In order to climb up the famous magical world in Chongqing-Building A of Hongding International-and enjoy the happiness on earth.
In Guanyin Bridge, an old business district with a status comparable to that of Nanjing East Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, the old-fashioned Hongding International Building A is a mysterious existence. The four passenger elevators in the building serve thirteen or four shops and their guests on each floor. Hollow out in the middle of the building, there are two patios running vertically through the 48th floor, from which you can see the balcony of every household.
Hongding International has lived up to its name, being in Chongqing and aiming at the whole world. In Block A, there is a private kitchen under the banner of molecular cuisine, where you can change into a free cat coffee, a beauty training institution and a tattoo shop, the popular Ins afternoon tea, an appointment massage that is not easy to open the door, and a board game bar and a private cinema.
Chongqing, a mountain city with a population of more than 8 million in the main city, never lacks a "wonder" that makes people in the plain and hilly areas stunned. Chongqing is the city with the largest number of high-rise buildings in western China, with 55 high-rise buildings over 200 meters built-in San Francisco, which is also a mountain city, the number is less than 20. Houses are built on the mountain, row upon row, and the scene of "the first floor is the top floor" appears.
Due to the small land area and high population density, Chongqing has been developing vertically since the beginning of urban planning. It is not uncommon for Hong Ding International to combine all roadside shops in the same building in Chongqing. Similar to Hong Kong, Chongqing's large and small stores are vertically distributed in various buildings in different business districts. On the first floor, there is a frog fish head, while on the other floor, there are signs of children's training institutions and "debt collection".
But among all the high-rise buildings in Chongqing, Hongding International, with its plain appearance, is definitely a wonder.
Noon 1 1 half past ten. This is the time when Hongding International Building A really wakes up. One after another, people pressed the elevator impatiently downstairs, on the balcony of the patio and in the corridor, and the aunt who worked in a private kitchen moved out of the bench to peel beans and prepare vegetables at the door.
Chongqing's daily entertainment life ends late, and the day starts late. It is said that Chongqing has the concept of night market since the Tang Dynasty, while modern night markets such as Huangjueping and Keyuan 4th Road have been formed since the early 1990s. Therefore, men, women and children here have long been accustomed to the life of staying up late and going out at night. It is not unusual for them to dance a square dance after dinner and then make an appointment with their little sisters to burn a handful and go home.
Like the snack street and barbecue shop in Guanyinqiao downstairs, Hongding International won't have a peak customer season until the evening: the local young people and children who have just left school begin to go out, and the hanging star lights are turned on in the windows of the building, and the signboard marked "Recommended by Tik Tok" begins to light up. Security guards who are invisible during the day will suddenly appear, and loudly greet people waiting for the elevator in the lobby on the first floor.
But during the day, Hongding International is just a dark and quiet commercial and residential building. If the scenery in the courtyard of Block A can still give you a clue of business, Block B and Block C, which are connected with the hanging garden, look like ordinary cheap commercial buildings.
You never know what's going on inside this huge city fortress. It allows young people from different circles to find a sense of belonging, and it is also a buffer zone for young entrepreneurs to start in this city.
1992 Huang Ying's gentle friend runs the high-altitude afternoon tea shop "Miss Ting" on the 43rd floor of Building A of Hongding International, which just opened in March this year. After graduation, Huang Yirou used to work as a medical beauty consultant in a plastic surgery hospital. He often had to work overtime but earned a good income.
Huang Yingrou is tired of the nine-to-five office life and going against her will for work from time to time. So she resigned with her friends and went to a high-rise store in Block A of Hongding International. At first, she wanted to open a high-altitude B&B with the same style, but the fierce competition and higher investment in the B&B made her choose an afternoon tea shop that didn't need a kitchen or a large area. There are natural advantages in opening high-altitude afternoon tea in Chongqing, where high-rise buildings are dense. Instead of recruiting part-time employees, she and her friends took turns greeting guests in the store.
High-altitude afternoon tea is one of the hottest businesses among young girls, especially small red book users. The store often has different exquisite scenes and its own high-rise scenery overlooking the city. As long as you come to the store to buy an afternoon tea, you can stay and shoot for an afternoon, so that your mobile phone photo album can be loaded. Among them, the first famous one is an afternoon tea shop named Pétales in Shixia, Futian, Shenzhen. In the big bed set of this shop, girls can take photos of online celebrity pretending to be staying in a five-star hotel in Hong Kong.
"Chongqing people are generous and aggressive," Huang Yingrou said. "It's not difficult to quit and start a business. We will say that this is called honest and frank. "
Chongqing's informal urban temperament may be reflected in the fact that even in an afternoon tea shop that pays great attention to service and exquisiteness, there is no greeting between the boss and the guests. A guest today may become a friend or employee of the shopkeeper tomorrow.
On the 40th floor of Building A of Hongding International, there is the most popular wedding experience hall "BIANCHE Aries Dream" among young girls in Chongqing, which is engaged in the business of combining high-altitude afternoon tea, Instagram-style photo sets and wedding experience. The owner is a beautiful girl named Zhang Xue in 1996.
A 19-year-old guest who often comes to the store to take photos-also from Chongqing, has a good chat with Zhang Xue. Every time he visits, he remembers to buy Zhang Xue a cup of milk tea and help greet the guests. Later, in the summer peak season, she became a permanent part-time job in Zhang Xuedian. Between the owners and customers here, there is also a sense of trust and nature of some peers. "Sit yourselves down for a while, and I'll pour some tea." Two well-dressed young girls came to the store. Huang Yingrou, the owner of the 43rd floor, greeted her in Chongqing dialect and disappeared safely into another room. After a while, she served cakes and tea, and naturally sat behind the counter and ate the take-away of hot and sour powder. The girls sat in the white bathtub and window view and started taking selfies.
In many retail formats of Hongding International and even Chongqing, the relationship between shopkeepers and guests has some Jianghu atmosphere of Chongqing: not far away, not close, just right, direct and not polite.
"Chongqing is a city that is very Jianghu and despises scholar temperament. You can't say you are a doctor or something here, others will think you are pretending. Even if you have culture, you should be grounded, "said Aris, a native of Chongqing.
This grounding gas makes Chongqing's small and micro retail business particularly prosperous, and the city is relatively friendly to new small and micro entrepreneurs. Even in the districts and counties outside the 9 th district of the main city, Chongqing is a huge consumer market with a population of 30 million, which has a huge potential for tapping customers; Chongqing is also particularly suitable for catering-related entrepreneurship: Chongqing Statistics Bureau shows that the total retail sales of social consumer goods in Chongqing almost exceeds the national average every quarter, and the retail sales revenue of catering is the highest double-digit growth in all categories. From/kloc-0 to-August this year, the total retail sales of social consumer goods in Chongqing increased by 8.6%, while the retail sales of catering industry increased by 13.7% year-on-year.
Hongding International is an experimental field for young people to resign and start businesses. Zhang Xue, the owner of BIANCHE Aries Dream, also resigned and started a business. Her original occupation was real estate sales, so she decided to be her own boss because of her hard work. Not to mention the owners of small bars, dogs, cats and board games bars in the building, most of whom are born after 90 with dreams of starting a business.
But the reason why young entrepreneurs gather in Hongding International is that the rent is cheap.
In Guanyin Bridge, the second largest business district in Chongqing, the Hongding International with general hardware facilities is almost the cheapest building for rent. The Times Street, developed by Longhu Real Estate, a local real estate developer in Chongqing, is located in the downstairs of Hongding International, including all kinds of specialty stores from MUJI to Louis Vuitton. The monthly rent of relatively new buildings around it exceeds 5,000 yuan-for example, the monthly rent of 50 square meters of pavement next to Rongheng Times is about 7,000 yuan, and this building has a more beautiful transparent viewing elevator. Not to mention the street shops that rent tens of thousands of dollars downstairs are rented by chain brands with more budgets. However, the flow of people in Guanyin Bridge is considerable-unlike Jie Fangbei, where there are many tourists, Guanyin Bridge has a high proportion of locals and a relatively stable passenger flow; Unlike Shapingba, where college students gather, Guanyin Bridge's consumer groups are more diverse from local junior high school students to office workers who come to Chongqing from other places.
Hongding International has given a discount ticket to those who want to open a shop by using the flow of people in CBD. Building A of Hongding International is dominated by large-sized apartments, and the monthly rent is only 5,000-6,000 yuan, while the monthly rent of a small apartment of about 40 square meters in Building C is only about 2,000 yuan. Zhang Xue's wedding dress shop is about 80 square meters, and the rent is only more than 5,000 yuan a month; This is the most cost-effective place she found in Guanyin Bridge in the preparatory stage of opening a store.
This has enabled more and more small business entrepreneurs to enter the crowded Hongding International Building, and strive to make a living through online publicity methods such as small signs in the dim elevator room and public comments.
Similarly, cash-strapped young people can also find entertainment methods that can kill a whole day at Hongding International for less than 150 yuan. At noon, you can buy a set meal for two in the private restaurant in Hongding International, and the average price is only 100 yuan. In the afternoon, you can buy a minimum 20 yuan package and sit in a cat coffee shop, a dog coffee shop or an afternoon tea shop where you can take pictures. In the evening, Hongding International is even more lively-you can join the crowd who come to the board game shop here to spend the night, and young couples can also book the theme room of a private cinema for one night, which is lower than the surrounding chain hotels.
If Shanghai's urban vitality lies in the branch roads and alleys behind the business circle-shoe repair shops, laundries or mini-fine coffee are opened here, which, like capillaries, constitute a naturally growing business form behind the hustle and bustle of the city; Then in Chongqing, its capillaries are like Hongding International, which connects the vertical buildings like fortresses with elevators.
However, these urban mazes in Chongqing are different from the exquisiteness of Shanghai culture. Some people say that the inclusiveness of Sichuan-Chongqing region is closely related to the influence of Taoist culture here, which makes the residents in Sichuan-Chongqing region warm-hearted, not eager for quick success and all-encompassing. In Taoist terms, it is "everything is natural", which translates into Chongqing dialect as "it's none of my business if others want to bang".
The inclusiveness of Hongding International allows different small businesses to have a place in the building, and also allows the subculture of the city to grow in a low-key way here.
A while ago, Taiwan Province writer Liao Xinzhong's "Fantasy Travel Notes of Chongqing Magic House Hongding International for Six Days and Five Nights" was screened. The article said, "At Hongding International, if you turn a corner in the corridor, you will meet a lively and lovely magical girl; I often meet Hanfu fans who are looking for organizations and bow to each other in front of the elevator. "
Indeed, the kimono themed cat bar, Hanfu themed cat bar, etc. probably meet the needs of those consumers who change their clothes, and there are more shops that serve a narrower circle. After hiding in small security doors on different floors, they opened the doors and found something unique, such as the Qing bar called "Here comes the cabinet", or the massage shop called Sadistic SPA, and those small businesses that didn't even have names in public comments.
Once a single man came to Huang Yingrou's high-altitude afternoon tea shop, which was the first time since it opened. In the past, the only men who visited this store were the delivery boy and the boy who accompanied his girlfriend.
This young man in his twenties is "very simple" in her words, but the man ordered afternoon tea and walked into the white room decorated with an exquisite big bed-feather lamp, crystal crown, soft pillow and pink robe. This not-so-fashionable man is holding a bunch of templates of trendy men's photos and asking the shopkeeper to take his photos.
"We worked hard to help him shoot, but we couldn't get the feeling of being a hipster," Huang Yingrou said. "But I took dozens of pictures for him and he was quite satisfied, so I was relieved."
In chungking mansions, MacGordon wrote chungking mansions of Nathan Road as "the representative of low-end internationalization and the edge of the world center". Businessmen from Africa, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have left their homes to seek gold here. White addicts with frustrated feelings have stayed in cheap hotels here for a long time, and international asylum seekers have come here to seek refuge. Tourists, businessmen, sex workers, temporary workers and people of different religions live here, which makes chungking mansions a conflict zone full of conflicts but full of vitality.
Hongding International is the chungking mansions of Chongqing. It is also a contradiction between conflict and integration: here, people of different formats and business forms come and go and have their own small rivers and lakes.
Some shops will make you feel out of date: some private restaurants seem to blend all the outdated elements of online celebrity-there are fake cherry trees in Japanese restaurants at the checkout bar, but the tableware is a common Chinese enamel cup in Nanluoguxiang, with murals of "workers have power" hanging on the wall, which looks like there are no doors; Some shops are popular in Tik Tok, Aauto Quicker and Xiaohongshu, such as Zhang Xue's and Huang Yingrou's afternoon tea shops. Even on weekdays, there are uninterrupted passengers, and even Xiaohongshu is seen coming from other places.
Owners will also visit each other: in the off-season, the owner of the afternoon tea shop will go to the board game bar downstairs to play mahjong; The staff of the nail salon occasionally go to the private kitchen next door for dinner.
More often, they just treat each other as passers-by, because no one knows how long they can stay here-the low start-up cost of Hongding International also means that many shops are highly reproducible, and there are many entrants, so it is difficult for you to stay.
"It's been a long time to open a wedding experience photo studio here for more than three years," Zhang Xue said. "We opened a wedding experience photo studio in Chongqing earlier, but it just opened in May, and now there are some similar stores opening in other places."
Huang Yingrou recently bought a lot of new Halloween-themed decorations on Taobao, and plans to redecorate the store during the off-season when school starts in September. Although her high-altitude afternoon tea shop is popular, its return rate is not high, so it is necessary to change the theme to make young girls willing to take pictures. The young man who runs a cat cafe in Block C keeps more than a dozen cats in the store, but there are four or five similar stores on the same floor. They do more business as regular customers-friends bring their own cats to play.
How many of them want to go out-leave the dark elevator room and the crowded pattern of four ladders and twelve households, and leave the noisy and messy patio.
A private restaurant "Wandering Map" on the 43rd floor is a success at present. They have been here for more than 4 years, and they have set up three storefronts on the same floor. They also opened a noodle shop in the nearby snack street, Chongqing Ninth Street, which is no longer a small pavement in the building.