After four years of being blocked off by construction walls and scaffolding, electronics hub Huaqiang North in Shenzhen has reopened as a pedestrian street.
Following a grand reopening ceremony, the thoroughfare has been transformed into a 930m pedestrian street with more than 4000 sqm of new business spaces in a new sublevel. The vision is to have a street that integrates fashion and technology.
About 500,000 people shop at Huaqiang North every day, altogether spending more than 200 billion yuan (US$29.1 billion) each year.
Many streets and thoroughfares in Huaqiang North have been closed off to pedestrians since March 2013 because of the construction of Line 7 of the Shenzhen Metro. During this time, the Futian district committee and government as well as the Futian Huaqiang North subdistrict office have taken measures to help affected merchants maintain their businesses.