Thursday, December 21, 2017

Ghost malls for ghost cities

Construction is proceeding on large apartment blocks all over Zhengzhou.

Here is a brand new mall that opened a few months ago in the airport city region of Zhengzhou, a few km away from the development featured a couple of months ago.


They call it Joy City. But maybe another name would be more appropriate.


Only a small portion of the mall is active, on the main floor. The upper levels seem to be empty, as are most of the outlying areas in the mall, which I called the 'sacrifice zone'. Within the inhabited zone, there are several high-end jewellery places and a snack shop.




The suicide net here may be for the anchor tenant, whoever that is.


You are probably thinking that the entire mall is closed. No, it has been open for awhile. It's just that the level of occupancy is pretty low.


Happier days


Transformers out back, along with dancing realtors


And it isn't that the entire neighbourhood is empty. Next door was a strip mall that had a lot more customers. But then, it was a real place. Also, just down the street was an older, quite busy neighbourhood. So there are people around. But maybe not enough of them.