Along a short distance of five kilometer, Nanjing Road are concentrated 400 shops of every sort that are visited by 1.5 million shoppers daily. Many of the stores are the largest in china. The No. 1 Department Store, for example, sells over 40000 categories of goods, attracting 300,000 daily. Also located here are Shanghai's largest food shop, fashion boutiques, drugstore, silk store, lamp store, bookstore and florists. Some of the city's finest hotels, such as peace, Huaqiao and international, are also located on the street.

The street also boasts a variety of cultural spots, such as libraries, art galleries, martial art clubs, sports clubs, acrobatics arenas and cinemas.