On the morning of August 12, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and Mayor Yang Xiong went on an investigative tour in Shanghai Xijiao International Agricultural Product Trade Center (hereinafter referred to as Xijiao International), accompanied by such officials as Li Yiping, Secretary General of the Municipal Government; Xu Yibo, Deputy Secretary General of the Municipal Government, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission; and officials from the Municipal Commission of Commerce and other relevant municipal government agencies. Director Zhao Huiqin of Qingpu District and Party Secretary and Chairman Lv Yongjie of Bright Food Group also joined in.

In the Fruit Storage Zone, Mayor Yang Xiong and his entourage acquired some detailed knowledge of processes related to banana and other imported fruits like packing and forced ripening. In the Meat Product Trading Zone, Mayor Yang carefully examined the food safety code used to track pork products and inquired how such products are tracked using the code. In the Inspection & Quarantine Zone, he listened to an introduction to the random inspection implemented on imported fruits there. Mayor Yang also entered the Examination Room and the Microscope Inspection Room to learn in person how fruit diseases are detected at the facility using advanced equipment.

After listening to reports by Chairman Lv Yongjie of Bright Food Group and Chairman Wang Yongfang of Shanghai Vegetable Group and opinions from Qingpu District and relevant municipal government agencies, Mayor Yang pointed out that Xijiao International is part of the city's essential infrastructure and meant to enhance public welfare as part of its assigned mission, and that it is necessary to build it into a world-class "top-tier" agricultural product trade center by taking advantage of its status as the only major produce wholesale market in Shanghai. It is necessary to draw lessons from advanced domestic and foreign experience, said Mayor Yang, and to scientifically and systematically design the entire system from top to bottom by properly handling all links of the entire operation, including storage, transaction, logistics, and distribution and by making use of the Internet as an important means. The ultimate goal is to use more advanced technological means and adhere to operational and managerial ideas that comply with the times, so as to improve the efficiency with which transactions and circulation take place and upgrade the original business model, which features careless and costly operations. It is necessary to ensure full coverage of all sorts of local produce offered wholesale at the center, and play an active role in serving the cities in the Yangtze River Delta, trying to become an important hub in the edible produce circulation system of the region and even of the entire country and providing the large number of city residents and consumers with fresher, safer produce and making its contribution to the construction of the national produce circulation backbone network.

Mayor Yang also said that every effort should be made to ensure that all possible issues associated with the later-phase construction of Xijiao International are completely worked out and to clearly define when and how the wholesale market should be upgraded. It is necessary to pay attention to doing planning by considering the entire facility as a whole, design the system from top to bottom, and thoroughly think before acting. It is imperative to reduce land use by taking the actual functional needs into account and perfecting the planning process, explore how to make its auxiliary facilities available to the society, improve the efficiency with which land resources are used for development purposes, grasp the law of development of the modern produce wholesale trading market, stick to market-oriented operations, build a scientific distribution network, unearth all available market potential, and further strengthen the profitability of the wholesale market, with a view to realizing a win-win situation for a business involved in the circulation process and the administrative district in which it resides.

While touring the center, Mayor Yang also assigned responsibility with respect to the traffic around Xijiao International and other issues.