Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Beijing largests shopping mall Today I decided to take a look at Beijing[base ']s latest and largest shopping mall. Outside it was freezing cold due to the strong northern wind, so it was not a day to be walking on the streets (although visiting a temple fair would have been more appropriate on the first day of the lunar new year). The mall is located close to the last apartment I lived in in Beijing, about 1 km west of Suzhou Qiao on the 3rd ring road. While driving there I was surprised to see how many new buildings have been put up in the past 2 years. I left Beijing in October 2003, but in the 16 months that have passed since the whole neighbourhood where I lived has changed. New roads and many, many new buildings. Unbelievable what has happened there. Two years ago there was not even a good supermarket close by, but now the biggest shopping mall in Beijing has been built within walking distance of where I used to live. The place used to an small, old village, and I used to run through there to the summer palace. But all that has disappeared, and a huge shopping mall was put up. It[base ']s bigger than Oriental Plaza, the structure is at least several hundred meters long and it[base ']s 6 stories high. And amazingly it seems to be completely rented out already. Even Beijing Lufthansa Center (the city[base ']s first real shopping center, set up 15 years ago in Chaoyang district) has opened a second branch in it. Of course Lufthansa still uses the Chinese archaic way of payment: you want to buy something, give the article to a shop assistant, she fills out a piece of paper for you, you take that to the cashier, she checks it, you pay the goods, she puts a stamp on the piece of paper and gives you a receipt, with that you go to the shop assistant who checks the receipt, she gives you the goods, and with the second receipt you go to a different counter to get a Fa Piao. Timeconsuming and inefficient, especially if a) you cannot find a shop assistant, b) there is a long line in front of the cashier and c) you cannot find the Fa Piao counter. Why doesn[base ']t this change? Interesting other shops by the way: for example a branch of Pepsi sports (all kinds of sports clothes and shoes sporting the Pepsi brand) and a McKids shop (kids clothing with the McDonalds logo on it, Shanghai also has a shop in Huaihai Lu). Do these shops only exist in China? Also found an outlet of Vertu, the most expensive mobile phone on the market (over 40,000 RMB for a simple phone [^] made out of platinum). 10:39:46 PM    comment []