Progress is about to claim another part of Shanghai culture. Construction of a new tunnel connecting Puxi and Pudong will require clearing a section of Renmin Road, and with it the many shops where for years young women have found the wedding dresses of their dreams.

Local residents long ago nicknamed the street "Wedding Dresses Road." Soon, not only the wedding dresses, but the road itself, will be gone. It is not clear whether another "Wedding Dresses Road" will take its place.

Wang Ting, an assistant in a wedding dress shop on Renmin Road said her shop had been open for 10 years.

"But my boss does not know where she should move her shop to," Wang said."We have heard about the project and known that most of the shops on the road will be moved to other places. But my boss always says that she has not found a better place to open her shop yet."

Wang added that it was possible her boss will go out of business after the shop is demolished.

Most wedding dress shops along the road have been there more than 10 years and some for more than 20 years. By the end of the 1990s, this section of Renmin Road had most of the wedding dress shops in Shanghai. Along Renmin Road between East Huaihai road and Middle Jiangxi Road, there are more than 50 wedding dress shops that account for 40 per cent of all bridal gowns sold in Shanghai.

Zhang Jie has run her shop on Renmin road for 12 years. She said many couples come to the shops on the street to buy or rent wedding dresses. "In the peak season, for instance this National Day holiday, every day more than 50 couples came to our shop.

The highest daily turnover reached 10,000 yuan (US$1,200). "I'm not sure if I move my shop to another place there will still be so many customers cominge - after all, an important reason for them to come here is that this is the largest wedding dress market in Shanghai," Zhang said.

She added that she started looking for another place to open a shop after she heard about the project in July. "But I have not found an ideal place yet," she said. "Maybe I will have to go out of the wedding dress business after the shop is demolished."

Not far from this section of Renmin Road, at No. 777, Tian Yi Wedding Service Plaza opened on April 28. Some shopkeepers have planned to move their shops there, but they are confronted with the same problems faced by other businesses relocated by modernization.

"The rental fee in Tian Yi Plaza is more expensive - we will be paying an average 10 yuan (US$1.21) per square metre everyday," a shopkeeper surnamed Sun said. "Moreover, not many customers know the plaza. When they want to rent or buy wedding dresses, shops on this street are still their first option. I hope in the near future the rent in the plaza will be much cheaper. If so, I think I will move my shop to the plaza."

Sun said some shopkeepers in the area hope to move their shops collectively to the plaza. "It will be good for attracting more customers," he said.

Most shopkeepers do not have clear plans to deal with the changes they have to face. As for the young couples of Shanghai, if "Wedding Dress Road" vanishes, planning weddings may never be the same again.