wren Posted October 11, 2009 Report Share Posted October 11, 2009 A short video about the world's biggest shopping centre in Guangzhou, China. Is nothing American sacred anymore? The largest mall in the world turns out not to be the famous Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. It’s the South China Mall outside of Guangzhou, China. Outdoing the techniques of American consumerism, South China Mall is Disneyland, Las Vegas and Mall of America rolled into one. There are carnival rides, mini-parks, canals and lakes amid classic Western-style buildings with space for hundreds of shops. But along with the glitz and glory of middle-class shopping, the mall’s Chinese developers seem to have imported something else — a cautionary tale of capitalist hubris. Alex Hu, a local Guangzhou boy who made it big in international business, wanted South China Mall to be a hometown monument to his success — even though Guangzhou has no major airports or highways nearby. And four years after its construction, the mall sits virtually empty of both shops and shoppers. But the Chinese have imported yet another concept familiar to Americans — South China Mall is considered too big to fail. So, employees line up for flag-raising ceremonies and pep talks about “brand building” before going off to maintain the deserted concourses meticulously. If China is the future of the world economy, It looks nice. Just no customers. Video on this page (13 min long): http://www.pbs.org/pov/utopia/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicejim Posted October 11, 2009 Report Share Posted October 11, 2009 How bizarre! It would be a good movie set though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drbubb Posted October 25, 2009 Report Share Posted October 25, 2009 The malls in HK are doing well. But then, they are mostly on top of MTR stops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littledavesab Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Hugh Henry would have loved it........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Dali Posted October 27, 2009 Report Share Posted October 27, 2009 Hugh Henry would have loved it........ Hehe yes you're right! HH does have a valid point though. Overcapacity will be a massive theme. Who's going to be filling these places? What's going to change to make that happen? I can't think of anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverharp Posted October 30, 2009 Report Share Posted October 30, 2009 very ugly , looks like a mig multi storey car park. Can it be seen from space Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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