They used to be a frowned-upon blot on the urban landscape. Now, China has done a complete 180 on her attitude to night markets. With its talent for organisation, Nanjing is heading a post-Covid-19 economic revival that has night markets at its core.
For the past 2 decades, China has been systematically removing night markets from urban centres, only for many to pop up again when the authorities weren’t looking. But the trend was irreversible, up until the coronavirus decimated the economy.
It is somewhat ironic that the number 20 keeps cropping up here. Having spent 20 years trying to remove the night markets, unemployment in 2020 China is now at its highest level in 20 years.
The night markets are seen as part of a solution that can kickstart the economy and provide much-needed jobs. With their minimal running costs, night markets promote consumption, generate jobs and tend to stay in business.
No wonder China’s Prime Minister, Li Keqiang, recently praised the so-called “stall economy” as the “spirit of the country”, reports RadiiChina.
That spirit is more than alive and well in Nanjing, as authorities from Hefei, capital of neighbouring Anhui Province, spent 3 and 4 June in Nanjing to study the city’s management of night markets.
Staff at the Nanjing Urban Management Bureau emphasised to reporters for The Paper that “outside bazaar” does not mean “occupy the road at will”. The key, they say, is to strictly regulate the operation.
Taking Danfeng Jie in Nanjing’s Xuanwu District as an example, there are currently more than 70 stalls in the night market, running for about 200 meters from Dashiqiao to Weixiang Lu. This pavement is 5 or 6 metres wide at this point, permitting stalls to be arranged in a row on the steps and pavement, leaving a 2-metre-wide passage for passing footfall.
China has long equated civilisation with glitzy shopping malls, the very antithesis of cheap pop-up stalls. The true test will come when the post Covid-19 economic recovery is complete; will the spirit of the country then still be permitted to burn so strong?
