Jinling Place

Jinling Place is a landmark retail development located in Nanjing’s Hexi city centre, forming the commercial heart of the Nanjing Alibaba Centre campus. Conceived as a next-generation lifestyle destination, Jinling Place blends retail, social space, and experiential design to support the district’s role as a hub for innovation and urban living.

Strategically positioned along Nanjing Metro Line 2, the development enjoys direct mass-transit access and strong connectivity to residential communities and business districts. Its location within Hexi anchors Jinling Place as both a daily-use retail anchor and a citywide destination.

From concept to completion, Lead8’s design responds to the challenge of integrating Alibaba Group’s collaborative ethos with CR Mixc Lifestyle’s data-informed retail strategy. The result is a vertical retail destination that prioritises human experience while remaining adaptable to future trends. This excellence has been recognised with the Best Retail Interior Design award at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards.

The interior concept is structured around the metaphor of “The Cloud,” expressed through open, fluid spaces. Three signature atriums—Dawn, Cloud, and Dusk—anchor the spatial journey. Signature environments, including event atriums, urban living rooms, and a sky street for open-air dining, introduce variety and social intensity throughout the scheme. These spaces encourage longer dwell times and reinforce Jinling Place’s role as a lifestyle destination rather than a conventional shopping centre.

A modular interior framework enhances natural daylight while reducing artificial energy consumption. Welcoming around 280 brands in its first phase, many making their Nanjing debut, Jinling Place signals a new direction for urban retail in the city.

The development won Best Retail Interior Design (Mainland China) at the 12th PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau) and was Finalist for Best Retail Interior Design (Asia) at the 2025 PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards Grand Final.

Developer: Alibaba Group
Product type: Retail
Architect: Lead8
Completion date: 2025
Total land area: 130,000 sqm
Facilities: Event atriums, urban living rooms, open-air sky street spaces, and more