Shanghai unleashes festival to celebrate four-legged friends
As Shanghai experiences a surge in pet-friendly activities and services, a growing number of commercial spaces are opening their doors to four-legged companions and offering entertainment.
A pet carnival with a fun playground will open in Shanghai Times Square from the end of April to June. Activities such as dog yoga, a pet fashion show, skateboarding, and cycling will be available for pets and their owners.
“Pets are becoming more like children to their owners rather than their good friends, which has led to increasing demand for pet entertainment,” said Chen Xi, senior promotions manager at the shopping center.
Entitled “Woof! It’s My World”, the carnival will feature different themes every week, and is expected to attract 300 to 500 participants and bringing in over 10,000 visitors to the mall during the event.
“We will start with pet fashion shows and then launch a pet skateboarding activity, and invite the French bulldog community to take the lead in experiencing skateboarding.
“Doga, which enables dogs to practice yoga with their owners, and a cycling activity that uses our customized bicycles to ride with pets, have all attracted many applicants,” said Chen, adding that a pet adoption event will be held as well.
A pet art exhibition, designed from a pet’s perspective, will also be included. Chen said that all the paintings will be placed on the ground so that pets can view and enjoy them.
The carnival is intended to announce the transformation of the shopping center into a petfriendly environment at a time the pet economy is booming.
“We believe that the petfriendly atmosphere in Shanghai’s business community is among the best in the country,” Chen said. “We plan to keep creating similar pet carnivals because we have always had a vision that every pet owner working in the CBD area will be able to leave their pets in a park when they are at work, pick them up after work and go home together.”
As early as 2017, some local business with sufficient outdoor space began proposing petfriendly measures.
Shanghai Suhewan Mixc World, a shopping center beside Suzhou Creek that opened in 2022, features a floor dedicated to pet-related stores. The photo studio HIMO, for instance, has customized its operations in the mall to take artistic photos of pets.
There are more than 50 petfriendly stores in the mall offering service packages for pets that include grooming, spa, day care, hand-painted custom dog tags, baked goods and pet birthday parties.
Pet owners can also rent carts, raincoats, backpacks, drinking cups and leashes at the mall, while temporary pet care services charge between 25 and 40 yuan ($3.5 and $5.6) per hour.
The Bund Finance Center shopping mall now has over 90 pet-friendly shops and over 30 pet-friendly restaurants.
“In a recent survey of international talent recruitment and retention, we found that a city’s pet friendliness is an important consideration for many young international talents when choosing a place to work and live,” Lu Huiwen, a member of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference told Chinanews.com.