World’s Largest And Loneliest Mall
“It was trumpeted as the world’s largest retail mall, with shoppers able to browse through 1,500 stores, take a stroll along a mock Venetian canal or even have lunch in front of an 85ft replica of the Arc de Triomphe. But the New South China Mall, which opened in 2005, stands empty with 99 per cent of its shops having remained unleashed and attractions including a 553-metre indoor and outdoor roller coaster standing idle. It was designed to attract an average of more than 70,000 visitors a day to the city of Dongguan, but has less than a dozen shops in its 9.6million sq ft of floor space… David Hand, a retail analyst at Jones LaSalle in Beijing, said: ‘They set out to the be the biggest, and hoped that being the biggest would be the attracting factor. ‘It hasn’t delivered.” w/ photos
