Tear off the "old label", the traditional business district welcomes "new fans"
Qianmen business district creates more "come for you", Wangfujing business district regains the "Pride of Beijing", business integration and cultural atmosphere become the "key to upgrading" word"
As the two major old business districts in Beijing, Wangfujing and Qianmen have welcomed countless "firsts" in the history of Chinese business, and have also witnessed the "hundred-year changes" of many time-honored brands.
On April 23 this year, Beijing McDonald's ushered in the "year of standing".
On this day 30 years ago, the first McDonald's in Beijing was located on Wangfujing Street, and then spread to the whole country from here.
On July 4th, Quanjude will celebrate its 158th birthday, and now the Qianmen Yuanyuan store has opened a light and shadow restaurant, where consumers can dine while feeling the snowflakes dancing in the Forbidden City, the golden light piercing the 17-hole bridge, The lantern festival on Qianmen Street.
As more and more emerging commercial entities flourish, Wangfujing, the "century-old golden street" and Qianmen Street, the "century-old commercial vein", seem to be only suitable for carrying the nostalgia of generations and become faded old photos in the eyes of fashionistas.
How to update and upgrade traditional business districts, get rid of labels, and break out of the circle, is placed in front of many old-fashioned business districts and pedestrian streets like Wangfujing and Qianmen across the country.
With the official release of the "Implementation Plan for Beijing's Cultivation and Building an International Consumption Center City", the ideals of the two old business districts are steadily becoming reality in the continuous upgrading from hardware to software.
When Wangfujing's "one core and four districts" layout includes business, culture, and life, international and fashionable styles emerge, and the time-honored brands of the current door are plugged into the wings of Guochao experience, Xianyukou, Sanlihe, polishing factory It's not just the place names on the map, the current updates and the beautiful blueprint for the future must be "phase born from the heart".
Qianmen business district: to create more "for you"
Pull up the bun, apply yellow appliques, sweep the crescents, experience the dual enjoyment of audio-visual and taste buds, experience Chinese etiquette, and learn food culture.
Pick up the duck stick and get a feel for what it's like to "pick out" the duck from the oven.
The splendid Qianmen Street, the "century-old commercial vein", can only be known if you come in person.
"Makeup Department" and Light and Shadow Restaurant take you through
In the hectic and busy city life, many people have fantasized about the "traveling" scene in film and television dramas, and want to experience a day of poetry, poetry, and leisurely ancient life. At the front door, this immersive national tide culture experience restaurant can give Consumers bring a different experience.
In the "makeup department" of the palace banquet, the clothing of the Song Dynasty is now "in short supply". Zhang Yu, the "director" of the "makeup department", said that because of the popular TV series "Menghualu", many guests now want to feel it. The feeling of Song Dynasty, "Song Dynasty Fan Er" has become the hottest trend in palace banquets.
A consumer who was putting on makeup told the Beijing News reporter that this was the fourth time to come to the palace banquet.
"My friends and I both like Hanfu. We come here almost every season to experience the food menus of different seasons and try clothes and styles of different dynasties." She said that she often goes to some chain photography studios to shoot ancient costumes The photo, although it is very delicate when taken out as a film, the whole process still feels "split".
"But at the palace banquet, from the moment you enter the door, you will have a sense of time travel. From changing clothes, head-dressing, makeup, to dining and watching music and dance, it is full of ceremonial sense." Every time she comes to the palace banquet, she and her friends will bring Put on your own Hanfu, "put on your own Hanfu, and use the hairstyle and makeup at the palace banquet, we will also take pictures on Qianmen Street. The blue-gray building is a particularly beautiful background. This kind of photo is compared with the photography studio. Almost as good."
Walking more than 100 meters north from Gongyan, is the Qianmen Origin Store of Quanjude.
The light and shadow restaurant opened by this time-honored brand in 2021 is known as the first customized holographic projection experience restaurant in the country.
Here, consumers can dine while feeling the snowflakes dancing in the Forbidden City, the golden light piercing the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, and the dazzling lantern festival on Qianmen Street... The theme scenes are produced with three-dimensional and two-dimensional animation videos, creating a year of Beijing City. There are 9 scenes including the changing of the four seasons and the reincarnation of Qianmen Street.
Here, customers can also pick up the duck stick and experience what it's like to "pick out" the roast duck from the oven.
This new sense of experience makes it fun for consumers to eat at the same time.
The 16-seat Light and Shadow Restaurant has been almost "full" since welcoming guests.
In the future, this immersive experience will be gradually upgraded: for example, when the scene turns into snowflakes falling in winter, diners can feel the real snowflakes falling from the sky, and more vivid and interesting interactions are brewing.
To create "Beijing people's front door"
"In 2019, I was selecting a site in the whole of Beijing. When I said that I would open the palace banquet at the front door, many friends, even friends in Beijing, objected. In their eyes, the front door has been 'qualified' as a The place where tourists only come, does not match the tonality of the palace banquet." Xing Bin was born in Shanxi, more than 20 years ago, this young Shanxi merchant visited Qianmen for the first time as a tourist.
Twenty years later, Xing Bin, who has become the fifth generation of royal meal making skills, finally settled the palace banquet at the front door.
Xingbin said that what he values is the cultural atmosphere of Qianmen.
"I hope that the palace banquet presents an exquisite way of life of the ancients, giving people a real experience of traveling through time and space, so we must choose a place with a strong cultural atmosphere and rich cultural soil. The front door cannot only be visited by tourists, not only by middle-aged and elderly people. Nostalgia, it needs young people who can represent the current mainstream consumer group.”
"As the only wide-area-level commercial block on the central axis, Qianmen should be the place where Beijing-style traditional culture is concentrated." Zhao Juanwei, full-time deputy director of the Qianmen Street Management Committee, expressed the positioning of Qianmen.
"We can no longer make people think that 'the people who go to Qianmen Street are tour groups, and there is nothing worth buying there.' The Qianmen business district should be where Beijingers take a walk after tea and dinner, and the whole family comes to check in on weekends. Internet celebrity restaurants, shopping in the streets and drinking the Arctic Ocean, come to the time-honored brand to experience the unique 'Chinese haute couture'."
The upgrading of traditional time-honored brands on Qianmen Street has not stopped. A number of time-honored brands such as Yizhao and Changchuntang have completed store upgrades and renovations, and the light and shadow restaurant on the second floor of Quanjude Qianmen Yuanyuan Store has made a new appearance.
Just as Zhou Yanlong, general manager of China Quanjude Group, said, the time-honored brand "has a story", but the disadvantage is that it can't "tell a story".
Qianmen Street also needs to activate the historical context to realize the "time-honored brand + national trend" model, and realize the integration and innovation of time-honored brands and intangible cultural heritage scenes.
According to the "Five-Year Action Plan for Transformation and Upgrading of Qianmen Business District", by 2025, Qianmen Street will make every effort to build a high-quality pedestrian street with Beijing-style characteristics and vitality, and build a composite experience street that integrates multi-level business formats and cultural tourism experience activities. Make Qianmen a one-stop experience area for a diversified and immersive experience of Beijing's urban heritage, central axis culture and humanistic spirit, and a modern and charming commercial district that promotes the splendid and long history of the ancient capital, highlights the blend of ancient and modern urban features, and spreads modern business culture.
Zhao Juanwei said that in the transformation and upgrading of Qianmen business district, the first and foremost is to promote the renewal, adjustment, optimization and upgrading of business formats.
Low-end commercial and tourism-intensive formats are the focus of the clean-up of Qianmen business district. "Waiting is the mainstream format that Qianmen will attract in the adjustment, optimization and upgrading.
Make history and culture "live" and make customers "younger"
Zhao Juanwei introduced that Qianmen's profound historical culture and cultural relics make history and new trends intertwined here, but culture and history must be activated and utilized.
At present, there are 12 time-honored restaurants on Qianmen Street, 17 time-honored shopping stores, 2 time-honored brands focusing on cultural experience, and 2 time-honored brands for service support, an increase of nearly 10 compared with previous years.
In addition to an increase of nearly one-third in terms of quantity, Qianmen Street has also begun to comprehensively "package" these time-honored brands: Rongbaozhai has upgraded its storefronts and launched personalized customized products and services; Yizhao's window has been upgraded to high-definition screens ; The interior decoration of Jinghua cloth shoes is more retro after the upgrade; Changchuntang Pharmacy not only sells medicines, but also adds professional services for physician consultation and physician massage.
Xingbin said that although Gongyan opened on Qianmen Street less than two years ago, according to data from third-party platforms, the repurchase rate has reached 70%, and the portraits of mainstream consumer groups are mainly women between the ages of 20 and 45.
Zhao Juanwei believes that with the continuous expansion of the young consumer group, the post-90s and post-00s are gradually moving towards the center of the consumption stage, "they are more receptive to new things and traditional culture, and more willing to consume. They have a strong ego Expressing demands, more culturally rational, individual and cost-effective Guochao brands are especially favored by young people. Therefore, the merchants on Qianmen Street should be distinctive Guochao brands, brands with in-depth experience and cost-effectiveness.”
Different from other business districts in Beijing, except for the main street of Qianmen Street, Qianmen is a "living" historical district with rich hutong texture and residential courtyards.
Each hutong and courtyard has its own history and story, thus forming a network interwoven with commerce, history, culture and folklore.
In addition to the upgrading and transformation of Qianmen Main Street, the Sanli River and the West Grinding Factory in the Qianmen area are also recovering their history and developing towards a sustainable model of community building and cultural integration and industrialization in the old city.
Wangfujing Business District: Recovering "Beijing's Pride"
Wang Lumeng was born in 1982, and a lot of happiness in childhood came from Wangfujing.
At that time, her princess dress and red shoes came from Wangfujing Children's Products Store and the children's counter of Beijing Department Store.
On June 25, 2022, Wang Lumeng, who has become the mother of an 8-year-old child, came to Wangfujing Street again. This time, she took her daughter into the Hamles department store, which is like a fairy tale world. The long-established chain of toy stores picks out birthday gifts for their daughters.
"A variety of immersive and experiential scenes can allow children and adults to play in it for a day." The location of Hamreis is not far from the Wangfujing Children's Products Store.
The first store and flagship store are all over Wangfujing
The children's products store mentioned by Wang Lumeng is opposite the Wangfu Central which officially opened in 2018.
Recently, the new Cartier boutique opened in Wangfu Central. This boutique shop adjacent to the street runs through the two-story space. The natural elements are all over the store. At the same time, the colors of ancient Beijing buildings such as ultramarine and bright yellow are also integrated into it, which has a unique Beijing charm.
In response to a question raised by a reporter from the Beijing News, "Why did Wangfu Central choose to settle in Wangfujing Street?" A spokesman for Hongkong Land said that, as one of the major commercial centers in Asia, Beijing is a city full of vitality, culture, history and economic development. .
Wangfujing is located in the center of Beijing, with outstanding geographical advantages.
At the same time, as a well-known commercial street in the country, Wangfujing has an even more urgent demand for high-quality merchants.
"We are honored to be the witnesses and participants of the Wangfujing neighborhood becoming more international and leading a modern and fashionable life. This time-honored traditional shopping and tourist destination is taking on a brand new look with its unique characteristics of an 'international business district'. charm."
In Wangfu Central, with a total area of 150,000 square meters, there are many internationally renowned brand flagship stores and urban concept stores including Dior urban concept store, GIADA flagship store and so on.
In the eyes of many industry insiders, "tradition" was one of the important labels in Wangfujing in the past. Most shopping malls on Wangfujing Street were not very fashionable, and the high-end consumer group of Oriental Plaza almost formed an internal circulation system with little consumption power. spillover.
The international brands introduced by new commercial entities such as Wangfu Zhonghuan have stimulated Wangfujing Street very well, allowing people to rediscover the potential of Wangfujing in terms of internationalization.
"One core and four districts" realize integrated development
Song Xu, director of the Wangfujing Management Committee, said frankly that in the past, Wangfujing relied on selling goods as its main business. Although Wangfujing has always been reluctant to admit that it is a "tourist scenic spot", it is undeniable that in the past, its proportion of tourists was very high. Gao, according to public data in 2016, only 20% of Wangfujing's customers are locals.
In 2018, Wangfujing Pedestrian Street became a pilot project for the renovation and upgrading of pedestrian streets across the country.
In the same year, Wangfu Central, a flagship mid-to-high-end retail project, opened; not long after, Guardian Art Center became a new cultural landmark in the neighborhood; the reconstruction of the century-old Jixiang Theater was successfully completed.
In 2019, the north extension of Wangfujing Pedestrian Street was extended from Jinyu Hutong to Dengshikou Street, and the length was extended from 548 meters to 892 meters.
The Beijing Department Store “digs” out the old Beijing immersive experience block and fruit bureau under the ground, and successfully promoted to the Internet celebrity check-in place; Intime in88 is positioned as a “brand + flagship store”, and the Dongan market is transformed into an “international fashion buyer’s hand-made department store” "... A number of merchants in the region have made a new appearance after the business format has been upgraded and adjusted.
By October 2020, the proportion of local customers on Wangfujing Pedestrian Street has increased from 20% to more than 30%, and the unit price per customer ranks first among the 11 pilot blocks in the country.
During the "May Day" holiday in 2021, the proportion of local customers will reach more than 50%.
In Song Xu's view, the digital change of "one drop and two liters" may best illustrate the pace of Wangfujing's transformation and upgrading from a traditional business district to a world-class neighborhood with unique humanistic charm in recent years: by the end of 2020, Wangfujing Compared with that before the renovation of the pedestrian street, the shopping malls in Jing District decreased by 4.4 percentage points; the cultural experience format increased by 1 percentage point, and the leisure and entertainment format increased by 5.5 percentage points.
Yu Qian, deputy director of the Dongcheng District Bureau of Commerce, said that the Wangfujing business district will continue to promote the overall transformation and upgrading of the district from these aspects.
"We must continue to promote the introduction of the first stores and flagship stores of international high-end brands in the traditional retail industry. Adhere to cultural empowerment, carry out high-quality cultural and art exhibition activities, and create a cultural and artistic atmosphere in the neighborhood. By building 5G, Internet of Things and other new digital network facilities and other measures, The basic network layout and the level of digital facilities in the Wangfujing business district will be continuously improved, which will lay a solid foundation for making better use of big data and building a model of the digital business district, and will be able to more accurately locate customer needs in the future and promote the upgrading of consumer experience.”
Today's Wangfujing is no longer just a street. The functional layout of "one core and four districts" enables it to realize the integrated development of business and business in the south, creating a high-end commercial business district; to the north, it connects the Art Museum and Xinlongfu, with Guardian Art. The center and the Capital Theater will expand to the east to form a cultural and art experience area; to the east, it will be linked with Jinbao Street to become a high-end business district; to the west, it will take over the cultural spillover from the Forbidden City and become a demonstration area for cultural tourism and cultural life.
【Five years of change】
22 business districts have undergone major changes
According to the data released by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce, up to now, 16 pilot enterprises including Wangfujing Department Store and Chang'an Shopping Mall in Beijing have completed upgrades and renovations, and 22 business districts have completed quality upgrades.
In Gongzhufen business district, after the renovation is completed by the end of 2021, the total number of brands of the five major commercial entities will reach nearly 1,200, including 17 first stores in Beijing, about 120 flagship stores of well-known brands, and more than 600 stores of other well-known brands.
Influence City and Cuiwei Department Store have introduced two cinema formats, plus CapitaLand's original Bona Cinema, the number of cinemas in the business district has reached three.
A total of 4 indoor specialty food streets have been introduced in CapitaLand, Cuiwei Road Store, Cuiwei Department Store and Urban and Rural Shopping Center.
In the CBD business district, China World Mall has renovated and upgraded the dining area in the north area of the project. The outdoor terrace is "more beautiful at night", which has become one of Beijing's night economic check-in places; in the Sanlitun business district, the first NIKE RISE retail concept store in the north, Sports brand Descente global flagship store, Guangzhou century-old Chinese brand Taotaoju first store in Beijing, etc. have successively entered, and UNIQLO global flagship store in Taikoo Li West District of Sanlitun has introduced UNIQLO FLOWER vitality flower shop, UT cultural and creative "museum" and custom workshop, etc. Innovative elements, full of new ideas; in the Xidan business district, Beijing Book Building will accelerate the completion of the second phase of the building, Hanguang Department Store will upgrade the facade and self-operated categories this year, and Juntai will continue to replace and introduce brands. In the future, here It will create an international high-end fashion charm circle of Xidan Financial Street integrating fashion communication, digital consumption and financial business.
In the northern area of Haidian, Qinghe Colorful City has been renovated and renamed as Beijing Qinghe Wanxianghui, which has been upgraded and transformed into a comprehensive commercial complex with a sense of fashion, light luxury and cutting-edge technology. It is a regional city meeting room integrating shopping, leisure, social entertainment; in the Century City business district, the Century Jinyuan Hotel takes a comprehensive sports entertainment center as the main body, creating a new domestic experiential sports business complex "Energy City".
In the process of improving the quality and upgrading of traditional business districts, it has continuously attracted the attention of international brands.
The three-storey single-family Starbucks flagship store in Beijing Square is located in the prosperous Qianmen Beijing Square on the central axis of Beijing.
This is Starbucks' third flagship store in Beijing and its largest store in the world outside of its roastery.
Before the store opened, there were already two Starbucks in the Qianmen area.
In order to create a flagship store with Beijing characteristics, Starbucks has been in contact with Beijing Fang for three years.
On June 28, 2018, Starbucks Reserve Beijing Square flagship store opened as scheduled.
Beijing Fang flagship store relies on the existing buildings of Beijing Fang, and fully draws on design inspirations such as the texture of Hutongs in Dashilan area, the structure of old Beijing courtyards and the architectural features of the Forbidden City. a new landscape.
Wu Xiaolei, general manager of Starbucks China North District, once said, "Since the first Starbucks in mainland China settled in 1999 and the first Starbucks China flagship store was completed in 2013, the Beijing Fang flagship store is another innovative masterpiece of ours in Beijing. The experiential flagship store will become a new landscape on the central axis of Beijing."
Lai Yang, member of the Expert Committee of the China Chamber of Commerce and chief expert of the Beijing International Business Center Research Base, believes that in the past five years, one of the biggest features of Beijing's business districts is the upgrading of the old business districts.
Starting from the most traditional Qianmen Commercial Street and Wangfujing Pedestrian Street getting rid of the label of "tourist attractions", the upgrading and transformation of Beijing's traditional business districts have increasingly diluted the single attribute of "selling things" in the past, consumer experience, business integration, cultural atmosphere All have become the "keywords" for the upgrading of traditional business circles.
He also mentioned that Beijing's commercial development is also paying more and more attention to balanced development, reflecting the characteristics of old business districts improving and upgrading, new business districts frequently appearing, and the development of east and west is more balanced. From eating to comprehensive leisure and entertainment "triple jump".
"When fashion, art, and immersion become the mainstream choices of consumers, more shopping malls, commercial streets, and business districts need an immersive environment, and artistic scenes need to be linked with surrounding art galleries, museums, and fashion IPs. Such transformation and upgrading can bring about real prosperity of physical business, promote the transformation and upgrading of consumption, and create a 'Beijing sample' for the construction of an international consumption center city."
Written by version B02-B03 / Beijing News reporter Wang Ping and Wang Ziyang