Usually a shopping mall is full of people, stores and eventually traffic, but when things do not go as those in charge expect, such a large building can become a typical liminal space of a horror movie. This is what is dying in some malls in the United States, after making a good living for a while. In other cases, poor planning doomed the project from the start.

This is the story of the New South China Mall, the largest shopping mall on the planet, which for a long time was 99% empty. And it had a happy ending. Half.

Aerial view of New South China Mall

mega project. Dongguan is the home of New South China Mall. It is one of China’s most important industrial cities, with a population of over ten million according to the census. It is not a very lively city due to its working population, social conditions and lack of an airport, making it difficult to communicate with other city centres.

The shopping mall was the work of Hu Guirong, who became a billionaire thanks to the instant noodle industry, and the New South China Shopping Center opened its doors with a construction cost of approximately $1.3 billion. Honoring his hometown was a whim.

Cities are being copied. The area was (and is) huge. Total area of ​​892,000 m2, 659,612 m2 construction area and more than 2,000 store areas. An interesting thing is that replicas of some cities, especially European cities, are found in China. An example of this is the Huawei office complex, which copies cities such as Granada. Another is a replica of European monuments and neighborhoods like Paris.

Venetian canals containing radioactive green water

Builders decided it would be a good idea to replicate areas of cities like Amsterdam, Rome, Paris or Venice in the mall, as well as other areas inspired by California, the Caribbean or Egypt. An example of this is the Bell Tower of San Marco in Venice (which has over two kilometers of canal in which you can ride a gondola) or the 25-meter high replica of the Arc de Triomphe, half the height of the one in Paris.

Or the replica of the Arc de Triomphe

big failure. As great as it was, it was a complete failure. There are various reasons that have worked against the complex from the beginning. The first was that it was in the suburbs, so you had to drive to get there. The area was not good either.

When the shopping center was being designed, it was planned that the inhabitants of these commercial spaces would be luxury brands and that they would be far from the economic opportunities of the people living in the area.

99% are “for rent”. This resulted in businesses being reduced to fast food chains, and almost the entire area was reported to be vacant. Unlike other projects of this style that were abandoned or repurposed, Hu Guirong did not give up and sold a majority stake in the mall.

The Founding Group, part of Peking University, sought to revitalize the building. The first was a name change (New South China Mall, Living City), which took a little longer, but for more than a decade only businesses such as KFC, McDonald’s or the IMAX cinema survived. All seemed lost, but the solution was always right under their noses.

Resurrection. Key? Reinvent the concept of hub. Failing to attract an affluent audience, the organization opted for the opposite strategy: trying to make the middle class feel at home. Canals were cleaned, green areas were expanded, lighting was changed and a marine park was opened. This enabled the occupancy rate of the shopping center to increase to 91% in 2020, as more accessible stores began to be established.

Ultimately, the story of New South China Mall has been a positive one. It long ago ceased to be the largest shopping mall on the planet, but at least it wasn’t just an abandoned concrete mass. Since there are so many.

Image | David290

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