Custom clothing market in Shanghai attracts increasing int'l travelers

An iconic custom clothing market in Shanghai, east China, has been attracting increasing international tourists who'd like to have their suits made in characteristic Chinese styles.

The increasing customer inflow into the South Bund Soft Spinning Material Market comes from China's visa-free policy.

The country currently offers unilateral visa-free entry to nationals of 50 countries. Meanwhile, nationals from 55 countries can now utilize the 240-hour visa-free transit program to enter China via 65 designated ports.

In the first half of this year, Shanghai received 5.3149 million overseas tourists, a year-on-year increase of 27.82 percent.

For international travelers, the custom clothing market is a must-visit place as it is ranked second on the list of the top attractions in Shanghai, only after the Bund, on global travel platform Tripadvisor.

Currently, it houses more than 280 stores.

"It's very famous in Italy, this place. We have a bunch of friends who really came here and bought some clothes. So, now I was very curious to try myself," said an Italian tourist.

A tourist from the United States said he had lived in Shanghai for 15 years, and the first thing he did when he returned to the city was to have his suit made at the market.

"If you live in Shanghai, you definitely know this place. My friend is having a wedding, so I have got a custom suit and a custom shirt made," he said.

Some travelers said they came here to have clothes made in traditional Chinese styles.

"We bought silk suits and we bought them with beautiful Chinese patterns -- with dragons and flowers, and they are very special because we cannot find them in our country. So, we are very excited to travel to Shanghai and buy them," said another Italian traveler.

The market is also famous for its cost-effective custom tailoring services thanks to the strong supply chain in the Yangtze River Delta. Hand-tailored suits sold at the stores in the market generally cost less than one-third the price of equivalent items overseas.

"This market used to be full of fabric stores. But the fabric sector kept shrinking over time, while custom tailoring became increasingly popular. After 10 to 20 years of transformation, around 95 percent of the shops in this place now mainly offer custom clothing services," said Zhang Shengxiang, general manager of the South Bund Soft Spinning Material Market.

Two snow leopards roaming through a rocky mountain valley in Menyuan Hui Autonomous County, northwest China's Qinghai Province, was spotted by a herder grazing his livestock nearby, who recorded the rare scene in his smart phone.

The footage shows the leopards moving calmly in grass and among bare rocks, occasionally pausing to look around, in fusion with the natural environment.

Snow leopards are a species under the first-class state protection in China, demanding high-quality habitats and intact food chains. Strengthened wildlife protection measures, including rotational grazing, mountain patrols and rescue efforts for wild animals, have worked to restore the fragile alpine ecosystem in recent years. As the environment improves, populations of rare species are steadily recovering.