![]() The 2007 makeover was orchestrated by Founder Group, which took over the property from the original owner Hu Guirong in December 2006. Originally called "South China Mall", the centre was redubbed as "New South China Mall, Living City" in September 2007. A planned Shangri-La Hotel was not completed.įilmmaker 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. 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. Much of the retail space remained empty, with over 99% of the stores still vacant in 2008. Targeted initially to an affluent market (the big cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen are adjacent), Dongguan is itself mainly a city of low income migrant laborers who failed to respond to all the attractions the mall had to offer. Įmpty walkways in the mall, February 2010Īfter opening in 2005, the mall suffered from a severe lack of occupants. 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 cost of its construction is estimated around $1.3 billion. Upon opening, South China Mall became the largest mall in the world, surpassing the Golden Resources Mall. The project was spearheaded by Hu Guirong (Alex Hu ), who became a billionaire in the instant noodle industry. The mall was built on former farmlands in the Wanjiang District of Dongguan in southern coastal China. According to another article published in January 2018, after more than a decade of high vacancy, most retail spaces were expected to be filled soon, and the mall featured an IMAX-style cinema and theme park. But CNN also added that most of the those unoccupied units, in addition to halls and walkways, were still under renovation. In 2015 a CNN story reported that large parts of the mall were "full of shops, restaurants and entertainment venues" after extensive renovations and remodeling, though large portions of the mall still remained vacant. ![]() 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. South China Mall ( Chinese: 华南Mall pinyin: Huá nán) in Dongguan, China (formerly New South China Mall) is the third largest shopping mall in the world when measured in terms of gross leasable area, and third in terms of total area to after Iran Mall. Shopping mall in Dongguan, China South China Mall
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