Just after six in the evening, as the light fades, the night market lights up on Wujiang Road Pedestrian Street. Hand-painted artists set up their easels and hang brightly colored comic samples; a few steps away, the aroma of grilled chicken wings wafts with the smoke from the stove. A few kilometers away at Xuhui Riverside, it's a different scene: in the outdoor area near the West Bund Dream Center, the outdoor seating areas of restaurants are already filled with diners enjoying the river breeze and sunset.
This is an ordinary scene on the streets of Shanghai, and also a cityscape being redefined by "outdoor stalls". Starting with a few tables and chairs, and an art easel, outdoor spaces that can be used for rest, socializing, and consumption are being embedded into the urban fabric in various forms, injecting warmth and vitality into daily life.
The street corner is "steaming hot", and the outdoor display is "vibrant across the city"
The vitality of outdoor business operations is written in vivid business manuals. Outdoor stalls not only extend the business space of stores, but also significantly increase sales revenue and customer traffic.
On Meichuan Road Commercial Street in Putuo District, the owner of a barbecue restaurant calculated for the reporter: From the beginning of outdoor dining in April 2024 to the end of that year, the outdoor area directly brought in nearly 430,000 yuan in revenue, with an increase of nearly 8,000 customers. The owner of another home-style restaurant said that after outdoor dining, customer traffic increased by about 30%, driving overall sales to grow by about 40%.
In Yangpu District, University Road, renowned for its youthfulness and vitality, has seen over half of the shops along the street set up outdoor seating areas, with some outdoor seating areas even comparable in size to the interior of the shops. A fashionable sportswear brand has meticulously created a camping-style outdoor seating area at its entrance, paved with gravel and furnished with stylish camping chairs, instantly becoming a "showplace" that attracts young people to linger and check in. Merchants candidly admit, "Without outdoor seating areas, our income might drop by half." However, standardized management has enabled this neighborhood to achieve a win-win situation between commercial benefits and urban order, with sales exceeding 265 million yuan within two years.
Vitality spreads from point to area, and data outlines the large-scale picture. The latest data shows that currently, Shanghai has standardized the setting of 997 stalls, created more than 500 characteristic stalls areas, covering over 4,000 merchants. The business types are mainly light food and coffee, which blend with the style of the neighborhood, building a rich and diverse urban commercial ecology.
A favorable business environment provides a clear framework for outdoor business operations. "The current outdoor business operations are completely different from the small stalls and vendors of the past. Merchants are actively reporting and following the regulatory approval process," said Zhao Tiantian, director of the Business Office of Xujiahui Sub-district. She stated that the sub-district will participate in the entire process of formulating plans, and multiple parties will jointly review the plans for hygiene safety, fire safety, structural safety, and emergency evacuation. Afterwards, they will conduct joint visits and guidance to ensure compliance. "This process has achieved efficiency through the 'One-Stop Online Service' platform, and merchants can often complete the approval process within 10 days."
The BISAN Coffee that settled in Meiluo City, Xuhui District last year, truly experienced the "Shanghai Speed". "We applied for outdoor display on December 30th last year, and it was approved on the second working day after the New Year's Day holiday. The entire process took only two working days," said the person in charge of the BISAN Coffee brand. This efficient and transparent joint approval mechanism is an important advantage of Shanghai's business environment. Currently, this store has become the one with the highest turnover among the 12 BISAN Coffee stores in Shanghai.
Efficient approval processes directly translate into the confidence for merchants to conduct refined and creative operations. The Bishan Coffee store in Meiluo City has also specially customized a "courtyard starry sky room" that is detachable and equipped with a safety valve. Originally designed to withstand cold winds, this room, due to its unique privacy, unexpectedly became a favored "street meeting room" for consumers, with the outdoor area utilization rate once reaching over 80%.
"The Xujiahui business district boasts a diverse range of business types. Outdoor displays not only assist merchants in showcasing more innovative business concepts but also attract diverse customer streams, boost revenue, create a lively atmosphere, and align with the temperament of the business district. The diverse consumer base and continuous innovation in business types enable the economy of the business district to flourish and develop in a diversified manner," said Zhao Tiantian.
From the art and leisure belt along the Xuhui Riverside, to the mixed-use neighborhood of "Jufuchang" in Jing'an, and then to the youth market on Yangpu University Road, outdoor street vendors are evolving from "internet-famous check-in spots" to "revenue growth poles" in a way that "each area has its own characteristics".
Seeking the "greatest common divisor" of the smoke and fire atmosphere
The outdoor positioning has brought popularity, but also new challenges - merchants need to operate, citizens need peace, and pedestrians need to pass through. How can this balancing act be solved?
In August 2025, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Greening and City Appearance, in conjunction with the Municipal Commission of Commerce, Municipal Transportation Commission, and other three departments, jointly issued the "Several Measures on Further Regulating the Setting of Outdoor Stalls to Enhance the 'Lively Atmosphere' of Neighborhoods", which put forward clear requirements for the setting areas, business types, and supporting services of outdoor stalls in neighborhoods, further regulating the management of outdoor stalls.
Meanwhile, various district-level governments in Shanghai have also introduced corresponding guidance schemes for outdoor display spaces. For example, Xuhui District has established a collaborative management system, where multiple departments such as urban greening and appearance, urban management and law enforcement, market supervision, and ecological environment each perform their respective duties, forming a joint governance force. Huangpu District, on the other hand, has utilized digital means to enhance management efficiency. It has not only launched a clear "outdoor display map", but also established an integrated management platform for temporary stalls and outdoor displays, incorporating management into the city's "unified network management".
Policies have set a "track" for grassroots governance, but it is the refined management that combines both hardness and softness, along with collaborative governance through multi-party participation, that truly integrates outdoor stalls harmoniously into the neighborhood.
On Daxue Road, merchants used to place their goods blindly, "looking at each other", and the management department could only handle it based on experience. To address this, the street, property owners, and merchant representatives jointly discussed and formulated Shanghai's first street-level "Management Regulations for Outdoor Stall Placement in Daxue Road Block". The regulations are detailed to the extent of defining the outdoor stall placement range based on the street lamp poles as the reference line, and limiting the height of the stall partitions to between 70 and 130 centimeters - this height not only forms a soft partition, but also combines with green plants to create a scenic view without feeling oppressive.
On Meichuan Road Pedestrian Street in Putuo District, facing the "three-span problem" of nighttime food stalls disturbing residents, Changzheng Town of Putuo District has led the "integration of multiple grids" through party building, collaborated with multiple departments and the neighboring Zhenxin Street in Jiading District, and taken the lead in establishing a neighborhood governance committee. This allows merchants, residents' representatives, and functional departments to sit together for "collaborative discussion", transforming the one-way "government management" into a two-way "governance by all".
"Functional departments such as urban transportation, comprehensive law enforcement.
More "balanced wisdom" lies hidden in the "capillaries" of the neighborhood. On well-known "white café and night wine" side streets like Nanchang Road, the governance of outdoor dining encourages businesses to innovate while maintaining safety standards, satisfying consumer demand while avoiding disturbances to residents. "Consumer demand is changing, but many regulations and policies are still being adjusted. We are constantly optimizing the business environment within the existing framework," said Lu Yan, the head of the comprehensive administrative law enforcement team of Ruijin Second Road Sub-district. All parties achieve balance through continuous communication and updates, allowing outdoor dining in appropriate places and strictly controlling it in inappropriate ones. This is the key to fine governance, and sitting by the roadside drinking coffee can also be an orderly street scene.
"The transformation of urban functions from homogeneity to diversity is an inevitable trend," said Xu Jinquan, the founding initiator of the Urban Revitalization Research Institute. The rise of outdoor stalls is a manifestation of this transformation, bringing diverse vitality and accompanied by new demands. What Shanghai is exploring is precisely to find the "greatest common divisor" of the interests of merchants, residents, tourists, and other parties through refined rule design and open co-governance consultation, allowing the vibrant street life to grow sustainably.
Beyond business, how can outdoor displays "grow" a new urban atmosphere?
When street stalls take root firmly on the streets of Shanghai, their significance may have already surpassed mere sales growth. They are like a multi-prism, reflecting the economic vitality and governance precision of a city, ultimately precipitating a unique cultural temperament and aesthetic of life.
At the newly popular FTC building on the Bund, a café named Plusone made a bold decision last year: to renovate the windows of the historic building, allowing people to freely move between indoors and outdoors. This café is also the first in the Huangpu Bund area to receive approval for outdoor seating.
The original intention of Bonnie, the founder of the coffee brand Plusone, was to create an urban public resting space where people can enjoy the cool breeze in summer and stay warm in winter. "We gave up the building lobby and opened up the space of the Bund," she said. The century-old brick walls inside the building were specially preserved and displayed to "allow every guest to understand the story of the building."
The addition of outdoor stalls has created a "stoppable scenery", transforming the city's "flow" into "staying". Zhu Lin, Marketing Manager of New World Group, believes that the Nanjing Road business district is not short of people, but lacks scenes that make people "slow down, stop, and calm down". The outdoor stalls, by extending indoor space to the street, create an immersive experience, which happens to meet this demand.
Tracing the river upstream, at the West Bund Dream Center in Xuhui Riverside, the design of the outdoor seating area directly engages with the river view, becoming an integral part of the dining experience.
The Paulaner Restaurant, specializing in German cuisine, has not only implemented a refined zoning system in its outdoor seating area, establishing a separate smoking section, but also thoughtfully provided exclusive cushions for pets, transforming "pet-friendly" from a mere slogan into tangible warmth. When the weather is sunny, its outdoor seating area is fully open and seamlessly integrated with the indoor space through an arched entrance, allowing customers to savor delicious food while taking in the sunshine, river breeze, and expansive scenery.
Another cheese bistro changes its outdoor setup with the seasons: in summer, it pulls up the sunshade; in winter, it turns on warm lights and covers itself with tarpaulins; at night, it decorates with nightlights and starry sky lights; during festivals, it adopts appropriate decorations.
The outdoor exhibition space has also become a stage where individual creations meet public life directly. At the Wujiang Road Night Market, the painting stand of Ms. Chong, a hand-painting artist, serves as such a window. In today's era where AI paintings prevail, she still persists in the delicacy and warmth of hand-painting. In front of her painting stand, foreign tourists often stop to admire. This cross-cultural appreciation and recognition allows art to find its soulmate amidst the bustling atmosphere, forming a moving part of the urban scenery.
The vitality of streets and alleys is deeply integrated into Shanghai's top-level design for enhancing the business capability level. The "Three-Year Action Plan for Enhancing the Business District Capability Level in Shanghai (2024-2026)" clearly proposes to create a "24-hour vibrant business district"; the recently launched "Action Plan for Accelerating the Creation of a World-Class Business Environment in Shanghai (2026)" also states, "Optimize the supervision and approval of outdoor stalls, outdoor advertising, outdoor signs, etc., to boost the development of the first-mover economy and nighttime economy, and continuously enhance the vitality and 'lively atmosphere' of the neighborhood."
Whether it's the "timeless classic" of Nanjing Road Walkway, the "elegant fashion" of Huaihai Middle Road, or the "integration of ancient and modern" in the Yu Garden business district, outdoor displays can interpret these business district positioning in the most flexible and intimate way, enriching the consumer experience level.
From the management challenges of "cross-door operations" to the organic composition of "urban scenery", the street corners of Shanghai are being continuously "heated" by a series of compliant, aesthetically pleasing, and ingeniously designed outdoor stalls. This warmth represents confidence in the business world, a sense of warmth in everyday life, and even more, the inclusiveness, wisdom, and foresight exhibited by a megacity on the path of refined governance. Outdoor stalls not only ignite consumer enthusiasm but also embody the spirit and vitality of a city facing the future.