The story appears on

Page A7

December 7, 2020

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Metro

Brisk business at Qibao Night Market

Despite the chilly weather these days, the Qibao Night Market in Minhang District which is operating on a trial basis, is hot on the weekend.

The night market run by Zhongmin Group covers 18,000 square meters on both sides of Zhongyi Road in Qibao Town. It began a trial operation of the outdoor booths last Tuesday, and welcomed the first peak visitor flow this weekend.

“We received more than 10,000 people on the first night, most of whom were nearby residents,” said Zhu Yanni, chief business officer of the market. “These days, we are seeing more people come and many of them are young from far away after seeing online posts of the market.”

Train-shaped stalls on the square provide over 100 kinds of Southeast Asian specialties and snacks, such as Thai barbecue and Tom Yum Goong, Hong Kong curry fish balls, Japanese fried chicken, South Korean cheese hot dog, roast chicken from Xishuangbanna in southwest China’s Yunnan Province, and sugar-coated haws on sticks from Beijing.

Chen Jinjian, a native of south China’s Guangdong Province, has rented five booths in the market to sell Thai drinks, snacks and barbecue.

He said he began to run a catering business after he retired as a Thai boxer in 2009.

“I had been in Thailand many years and have a lot of Thai friends,” he said. “So I decided to run a roadside dining cart featuring Thai food.”

He now runs five stalls in Guangdong, but this is his first business in Shanghai.

“Last year, when I visited Shanghai, I found there were many Thai restaurants. I also found that Shanghai people prefer food tasting sweet, which is a little bit similar to Cantonese and Thai cuisines. But there were few roadside booths that offer Thai food at cheap prices. So I believe there is a market for such a business.”

Chen said the business was better than expected even if it’s just on trial operation.

“Take the 22-yuan Tom Yum Goong for example, which may be 68 yuan in a Thai restaurant. We sell out 100 bowls before the market closes each day.”

The market now runs from 4-10pm and the operation hours will extend in summer.

The market will officially launch on December 24.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend