former Chongqing Yuandong City will be transformed into "Kunxinhui", which is expected to reopen in the second quarter of 2027. Jiafa Tiandi (formerly Bailian Nan'an Shanghai City Shopping Mall) will be built into a 550,000-square-meter large-scale cultural, tourism and business complex integrating shopping malls, immersive cultural tourism, youth vitality centers, high-altitude viewing platforms, star-rated hotel clusters and Grade-A office buildings, reshaping the commercial competition pattern of Nanping business district.
02.
Jiefangbei and Guanyinqiao target world-class status, and the Central Park business district is rising rapidly
The pattern of Chongqing's business districts has been profoundly restructured.
Judging from the incremental performance in the past five years, Liangjiang New Area has reached an increment of 1.88 million square meters, ranking first among all administrative regions in Chongqing. The Central Park business district within the area ranks first in the city with about 470,000 square meters, and the increments of Jinzhou, Yangjiaping, Ranjiaba and Guanyinqiao business districts are all above 150,000 square meters.
As the core bearing area for Chongqing's industry and population introduction, Liangjiang New Area has seen its commercial supporting facilities delivered in a concentrated manner, and emerging business districts have taken shape rapidly, becoming the region with the most concentrated commercial increment in the whole city.
Central Park Business District, also known as "Liangjiang International Business Center", has a planned volume of 6 million square meters, positioned as a regional international consumption center.
The "Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area" has included it in the urban development axis, promoting its iterative upgrading and advancing towards a 100-billion-level core business district.
The business district started in December 2021, with three commercial complexes Longfor Chongqing Park Tianjie, Chongqing Joy City and Central Park Wuyue Plaza opening at the same time, bringing an increment of 440,000 square meters. In 2025, the Central Park Light-Aura Garden City on the east side opened, forming the pattern of "dual business districts on the east and west sides" of Central Park.
In April this year, the headquarters of Changan Automobile Group, the first first-level central enterprise headquarters in Chongqing, was officially established in Central Park. In August, "two Hema stores" settled in the area, further consolidating the consumption foundation of the business district.
Image source: Official release of the project
In addition, regional business districts in Longxing, Jiangjin, Yongchuan, Wanzhou and other regions have achieved a leap from no commercial facilities to complete commercial supporting systems. Projects have also been launched in the sinking markets of districts and counties including Fengjie, Zhongxian, Xiushan, Tongliang, Beibei, Dazu, Fuling, Changshou, Tongnan and Rongchang.
While emerging business districts are rising, traditional core business districts have not declined, but have been iteratively upgraded through quality improvement, capacity expansion and scenario innovation.
In the 2025 "Top 100 Index List of Commercial Power of Chinese Business Districts", Guanyinqiao Business District, Jiefangbei-Chaotianmen Business District, Yangjiaping Business District, Daping Business District and Nanping Business District were all on the list, showing strong vitality.
The "15th Five-Year Plan for Modern Service Industry Development of Chongqing (2026-2030)" clearly proposes to implement the transformation and upgrading action of business districts, and improve the quality of construction of well-known business districts with world influence such as Jiefangbei and Guanyinqiao.
Jiefangbei-Chaotianmen Business District attracts an average annual passenger flow of over 200 million person-times, winning two national-level titles of "the first batch of national demonstration pedestrian streets" and "national demonstration smart business district". In 2025, it took the lead in becoming the first "double 100-billion" business district in western China.
Over the past five years, the space of the business district has expanded in all directions with the 1.2-square-kilometer pedestrian street as the core, expanding its scope to 3.2 square kilometers, connecting the 3-kilometer urban main axis of "Chaotianmen - Jiefangbei - Tongyuan Gate", building the first underground traffic loop in the bustling central urban area of China, connecting 28 building garages with 23,000 parking spaces to realize direct access from "garage to shopping mall".
Connecting seven traditional style blocks including Datong Street, Daijia Lane, Luzu Temple, Shibati, Shancheng Lane, Baixiang Street and Chongqing Huguang Guild Hall, the business district has created hundreds of back streets and alleys with differentiated features, forming a "fast travel and slow tour" pedestrian block, and launched characteristic commercial projects such as Chaotianmen · Chengli, making the urban space more layered and experiential.
Guanyinqiao Business District has an average daily passenger flow of 800,000 person-times, exceeding 1 million person-times during holidays, with annual sales exceeding 400 billion yuan. It has cumulatively introduced more than 600 first stores and flagship stores, holding more than 80 high-quality debut shows and exhibitions every year, and the scale of debut economy ranks at the forefront of western China.
The core area of the business district has expanded from 1.5 square kilometers to 3.6 square kilometers. The "sky corridor" project was launched in 2024, with a total planned length of 4.1 kilometers, connecting major commercial complexes and rail transit stations. As of April this year, the first opening section with a total length of 683 meters (Jialing Park section, Maoye Department Store section, and Dazhongcheng section) has been basically completed.
The core project of the business district, Longfor Chongqing Beicheng Tianjie, underwent a 600+ day "in-operation transformation", with the whole mall fully renewed in September 2025. In April 2026, Hall B was unveiled, and the flagship facade matrix was fully completed, consolidating its positioning as the vane of trend light luxury in southwest China.
Another key project, Chongqing Central Mixc, has a planned commercial space of about 143,000 square meters and more than 400 brands. It has signed contracts with four global consumer groups, and has entered the final stage of construction before opening.
On the whole, the pattern of Chongqing's business districts has evolved from a single core to multi-core symbiosis. Emerging business districts expand the urban commercial territory with increment, while traditional business districts maintain their core status through stock renewal and scenario innovation. The two together constitute the spatial foundation for Chongqing to build an international consumption center city.
03.
Transformation of key shopping malls: from "commodity consumption" to "service consumption"
The changes of key shopping malls in Chongqing in the past five years are mainly reflected in the dual transformation of spatial narrative and business format structure.
Change of spatial narrative: from "shopping place" to "leisure social venue"
The spatial logic answers the question of "how people stroll around". The core is the reconstruction of moving lines and the release of public space, transforming shopping malls from "transaction containers" into "places where people are willing to stay".
Longfor Chongqing Times Tianjie has built the Times Avenue high-quality leisure Citywalk block, narrowing the lane width by 30% and making space for the public art park of "Starlight Lawn", which has tripled the passenger flow. It has upgraded the Cross Avenue Brand Debut Avenue, gathering first-store brands and well-known trendy brands to build a social venue integrating "trendy play and cultural tourism landmark".
Chongqing Xingguang Times Square is designed with "surprises on every floor": a 3800 ㎡ Hema Fresh flagship store on B1, a pet-friendly block on 1F, a trendy play block on 3F, a baking park on 4F, and a Mars-themed cinema "M³ Movie Castle" on 6F, each floor providing reasons for people to stay.
The "Greenland" block of Chongqing Mixc has built a "urban oasis" consumption scenario with an open space of over 1000 ㎡, a giant 10-meter-high IP installation and garden-style landscaping.
The "24Hours Block" of Chongqing Guanyinqiao Dazhongcheng is divided into "8 a.m. zone" and "8 p.m. zone". The 8 a.m. zone focuses on light meals and tea drinks, while the 8 p.m. zone gathers trendy catering and rich snacks, accurately matching the social gathering scenarios of young people in different time periods. The sales of this space in 2025 increased by 41% compared with 2024.
Change of business format logic: from "retail-led" to "service-led"
The business format logic answers the question of "what to do after arrival". The core is that the brand portfolio shifts from selling goods to providing services, using experience formats such as catering, culture and sports to replace standardized retail.
The two-dimensional culture moving from subculture to mainstream business format is the most iconic business format innovation in the past five years.
Chongqing Department Store Dream Field takes domestic animation culture as the core, introduces scarce brands such as the world's first GoodSmile Moment store, and builds characteristic functional areas such as IP immersive theme blocks, fan creation incubation spaces and offline comic exhibition activity centers.
Chongqing S,95 Ultra Dimensional Center is the first two-dimensional themed commercial complex in Jiefangbei business district. It transforms the subway passage on B1 into a "dimensional tunnel", and builds expansion and check-in areas including dimensional photography zones, dimensional restrooms, shared dance practice rooms and makeup rooms, where multiple IP-themed pop-up events are held.
Chongqing Fang