I do not usually enjoy shopping. In China—with the crowds, the multiple steps needed to check out, and the infinite choices of things to buy—I dread it even more. But when I heard that Beijing had opened the largest standalone shopping structure in the world, I had to investigate. Until recently, Beijing's 6 million sq ft Golden Resources Shopping Mall was the world's largest. (Guangdong's 6.5 million sq ft South China Mall opened this spring.) Opened in October 2004, Golden Resources still easily tops the largest mall in the United States—Minnesota's 4.2 million sq ft Mall of America—as well as the largest mall in North America, the 5.3 million sq ft West Edmonton Mall in Canada. Today, China has more than 400 malls. Deloitte Research estimates that 7 of the world's 10 largest malls will be in China by 2010.
The stores in that section of the mall had not opened yet, and the couple was taking advantage of the open space. Once I hit Toysmart on the fourth floor, though, I found signs of commercial life. Kids were running around, testing out scooters their parents had yet to purchase. Down the hall were two different playgrounds for children and their families that charged by the hour for jungle gym access. The adult playgrounds are on the mall's fifth floor: Stellar International Cinema, which has seven screens, and the Century Club, a health and fitness center. Making my way back down through each level, I came across shops neatly arranged by product sold. I passed three consecutive shops selling treadmills, wondering which one would go out of business first, before entering an area of sporting goods stores. For the first time in Beijing, I found authentic North Face gear, and the Nike and Adidas stores also carried the real deal. Many of the products I saw, though, including the treadmills and the ¥32 ($4) fruit smoothie I purchased at a kiosk, are luxury items for the average Beijinger.
According to the People's Daily, Chinese citizens have spent, on average, only 60 percent of their incomes over the past 10 years, while the world average has been 78 percent. Walking through Golden Resources makes clear that China either has too many malls or that prices are still too high for many customers. Most likely it is a combination of both. Golden Resources has not attracted a large foreign crowd yet either, mostly because of the mall's location in northwestern Beijing outside of Third Ring Road—far from the city's foreign enclaves. I did not see a single foreign face or hear a foreign language in the hour and a half I spent shopping that Sunday afternoon. Moreover, none of the stores I visited accepted foreign credit cards. In contrast, in many stores at the Oriental Plaza and China World malls in the center of the city, no one bats an eye when a customer hands over a Visa card from a foreign bank.
