Anime China: the ACG malls, guzi stores and conventions of the 二次元 world

Somewhere in the last five years, China’s anime-game-comics culture (ACG, or 二次元 — "the 2D world") went from subculture to infrastructure. Dedicated ACG malls anchor major shopping streets, over three thousand guzi (谷子) stores — merch shops dealing in badges, acrylic stands and character goods — have spread across dozens of cities, and the summer conventions in Shanghai draw crowds that would fill a stadium several times over.

For a visiting fan the upside is huge: Chinese domestic IP (Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and the whole miHoYo universe — headquartered in Shanghai) at the source, Japanese IP everywhere, and prices that undercut Tokyo on most goods.

The map

• Shanghai — Bailian ZX (百联ZX创趣场), Nanjing Road East: China’s first all-ACG mall and the scene’s capital building — six floors of Bandai, SEGA, Aniplex and bilibili goods, with pop-up events rotating constantly (it served as the official Bilibili World sub-venue in 2026). Nearby: Jing’an Joy City runs a pan-ACG-and-K-pop program with themed pop-ups all summer, and Metro City in Xujiahui holds China’s first JUMP Shop.
• Beijing — Wangfujing: the Joy City basement plus surrounding blocks pack 20+ anime stores including Animate Beijing.
• Guangzhou — Anime Star City (动漫星城): the south’s underground ACG warren, straight off the Beijing Road metro stop.
• Hangzhou — Z PARK: a 15,000 m² underground ACG zone in the CBD, opened 2025 — fitting for the city that hosts half of China’s animation industry.

Conventions and the calendar

July in Shanghai is the high season: Bilibili World (the fan-culture giant, at the NECC) and ChinaJoy (the games expo) run back to back in July and early August each year. Comicup (CP), China’s enormous doujin fair, runs roughly twice a year between Shanghai and Hangzhou — its spring 2026 edition claimed over 10,000 booths. Tickets for all of these sell out fast through Chinese channels; plan weeks ahead.

Year-round, the scene’s pulse is pop-ups and collab cafés — official IP cafés and themed store takeovers that run 4–8 weeks each. Any given week, Shanghai has several running; they’re announced almost exclusively on Chinese social media.

Shopping notes

• Guzi vocabulary: 吧唧 (bàji) = badges/pins, the core collectible; acrylic stands and shikishi boards fill the rest of the wall. Prices start pocket-change cheap.
• Kayou (卡游) trading cards — Ultraman and anime TCG packs sold everywhere from guzi stores to corner shops; the great cheap souvenir for kids.
• Domestic IP goods (Genshin, HSR, Chinese web-novel franchises) are the things you genuinely can’t buy at home.

The pop-up problem, solved

The best of this scene — the current collab café, this month’s takeover floor, the con ticket drop — lives on bilibili, Weibo and Rednote, in Chinese, with a shelf life of weeks. Tell KORA your fandoms and your dates: we check what’s actually running, route your day, and grab tickets or queue reservations where they’re needed. (Blind-box hunting too? The Pop Mart guide is next door.)