34 'Shanghai Gifts' Design Competition Winners Announced

If you are looking for some souvenirs that best represent Shanghai while blending innovation and culture, here are some hints.

From perfume and wind chimes and tea to Shanghai-style face cream, illustration works and blue and white porcelain tea set, 34 works – 15 from the design group and 19 from the product group – topped this year's "Shanghai Gifts" Design Competition.

Winning entries balance cultural essence, artistic expression, and practical value, showcasing the innovative vitality of "Shanghai Gifts," according to the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.

The illustration work "Alley, A Lifetime" features Zhangyuan Garden, a former pleasure garden now a cultural landmark in Jing'an District, transforming century-old alleys into a space of time. By overlapping human figures with historic buildings, the work explores the continuity of individual memories and Shanghai's cultural essence amid urban renewal, boasting both artistic appeal and philosophical exploration.

Another winning entry, a traditional Chinese essential oil set, aligns the traditional Chinese medical wisdom of qi (breath) with five stages in Shanghai's development such as fishing and salt production, port opening, industrialization, Pudong's development, and technological innovation. Using modern extraction technology to distill the fragrance of magnolia, it turns the city's history into a scented, experiential wellness gift.

Gaming company miHoYo won the competition with a series of desk accessories based on its original game IP Zenless Zone Zero, including digital calendars and phone stands that perfectly fit into young people's daily scenarios.

Shanghai Natural History Museum's dinosaur drip coffee and Shanghai Expo Museum's "Fortune on the Way" cultural and creative products took the most marketable award, while the tea set from Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower and a set of animal-shaped cultural and creative products from Shanghai Wild Animal Park also stood out.

Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts transformed the venue's architectural elements into cup structures, while another folding fan design incorporated silk embroidery inspirations into fan surfaces, bringing intangible cultural heritage into daily life.

The competition received nearly 4,000 submissions, and the conversion rate of winning entries hit 93 percent, according to the city's culture and tourism administration.