Shoppers are seen walking in a shopping center in Shanghai in January 2023. WANG GANG/FOR CHINA DAILY

With the continuous recovery of the city's residents' offline consumption vitality, shopping centers that integrate shopping, catering, leisure and entertainment functions have seen rapid growth last year in Shanghai, and will see further expansion this year, according to Shanghai Council of Shopping Centers.

Last year, Shanghai has seen the most new openings of shopping centers over the past three years. A total of 34 new shopping centers sized over 30,000 square meters opened across the city, of which 20 are newly built and 14 are the result of renovation and upgrading projects.

Shanghai's shopping centers also recovered and rebounded rapidly in operation in 2023. The total scale of operation of shopping centers sized over 30,000 square meters in Shanghai amounted to about 247.5 billion yuan ($34.41 billion) in 2023, growing 21.2 percent year-on-year on average. The business revenue of these centers accounted for 13.43 percent of the city's total retail sales of consumer goods last year, up 0.82 percent year-on-year.

With the accelerated construction on Shanghai's "five new cities", namely Jiading, Qingpu, Songjiang, Fengxian and Nanhui, the city will continue to see shopping centers expand this year, with a record high number of centers to open within the year.

A total of 52 shopping centers sized over 30,000 square meters, as well as dozens of small and medium-sized ones, are set to open this year. Among them are 28 newly-built centers scattered across the downtown and suburbs.

As of the end of last year, Pudong New Area is home to the city's most shopping centers with 85, followed by Minhang district with 45 and Huangpu district with 33.