It’s hard to believe, but yes, they are indeed shopping malls
Print Edition
TRAVELLING to downtown Shanghai from Minhang used to be quite an ordeal. If you missed the last bus back, you were stuck in a hotel overnight.
Residents going downtown used to refer to the trip as “going to Shanghai.” Traveling to town to watch a film or buy clothes required several bus transfers.
Indeed, transport and accessibility once tended to draw geography in the minds of the public. And for many years, Minhang was just an outer fringe area with somewhat tenuous ties to the kind of mainstream shopping facilities that only downtown could offer.
. “It took about two hours and two buses to go to downtown,” said Minhang resident Yan Haipin, 48. “But that was the only option you needed to go there to get something done.”
The Metro and the advent of the automobile society changed that sense of commercial isolation, of course. But at the same time, many of the amenities that people went downtown to enjoy have expanded into the suburbs.
For example, when Pinault Printemps Redoute opened a branch in the town of Qibao, locals no longer had to make the trip downtown to buy the up-market merchandise they craved.
Minhang ranks second to the Pudong New Area in terms of overall land in Shanghai devoted to business, but third in per-capita terms. That gap suggests massive potential for more commercial development.
In 2016, 29 shopping malls opened in Minhang, the second-largest number in the city. Retail sales that year in the district rose almost 13 percent. One survey said that 80 percent of Minhang shopping lists can now be satisfied locally.
“Just a few years ago, if I wanted to go shopping, I had to spend an hour traveling to downtown,” said Feng Zengyi. “But now, Minhang has big shopping centers and restaurants. And at the end of last year, Metro Line 12 started operation. I have many friends telling me how much easier it has made their lives.”
Pano City, Wanda, and The MixC shopping malls made those lives even easier after opening stores in Minhang last year. They are thriving even amid the online shopping craze.
The new shopping centers are confronting the digital age by offering shoppers experiences that they can’t get online.
Some feature art galleries, themed parks, unique bookstores and cinemas all under one roof. Shopping, these malls believe, is a much more emotional, satisfying experience than that any buy button on a smartphone can provide.
The biggest shopping areas in Minhang are the Hongqiao Business Center, Qibao Town, Xinzhuang Hub and Wuzhong Road.
Xinzhuang has seen a slower development last year. But with the completion of Tod Town adjoining the Xinzhuang Metro station, its future prospects look brighter.
Minhang authorities are pressing ahead with plans to turn the district into a modern mainstream “city” by 2020. To achieve that goal, the district plans to further develop the Hongqiao Business Center and construct elevated roadways linking all towns.
So, let’s go shopping!
The Hub
Xintiandi Corp’s 62,000-square-meter shopping complex has become a new landmark in Minhang. The hit TV drama series “Ode to Joy” was filmed there last year.
The Hub provides business, leisure and entertainment facilities in the Hongqiao central business district and is the only commercial center offering airport check-in and shuttle bus services.
“The construction of the core area has finished,” said Chen Weili, deputy director of the administration committee of the Hongqiao hub area. “It has attracted more than 1,000 companies and created 70,000 jobs.”
Aegean
The new “star” of the Wuzhong Road shopping district features an interior art space designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, who won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995.
The mall’s exterior features a massive musical water fountain and an urban park. There’s an organic farm on the roof and the Frozen theme park for family entertainment.
“In-store sales jumped even with the rise of online retailing,” said Yao Haibo, manager of the mall. “To attract customers, we provide unconventional customer services and entertainment. In an era when everyone is constantly checking their phones or tablet, we want to be a place where people put down their digital devices and reconnect with friends and family.”
The mall provides unisex public toilets and “husband rooms” where spouses can go for a rest when they grow tired of accompanying wives and girl friends on shopping trips.
Aegean is trying to provide the array and depth of experiences that will keep people in the mall a whole day.
Pano City
This high-end, comprehensive shopping mall enjoys an unbeatable location on Lianhua Road. It’s in the Chunshen area, one of four demonstration residential areas of Shanghai.
The mall’s 43,000 square meters include a cinema, language institutions, bakeries, restaurants, gym facilities and spas.
Wanda Plaza
Wanda’s seventh plaza in Shanghai comprises 120,000 square meters of shops, hotels, an IMAX cinema and Michelin star restaurants.
The MixC
This shopping mall includes parklands the sizes of basketball courts, office buildings, an Olympic-size ice rink, a small museum and a boutique hotel.
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