Tourists take photos at the Bund area of Shanghai. [Photo by Wang Gang/For China Daily]

China's financial city Shanghai topped the country's consumption city\r\n list in the first half of this year, Yicai reported on Aug 2.

Total retail sales of consumer goods in Shanghai reached 904.84 \r\nbillion yuan ($139.99 billion) in H1, up 30.3 percent year-on-year.

According to the Statistics Bureau of Shanghai, upgraded consumer goods contributed to the greatest consumption growth.

Retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry increased 72.4 percent \r\nyear-on-year and that of cosmetics and communication equipment witnessed\r\n 24 percent and 19.2 percent, respectively, on a yearly basis.

With 722.75 billion yuan total retail sales of consumer goods in H1, \r\nChina's capital city Beijing grabbed the second place on the list, up 21\r\n percent year-on-year.

Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan province replaced Shenzhen in \r\nSouth China's Guangdong province to hold the fifth position on the list.

Innovative city Shenzhen was sixth in terms of consumption in H1, followed by Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan and Hangzhou.

The total social consumption of the top 10 Chinese cities surpassed 300 billion yuan in the first half of the year.

Consumption has become the main engine to promote China's economic \r\ngrowth. With effective containment of the COVID-19 pandemic, China's \r\neconomy will continue to recover and more consumption potential is \r\nexpected to be unleashed.