A POPULAR night market formerly in Zhabei District has been resurrected in Baoshan District with the same vendors.
This comes after Zhabei law enforcement officials removed the illegal vendors who were blamed for creating traffic jams in the area.
The Pengpu night market has almost completely relocated to the Gongjiang Road market, where its vendors have set up shops in the street, an official with the Baoshan urban management authority said.
The authorities said they were making plans to manage the vendors there.
“It’s almost the same, all my neighbors have come here from the Pengpu market,” one vendor said.
More than 100 stalls selling snacks, clothes and cosmetics had set up along Gonghexin Road and Gongjiang Road yesterday evening.
Many customers munched on barbecued snacks while browsing the stalls, some of which extended onto the roads.
“I worked in the former Pengpu market for seven years and suddenly had no place to set up my stalls,” one vendors said.
“We have to survive — what else we can do?” he added.
“Urban management officers and local community officials have negotiated at length on how best to manage the new night market,” an official, surnamed Chen, with the Baoshan urban management authority said.
A team of 50 law enforcement officials from Zhabei District government launched a campaign late last year against illegal vendors at the Pengpu night market after eight bus lines had to change route to give way to the market.
Local governments face a dilemma when cracking down on night markets.
For while night markets may attract complaints from some nearby residents over disturbance, they also provide locals who are often jobless with an opportunity to earn a living.