Nanjing Road, Shanghai's most famous shopping street, gets an injection of vitality and glamour, Xing Yi reports.

In 1928, American missionary and educator Francis Lister Hawks Pott wrote: "At night they were illuminated by thousands of electric lights, and helped make the upper part of Nanking Road a 'great white way' ... They mark both the gradual process of the modernization of China and the growing prosperity of Shanghai."

The dazzling night scene of the country's top commercial street, Nanjing Road, that Pott described in his book, A Short History of Shanghai, has not changed after a century, except for becoming much brighter and longer.

The renowned shopping street, which runs west to east from People's Square in the city center to the Bund along the Huangpu River, officially opened its eastern section on Sept 12 after a nine-month renovation project.

The renovation converted the 500-meter stretch from a regular road into a pedestrian street, connecting its existing 1-kilometer pedestrian mall on the west of its intersection with Middle Henan Road.

The renovation was the biggest upgrade of the road in the past two decades.

Qiao Zhengyue, a columnist of the city's historical architecture and the author of a bilingual book, Shanghai Nanjing Road, which was published in August, attended the grand opening of the extension of the pedestrian street, which also marked the start of this year's Shanghai Tourism Festival that runs through the end of this month.

"A new era of Nanjing Road starts from tonight," she said on the opening day. "It's crowded yet exciting. Young and old, locals and tourists speaking different dialects, have all come to enjoy the road."

Qiao has been closely studying the history and development of the road for her book since 2017.

"During the 'golden age' in Shanghai's modern history from the 1920s to 1930s, Nanjing Road was a symbol of the prosperous international metropolis in the Far East, just like the Fifth Avenue of New York," she says.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the road was home to many big State-owned department stores, and people came to buy food and clothes that could not be found anywhere else.

But with new shopping malls emerging in the city in recent years, the road has gradually lost its appeal as those from the younger generation have turned to trendier malls. The eastern section soon became disorganized and filled with stores selling campy souvenirs for tourists.

"The local government also realized that the road cannot continue going this way and that the historical buildings need a rebirth," Qiao says.

A series of urban-renewal projects took place on the road in the past few years, and many initiatives were launched to upgrade the business and make the road appealing to young people again.

In 2015, the Shanghai New World Co Ltd and Japanese Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores jointly opened the Shanghai New World Daimaru shopping mall on the eastern part of the road. The new mall houses a range of premium brands such as Gucci, Burberry and Tiffany& Co.

In 2017, The Historical Central Store, Midland Building, Erza Building and Overseas Chinese Building formed a new business complex called The Central, featuring stores including Nike, New Balance and Skechers.

In 2018, boutique hotel Edition opened in the art-deco former headquarters of Shanghai Power Company.

In June, the biggest flagship store of Huawei replaced the clothes retailer Forever 21 in the Hardoon Building.

The first store of popular Korean emoji character Kakao Friends in the city made its debut on the new eastern stretch of Nanjing Road after putting up a successful pop-up store on the western end of the street last year.

Many old brands on Nanjing Road have also launched new businesses.

The Sanyang Food Store turned itself into a cafe. Shao Wan Sheng, which specialized in alcohol-preserved food, added imported alcohol and Spanish ham to its product line.

Shanghai Laodatong Rice Shop developed a series of products featuring rice as a major ingredient－rice ice cream, rice drinks and even rice facial masks. Taikang Foods opened a new branch with a trendy beverage chain, Sweet 7, offering bubble milk tea and mango drinks.

A week before the opening of the eastern extension of the road, the management company of the pedestrian street brought a large pop-up theme park by Bilibili, a popular video-sharing website that features animation, comics and games.

Ye Yifan, general manager of the company, says it wants to attract more young people to the street, and make them feel that Nanjing Road is "most Shanghai, most international and most fashionable".

Kang Rong, a tourist from Shaanxi province, explored the entire Nanjing Road with her friend on Sunday.

"I visited the street three years ago and I found that it has changed quite a lot," she says. "It became more modern and high-end as smaller stores were replaced by big brands."

George Wee, general manager of Fairmont Peace, which operates the city's landmark Peace Hotel on the eastern end of the road, says about the new extension:"I think it's great for the city. The openness of space and this connection with the Bund is absolutely perfect－this has injected even more energy and buzz.

"I see this new pedestrian walkway making Nanjing Road even better than New York's Fifth Avenue and Times Square combined."