Shanghai prepares for return of street vendors

Shanghai's urban management authority is soliciting public feedback on a set of guidelines on the management of stall businesses as the city prepares for the return of more vendors following its recent lifting of restrictions on street vending.

The city stipulated in its latest regulations on the management of urban appearance, which became effective on Dec 1, that stall businesses, which used to be banned in public areas, are allowed in designated open areas.

The guidelines, released by the Shanghai Landscaping and City Appearance Administrative Bureau on Monday, are aimed at clarifying the management of such businesses, which entails the responsibilities of all stakeholders including the supervising body and the business operator.

According to the guidelines, the district government is responsible for the designation of public areas for stall businesses while taking into consideration the city appearance and environmental sanitation, traffic safety, public safety and consumer demand. It is also allowed to establish standardized vending businesses such as night markets or weekend markets.

The guidelines also stipulate that in the city's rural suburbs, the township government can designate a certain public area for rural villagers, family farms, farmers' cooperatives and other business entities to sell self-produced agricultural products.

All stall vendors shall abide by relevant urban management rules, according to the guidelines.

The release of the guidelines is set to ensure the orderly return of stall businesses, said Shen Yi, deputy director of the Shanghai Landscaping and Urban Appearance Administrative Bureau.

Street stalls, which used to have the connotation of being "dirty, chaotic and shabby", were previously thought to clash with the modern urban landscape of cities. Chinese cities previously tightened management of street vendors because of the impact on the urban environment.

Shanghai was no exception. The city, which has been prohibiting the establishment of disorderly stalls on roadsides and other public spaces, has seen the number of stalls in its central urban area drop from about 47,000 in 2007 to about 4,700 in 2021, according to Shen.

Yet a recent successful street stall experiment in Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital, has brought a change in policy since 2020. The Chengdu government found that reintroducing street stalls in Chengdu created 100,000 new jobs and largely increased people's interest in entrepreneurship.

Shanghai has been among the first cities to have reintroduced the street vending economy to boost local employment and consumption. Since the summer of 2020, Shanghai has established several night markets across the city, which have proved conducive to the return of yanhuoqi, literally "smoke, fire and steam"，a metaphor for the joy of preparing food and dining with the family.

"The operation of stall businesses is in line with Shanghai striving to build itself into a city for the people," Tang Jiafu, another deputy director of the bureau, said at a previous news conference.

"We are not liberalizing the management of stall businesses for the convenience of management, but for the needs of the people."