Four Shanghai streets are undergoing facelifts in a bid to become world-class shopping areas and compete for sales.

They are aiming to draw a parallel with the Champs Elysees, the Michigan Avenue and the Ginza, while conserving their special cgaracters and attractions.

To maintain its reputation as China's "number one shopping street", the Nanjing Road in Huangpu District employed the Mckinsey Consultation Company to help design its development blueprint for the next ten years.

During the Chinese new year festivities last month, an automobile sales firm opened for business on this pedestrian road,ending its 100-year history of "no automobile sales".

A district official in charge of the road's development said that the remodeling aimed to meet diversified market demands.

"Selling autos is just our first step in the direction of developing comprehensive consumption," he said.

Next to the Nanjing Road is another ambitious shopping street, the Nanjing Xilu Road in Jing'an District, a road famous for its Western-style.

While the Nanjing Road boasts a daily traffic of 800,000 people, the Nanjing Xilu Road has the advantage of "white-collar" purchasing power, hosting 80 percent of the city's heavyweight shopping malls favoured by wealthier shoppers.

Recently, a construction project costing seven billion yuan (about US$ 843 million) broke ground there to make it more international.

Meanwhile, another reform plan is brewing on the Huaihai Road in Luwan District, which has long enjoyed a reputation for setting Shanghai's fashion and culture.

Although no specific investment has been yet disclosed, an official with the Luwan District said that the construction would surely be massive.

The last competitor is the Sichuan Beilu Road in the city's northeast. With the help of three well-known consultation companies including the A.C. Nelson, new buildings covering one million square meters will be built.

Of the total, an area of 300,000 square meters will be used for construction of commercial buildings which will house mostly historic and cultural attractions of the city.

With a construction budget of more than 10 billion yuan (about US$1.2 billion), the scale of change is huge for the Sichuan Beilu Road, Wu Jiongming, a local official, said.

( Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2002)