Stairway to heaven?
Well, maybe not heaven, but this branch of Wanda Plaza is more fun than most shopping malls
Stairway to heaven?
Well, maybe not heaven, but this branch of Wanda Plaza is more fun than most shopping malls
Ideally I should have gone in the evening or at the weekend, when shopping malls are at their busiest, but that idea filled me with horror. I dislike shopping malls, in fact I dislike shopping generally. Usually, I wait until things are either broken, used up, or threadbare before I consider investing in replacements, and then I go at a time when the hoardes are least likely to be teeming.
Wanda Plaza is a shopping mall; there are over 500 of them scattered across the length and breadth of China, and until the other day, I had managed to avoid all of them. The Longgang branch, one of three in Shenzhen, is billed as a 4th-generation mall. I had no idea there had been three previous generations, so for the sake of enquiry, and because there is not much else to do in the rainy season, I set off to discover what made it different.
From the outside, the mall looks like a huge box, cream with regular diagonal patterned lines. A palm-sized version would probably contain a small but expensive trinket from a European luxury brand. Inside, the mall boasts four separate wings that meet at a central atrium. This area displays the latest electric cars to hit the streets, but the main focal point is a 64-metre-long escalator that rises 30 metres directly to the sixth floor through a vortex in a giant LCD screen. At the summit, you are deposited beneath a globe which displays alternately what looks like the surface of Mars and a wild beast.
An MC Escher inspired staircase
It is also the entrance to an establishment called PartyDay. This boasts an area of about 10,000 square meters and 50 different activities, from billiards to go-karts and ice skating. The staff told me I needed to book for at least two hours to enter, so I demurred. Besides, the clientele appeared to be mostly mid-teen to twenty-somethings, a demographic to which I have not belonged for a considerable number of years. Nevertheless, I do believe a spark could have been rekindled for a quick turn on the dodgem cars.
Across three floors of one of the wings, there is an MC Escher inspired staircase. It looks very convincing from a distance, but it can be climbed quite safely. On the fourth floor, wrapping around the escalator, there is a 77 metre long glass walkway.
Children’s activities, from painting and pottery to pot-holing
When you get hungry, there is no shortage of restaurants. Indeed, it would probably be possible to eat your way around China without ever leaving the fifth floor. But throughout the mall, there are restaurants to suit every appetite and budget, from street food-style snacks to sophisticated sit-in establishments.
There are lots of cool spaces with activities for youngsters. One place had a painted rock surface with holes where kids could don helmets with a lamp on the front and go pot-holing through a network of tunnels. An art studio where everybody, not just children, can set up a canvas and easel or sit at a potters wheel.
Creating your own games (left) and problem solving challenges (right). A space to just sit and and relax on the third floor (below)
There are arcade games and numerous other play areas set up with a variety of toys from building bricks to multi-story car parks and brightly coloured modelling putty. There was even enough space, in the common areas, for one dad to get down on his haunches and roll toy cars backwards and forwards with his two sons. Try that in a regular mall.
There is a cinema and even an e-sports centre, though it does seem that the main point of what is being tried here is to get people away from their screens and into activities that foster a real engagement, both with each other and with their own imaginations through art and creative play. An idea that I heartily applaud. There is some retail space; it is a mall after all, but at this mall, shopping seems to take second place to having fun.
• The nearest Metro station is Mugu, on Line 10, but it is a 15-minute walk from there, so be sure to have an umbrella, just in case.
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