Earlier this morning I watched a short film that I TiVo'd the other day. It's a profile of a the South China Mall in Dongguan, China which is twice the size of the Mall of America. The problem is that the geniuses who developed the mall built it in the middle of nowhere. There are no freeways nearby, nor is there an airport. I guess they thought "build it and they will come" but it didn't work out that way. For the first minute or so that i was watching it I thought the mall was still under construction. But it had actually been open for a while. (I'm late to this story. The mall was opened in 2005 and I think this film was shot in 2008.) What's more, a government funded group bought the property from the previous owners in order to save it from bankruptcy. Hmm, a government funded bailout. Why does that sound familiar?
Here's a link to the video -- Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall. There's also an interview with the filmmaker.
P.S. This also reminds me of a photo essay on Dubai that I recently saw in Fast Company magazine. Ah, such folly.
omg that is huge
not the biggest anymore. Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall ever built once it finish construction.