Opened 2005 Province Guangdong Province | Opening date 2005 Total retail floor area 66 ha Phone +86 769 8877 8866 | |
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No. of stores and services 47 (20 planned) (Total spaces: 2350, Unoccupied: 2303) Address China, Guangdong Sheng, Dongguan Shi, 万江区 WanJiang ShangQuan, 万江路南10号 邮政编码: 523000 Hours Open today · 9:30AM–9PMSunday9:30AM–9PMMonday9:30AM–9PMTuesday9:30AM–9PMWednesday9:30AM–9PMThursday9:30AM–9PMFriday9:30AM–9PMSaturday9:30AM–9PMSuggest an edit Number of stores and services 47 (Total spaces: 2350, Unoccupied: 2303, 20 planned) Similar Golden Resources Mall, Amazing World, West Edmonton Mall, Persian Gulf Complex, World Waterpark | ||
New South China Mall (Chinese: 新华南Mall; pinyin: Xīn huá nán; Jyutping: San1 waa4 nam4) in Dongguan, China is the largest shopping mall in the world when measured in terms of gross leasable area, and second in terms of total area to The Dubai Mall (which has extensive non-shopping space including a zoo, a hotel complex and a theme park). South China Mall opened in 2005 and for more than 10 years it was mostly vacant as few merchants ever signed up, leading it to be dubbed a dead mall. In 2015 a CNN story reported that the mall had begun to attract tenants after extensive renovations and remodeling, though large portions remained vacant.
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New south china mall
Overview
With over a total area of 892,000 square metres (9,600,000 sq ft), and almost 660,000 square metres (7,100,000 sq ft) of leasable space sufficient for as many as 2,350 stores, the mall was built on former farmlands in the Wanjiang District of Dongguan in southern coastal China. The project was spearheaded by Hu Guirong (Alex Hu), who became a billionaire in the instant noodle industry. The mall was owned by Dongguan Sanyuan Yinghui Investment & Development (东莞市三元盈晖投资发展有限公司), Hu Guirong's company, but a controlling interest in the mall was later sold to Founder Group, a division of Peking University.
The mall has seven zones modeled on international cities, nations and regions, including Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Venice, Egypt, the Caribbean, and California. Features include a 25-metre (82 ft) replica of the Arc de Triomphe, a replica of Venice's St Mark's bell tower, a 2.1-kilometre (1.3 mi) canal with gondolas, and a 553-metre (1,814 ft) indoor-outdoor roller coaster.
After opening in 2005, the mall suffered from a severe lack of occupants. Targeted initially to an affluent market, Dongguan is itself mainly a city of poorly paid migrant laborers who failed to respond to all the attractions the mall had to offer. Much of the retail space remained empty, with over 99% of the stores still vacant in 2008. The only occupied areas were near the entrance where several Western fast food chains are located and a parking structure re-purposed as a kart racing track. A planned Shangri-La Hotel was not realised. Filmmaker Sam Green made a short film about the South China Mall called Utopia Part 3: the World's Largest Shopping Mall which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS's documentary series POV.
Originally called "South China Mall", the centre was redubbed as "New South China Mall, Living City" in September 2007. The 2007 makeover was orchestrated by PKU Resources, which took over the property from the original owner Hu Guirong in Dec. 2006.