Diners eat and admire the view at "The Ring" shopping park in Liangjiang New Area, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality. [Photo/Visual Chongqing]

Chonqing is known as a city of mountains, and it built a number of bomb shelters during past wars. These shelters have now been transformed into hot pot restaurants, theaters, gas stations and convenience stores.

In Liangjiang New Area, a shopping park known for its indoor ecological landscape, is also becoming increasingly popular among young consumers.

The Chongqing World Financial Center – located on the pedestrian street of the Jiefang Monument – currently operates shopping and accommodation businesses and offers viewing platforms from the 73rd to 75th floors.

"In cultivating Chongqing into an international consumption city, we have to ask ourselves questions like 'what should we sell?', 'who are our potential consumers?', and 'how can we sell our products?', said an official from the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce.

To boost sales of local products and services, the municipality has supported and guided the development of a slew of new businesses to create integrated consumption scenarios.

Mo Yuanming, researcher at the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone Integrated Development Center of Chongqing Technology and Business University, pointed out that most tourists from outside Chongqing prefer not to buy a lot of things, which may be closely related with the purchasing facilitation rate.

For example, the uneven distribution of five-star hotels and lack of signs written in foreign languages in many other consumption scenarios and at subways and airport have made it less convenient for international tourists to shop there.

Liao Chenglin, a professor at Chongqing University, said he believes that consumption in the municipality is less likely to combine multiple elements, which will to some extent affect the consumer experience.

Mo suggested that the government further optimize the shopping environment and strengthen its top-down design and guidance of consumption strategies and plans. Immersive and interactive consumption scenarios that combine culture with tourism, economy with technology, and consumption with culture are also advised to increase the willingness of people to spend money.