Suzhou residents shop during the Double 12 Shopping Festival on Dec 11. [Photo/subaonet.com]
The opening ceremony of the 3rd Double 12 Suzhou Shopping Festival kicked off at the Suzhou Center on the evening of Dec 11, local media outlets reported.
The shopping festival will continue until Feb 5 the following year, overlapping with the Double 12, Winter Solstice, New Year's Day, Spring Festival and Lantern Festival holidays.
With the participation of more than 12,000 companies, the festival will include up to 12 themed events, including brick-and-mortar consumption, online shopping, seasonal food, intelligent products, time-honored brands, imported goods, culture and sports, and the nighttime economy.
The opening ceremony also witnessed the launch of a consumption service platform and "Double 12" section embedded within the "Su Zhou Dao" mobile app. A Shopping in Suzhou guidebook was rolled out the same day to offer shopping tips and itineraries in the city according to different holidays.
Suzhou has been striving to become a national model city in reassuring consumers in recent years. Total retail sales of social consumer goods in the city exceeded 900 billion yuan ($128.88 billion) in 2021, ranking seventh in China. Its imports and exports were valued at 2.5 trillion yuan the same year, ranking fourth among cities in China.
