At a barbecue restaurant in Badaju Market in Zibo, east China's Shandong Province, the dining experience now extends beyond sizzling skewers and local delicacies to cultural performances that introduce visitors to the city's history.

"If visitors come just for the food, their visit is too short for them to get to know Zibo better," said Zheng Feng, who runs the restaurant.

The approach is part of a broader transformation at Badaju, a traditional neighborhood market that went viral online in 2023. Since then, it has expanded its lineup to include cultural performances, handicrafts and creative merchandise. Over the past three years, the market has drawn more than 18 million visits on average each year, with over 430 merchants running more than 100 types of businesses.

In the first eight months of 2026, China's combined retail sales of consumer goods and services rose 2.5% year-on-year. Service retail sales climbed 4.9%, outpacing the 1% growth in goods retail sales, official data showed.

As incomes rise, service consumption is growing faster than goods consumption, a trend in line with broader economic development, said Lin Jian, vice president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, on China Economic Roundtable, an all-media talk show hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

Lin noted that per capita spending on services made up 46.1% of China's total per capita consumption expenditure in 2025, up 3.5 percentage points from 2020. He expects the share to exceed 50% between 2026 and 2030.

China's National Bureau of Statistics started releasing this expanded indicator of combined retail sales of consumer goods and services in June to paint a fuller picture of the evolving consumption landscape.

Also speaking on the China Economic Roundtable, Zhang Weihua, deputy head of Shandong's provincial culture and tourism department, said Badaju's enduring appeal stems from the interplay of consumer trust, local culture and interactive experiences.

The market has rolled out clearer pricing rules, consumer complaint channels and infrastructure upgrades. It also weaves local cultural traditions into commercial operations while preserving its original function as a community market.

A similar transformation is underway in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, where small theaters and immersive performances have carved out new space for cultural consumption. At the city's Houhu Ximatou theater, the immersive street play Changsha transports audiences back to the 1990s, unfolding a story of friendship and entrepreneurship against the backdrop of the city's old neighborhoods.

Actors engage directly with audiences in recreated residential settings; some spectators even hand tissues to performers during emotional scenes, said Jin Xingzhou, an actor in the show.

Changsha had opened 111 new performing arts venues by the end of June this year. These venues staged 14,000 shows in the first half of the year, drawing 3.63 million audience visits, according to local cultural authorities.

Zhang Dandan, head of the Changsha New Consumption Research Institute, who also joined the same China Economic Roundtable discussion, attributed the rise of new consumption formats to shifting consumer demands, which are spurring innovation in products, services and business models.

At the national level, China's consumption expansion plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) prioritizes expanding service consumption, upgrading goods consumption, fostering new consumption scenarios and improving the consumption environment.

The plan targets lifting China's total retail sales of consumer goods to roughly 60 trillion yuan ($8.89 trillion) by 2030. It also calls for more high-quality cultural and tourism supplies, better performing arts offerings, and support for immersive, interactive consumption venues.

Initiatives like those in Zibo and Changsha are being replicated nationwide. A total of 50 cities are taking part in a national pilot program to develop new consumption forms, models and scenarios.

These pilot cities are home to over 480 million permanent residents and generate more than half of China's total retail sales of consumer goods, data from the Ministry of Commerce shows.