As the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays approach, Beijing's consumer market is witnessing a concentrated wave of new commercial supply. Between September 25 and 28, three commercial projects—Shoukai Songzhuang LONG Street, Beijing Poly Time, and 5°LAB Center—will open their doors in succession, with Qianmen West Xinglong Street also set to officially launch at the end of September. These four projects are strategically located in the city's sub-center, the northern tech hub, the Zhongguancun core business district, and the old city center, respectively, each bringing in multiple first-store and regional debut brands. This creates a "pre-holiday market entry" mini-peak, building momentum ahead of the upcoming National Day consumption period.
The simultaneous launch of multiple projects is filling gaps in regional commercial offerings through differentiation. Qianmen West Xinglong Street, situated in the old city core, is the only neighborhood renewal project in this round of openings. This 740-meter-long historic street has undergone restoration and environmental upgrades and will officially open at the end of September. During the renovation, the project adhered to the principles of "protecting everything worth protecting and restoring the old as it was," preserving iconic elements of the southern city's heritage, including screen walls, old foundations, traditional doors and windows, and "walnut brick" walls. In terms of business formats, the Qianmen Living Room has already made its debut, with this lifestyle pop-up store injecting a fresh sense of slow living into the old street. Currently, Fuyu Manpu and Yujian—both North China first stores—have opened, while brands like Zhio and Bai Jingting's personal label GOODBAI remain behind construction barriers but have already become popular photo spots for young visitors. Existing brands on West Xinglong Street, including Fusan Coffee, Wei Shui Coffee, and the Beijing first store of Tsubasa Coffee which opened in May, together add everyday local charm to the historic thoroughfare.
Songzhuang Shoukai LONG Street, located in the Xiaopu Art District of Tongzhou, will officially open on September 25. This open-style block, with a total construction area of approximately 103,400 square meters, is a key urban renewal project for Beijing's city sub-center and the first immersive aesthetic commercial complex in Songzhuang to integrate art, commerce, industry, and resort functions. The project features a wall-free, open design, with a 450-meter vibrant main axis connecting diverse scenes: sports and leisure in the north, coffee and socializing in the middle, and nightlife in the south. Beijing Poly Time, the first TOD park-style commercial complex in the northern part of the city, marks the inaugural entry of Poly's "Time" product line into Beijing. With a commercial construction area of about 120,000 square meters, it will officially open on September 26. The project has already attracted over 100 brands, including Hema Fresh and CSC South International Cinema. Centered on three core positioning pillars—AI-powered smart commerce, new retail lifestyles, and diverse sports venues—it builds a "sports-social-leisure-health" consumption loop, covering themed retail, specialty dining, aesthetic spaces, family experiences, and trendy leisure scenarios. The 5°LAB Center, transformed from the former Zhongguancun No.5 Shopping Plaza, is located in the Zhongguancun business district. With a scale of 36,000 square meters, it targets the pan-anime niche and will officially begin operations on September 28. Leveraging the underground "golden corridor" connection in the Zhongguancun area, the project links seamlessly with Dinghao DH3, Zhongguancun Grand Rong, Zhongguancun Lingzhan Plaza, Xin Zhongguancun Shopping Center, as well as Zhongguancun and Haidian Huangzhuang subway stations, covering interest areas such as idol culture, model collecting, anime merchandise, and card gaming.
Lai Yang, an expert on the China General Chamber of Commerce Expert Committee and executive vice president and researcher at the Beijing Commerce Society, believes these projects show clear differentiation in scale, location, target customers, and commercial functions, reflecting that Beijing's physical retail is shifting from standardized mall expansion to differentiated innovation driven by segmented consumer demands. Shoukai Songzhuang LONG Street leverages Songzhuang's artistic and cultural resources, Beijing Poly Time serves the industrial and residential population of the northern tech zone, 5°LAB Center targets Zhongguancun's young consumer and interest-driven crowd, and Qianmen West Xinglong Street relies on historical and cultural resources and tourism traffic. These four projects correspond to four entirely different types of consumer demand and lifestyles. Cloud consumption breaks down barriers of time and space, while consumption upgrades push demand toward personalization, experiential value, and emotional connection. Commercial planning is evolving from arranging supply based on district hierarchy and traditional business formats to reorganizing functions according to regional resources, industrial structure, and target demographics. The traditional boundaries between retail, dining, culture, entertainment, and tourism are further dissolving, and more new businesses that defy conventional categorization will continue to emerge.
The concentrated market entry of these four projects is precisely timed to capture the consumer window between the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. With only a few days separating the Mid-Autumn holiday from the National Day long break, opening during this period allows the initial excitement from Mid-Autumn to naturally extend into the spending surge of National Day. The first-store economy remains the core strategy for this round of openings. Shoukai Songzhuang LONG Street has brought in nearly 100 brands, including 45 first stores—28 Beijing firsts and 17 Tongzhou firsts. The "Master's Valley" section houses 26 independent brand owners, featuring names like Elf Art, Silver Pot Art, Silu, and Dongshi Collection. Beijing Poly Time has introduced three Beijing first stores, including the Chao Chao Health Lifestyle AI Experience Center and Michelin-recommended Lotus Heung, along with 31 Changping first stores such as Siyue Hetun and Taozhu Xin Zaoju. The 5°LAB Center has attracted pan-anime brands including the Beijing flagship store of Yizhiyu POP Research Institute, JOYTOY's Haidian first store, and Keka Collection's Haidian first store. Qianmen West Xinglong Street welcomes brands such as CHANGPHEL Shanfu's Beijing Qianmen flagship store, Fuyu Manpu's North China first store, and Yujian's North China first store.
Beyond drawing foot traffic with first stores, these projects are also boosting visitor numbers through scene creation and cultural-commercial-tourism integration. Shoukai Songzhuang LONG Street's opening activities run from September 25 to October 7, featuring nearly 200 performances and interactive experiences over 13 days, including a lantern wish event, the Asia Cheers Day tipsy market, and a Chinese-style parade. Artist Yishu Fan Kuan's outdoor art installation makes its Beijing debut, with five limited-edition paintings brought to life across the block. Meanwhile, the Tongzhou District government has incorporated the LONG Street opening into its dual-holiday "ticket stub discount" linkage system. Beijing Poly Time pairs its opening with the exclusive IP "CP panda" and seven time-themed activities. The "barrier photo-check-in" phenomenon at Qianmen West Xinglong Street also demonstrates that the neighborhood renewal itself possesses content appeal.
After the holiday excitement fades, the question remains: what will keep customers coming back? These four projects are opening during the dual holidays to leverage festival traffic for their initial debut. However, from the perspective of commercial operations, while holidays can generate sales and foot traffic peaks, they do not automatically translate into sustained consumption. Lai Yang points out that festivals create sales and traffic highs but cannot by themselves produce ongoing consumer engagement. First stores, debut exhibitions, and events generate purpose-driven visits, but a project's long-term competitiveness depends on whether it can establish a compelling reason for consumers to keep choosing it. Beijing Poly Time's customer base stems from the daily needs of the industrial workforce. The project covers multiple universities, with Metro Line 17 providing a direct roughly 15-minute connection to Wangjing; office workers can reach the commercial space directly upon exiting the station. Lunchtime quick meals and post-work sports and dining are inherently high-frequency scenarios, giving the project a relatively solid foundation for daily traffic. The 5°LAB Center anchors its long-term operations on the community stickiness of younger demographics. Relying on the underground "golden corridor" to link with surrounding commercial complexes and two subway stations, it remains to be seen whether the membership systems and event programs of brands like Yizhiyu, JOYTOY, and Hunter Board Games can convert one-time check-ins during the opening period into repeat visits. Shoukai Songzhuang LONG Street depends more heavily on sustained operation of its artistic content. Its "Master's Valley," composed of 26 independent brands, thrives on community loyalty and content refreshment. Whether the art activities during the opening can settle into everyday consumption scenarios will determine if festival traffic can be retained. After Qianmen West Xinglong Street's renewal, "slow living" formats such as fragrance, home goods, specialty coffee, and creative dining are not just photo stops for cultural tourism footfall but also have the potential to become daily destinations for nearby residents and repeat customers, converting one-time visits into habitual patronage.
Lai Yang suggests that Shoukai Songzhuang LONG Street should transform its artistic and cultural resources into sustainable consumption content, Beijing Poly Time should build stable lifestyle consumption around its industrial and residential populations, 5°LAB Center should turn young and interest-driven consumption into frequent visits, and Qianmen West Xinglong Street should convert cultural tourism traffic into associated spending on dining, culture, and experiences. Specialty content expands the consumption radius, high-frequency formats increase visit frequency, continuous product and experience updates drive repurchases, and different consumption offerings mutually reinforce each other to extend dwell time. Stable foot traffic and sales then support merchants' sustained operations. Only then can the traffic generated during the holiday period be truly converted into long-term commercial appeal for these projects.
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