PREMIER shopping street Nanjing Road W., stretching from the Jing’an Temple to People’s Square, has often been called the “Fifth Avenue of Shanghai.”

It used to be the lifeblood of the old Jing’an, which only took over about 7.62 square kilometers, and it still plays a major role in supporting the development of the new Jing’an, which now covers about 37 square kilometers after merging with old Zhabei District. Actually, it’s such a good time for the road to be upgraded as a variety of economic and technological resources, ranging from Suzhou Creek to the northern industrial park, can be fully shared and complement with each other.

Four Metro lines and two elevated highways afford easy access to the popular thoroughfare for shoppers and tourists. It is a magnet for people to come both for work and play.

In additional to its retail shopping amenities, this stretch of the Jing’an District has 13 buildings with 816,000 square meters of Grade A office stock, according to Savills China. They sit amid luxury malls, boutique hotels, restaurants and serviced apartments.

Every sort of renowned brand product is available along Nanjing Road, with old-established names like Plaza 66 and newcomers like the Jing An Kerry Centre.

Many multinational companies have their offices here, including the regional headquarters of 17. They include L’Oreal China, Pfizer China and Philips China. The area is also home to 17 foreign consulates.

“If a foreign company wants to do business in Shanghai, it pays for them to look at the Jing’an area,” said Brett Rose, director and head of the Shanghai office of Robert Walters China. “As an entry point into China, Shanghai and Jing’an are the best bets.”

Indeed, Jing’an sits in the heart of the city, with Nanjing Road W. as its lifeblood. Its flavor is cosmopolitan and international.

“One of the things that I find so fantastic about Jing’an, particularly this part of Jing’an, is that you could easily be anywhere in the world,” Rose said. “You can get the same sense as if you were in Sydney, London, Singapore, Hong Kong or New York.”

As such, this area has among the most expensive, sought-after strips of real estate in Shanghai, with average rents at about 10.03 yuan (US$1.50) per square meter per day. It’s also one of the tightest markets in Shanghai, with an office vacancy rate of only 2.4 percent.

Nanjing Road has a long and colorful history. In the 1920s, it featured Western-style mansions, fancy ballrooms, haute couture stores, movie theaters and café culture.

In 1990, the Shanghai Center opened and turned a new page in the evolution of Nanjing Road W. Westgate Mall and Isetan department store opened in 1997, followed by CITIC Square in 2000 and Plaza 66 in 2001.

Louis Vuitton’s Asia Pacific flagship store opened in Plaza 66 in 2004. When asked why the fashion brand chose the site, Francois Delage, then executive vice president of Louis Vuitton Asia-Pacific, replied that the company wanted to attract the best customers in Shanghai.

The mid-section of the road soon came to be called Shanghai’s Golden Triangle.

The area near Jing’an Temple once boasted only one up-market department store, Jiuguang. In 2013, that changed with the addition of the Jing An Kerry Centre, which ushered in fancy restaurants and designer-brand products.

The subsequent entry of premium complexes like Park Place Wheelock Square and 1788 Square created a “Golden Pentagram” in the western part of Nanjing Road. That area has a commercial vacancy rate of 3.3 percent, with average rents of 10.55 yuan per square meter per day.

Several companies, like Robert Walters China and L’Oreal China have moved from the middle to the western section of Nanjing Road W. in recent years. Also, Burberry moved its flagship store from Westgate Wall to the Jing An Kerry Centre.

“Plaza 66 is getting quite old now, but the Kerry Centre is still amazing,” said Sebastien Gaudin, former manager of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, which moved from Plaza 66 to the Kerry Centre in 2013. He said the company wanted a “healthier,” more spacious environment with extensive facilities.

Rose said he always takes friends and family to the Kerry Centre.

“They are always so surprised that this kind of area exists in Shanghai,” he said. “It’s different from the visions they usual hold about China and Shanghai. It’s incredibly modern, with beautiful parks, clean streets and good infrastructure.”

As a specialist in professional recruitment, Rose said there’s a need for more skilled workers in this part of Shanghai.

“When I say ‘skilled,’ I mean university graduates who are service-oriented and consumer-oriented,” he said.

The municipal government wants to attract more investment and administrative headquarters to the area, according to a recent work report. There is still development potential on the east end of the area, which was once the venue for local Chinese brands and street stalls.

A new shopping mall is planned there as part of the HKRI Taikoo Hui project, which is named after one of Shanghai’s largest shikumen communities.

HKR International signed a contract to develop the land in 2002. About 2,900 families were relocated and an 89-year-old middle school was moved to make room for the project. HKRI Taikoo Hui is a large-scale, mixed-use project jointly developed by HKR International and Swire Properties, with an investment of 17 billion yuan.

Tenants will begin moving into two premium Grade-A office towers in the second half of this year, and the retail mall is scheduled to open in the first half of 2017.

Three luxury hotels and service apartments will open later.

Fourteen brands will open their first shops in China’s mainland in HKRI Taikoo Hui, with 12 leading brands making their Shanghai debut. The shopping mall will also feature 12 concept stores, cafés and celebrity restaurants.

The district government has announced that the world’s first Starbucks factory experiment store will be set up in the mall.

"We very much look forward to the forthcoming completion of HKRI Taikoo Hui, our biggest development to date in the mainland,” said Jackie Tang, CEO of HKRI Taikoo Hui. “This is a pioneering project.”

The Fengshengli project, built on a parcel of land that fetched a record high price of 1 billion yuan in 2014, will also come on stream this year.

The shikumen-style architectural layout will offer historical, cultural as well as commercial themes reminiscent of the Xintiandi area.