Downtown Xiamen in East China's Fujian province [Photo/VCG]

Xiamen achieved the highest growth rate in consumption in Fujian province, totaling 116.86 billion yuan ($16.4 billion) in the first eight months of this year, up 12.9 percent year-on-year, according to the Xiamen statistics bureau.

Purchases of daily necessities recorded 28 billion yuan, up 29.8 percent year-on-year, 1.6 percentage points higher than the rate from January to July.

Xiamen has been striving to set up a complete e-commerce system and has actively upgraded its modern logistics industry. The city has also optimized its commodity supply and services to meet multilevel and diversified demand from consumers, contributing to rapid growth in new retail formats. Online retail sales of above-quota wholesale and retail enterprises in Xiamen hit 23.82 billion yuan, increasing by 40.1 percent year-on-year.

Consumer preferences are changing, with many people paying more attention to quality of life products, including green and smart products, as well as food and beverages. In the first eight months, retail sales of above-quota new energy vehicles was 1.97 times higher than the same period last year, while the retail sales of smartphones was 2.44 times higher.

From January to August, 436 new wholesale and retail enterprises set up operations in Xiamen, generating 3.77 billion yuan in retail sales, up 76 percent year-on-year, among which automobile and e-commerce enterprises performed particularly well, including Tesla.