Eric's Beijing Diary

I visited the largest mall in the world this afternoon. It won't be for long, though. China is going mall crazy. There are malls like this going up all over China. This one makes the Mall of America look like little brother, but there is one going up in South China that will be three times that size.

I have never been a great lover of malls, but curiosity got the best of me, so I had to take a look. The most noticeable feature of these new supermalls in China is the lack of customers. The place seems empty compared to what you would see in America. Many of the "customers" I saw looked kinda dazed and overwhelmed. It is not as though they would not want to buy some of this stuff if they had the money. But they don't. The builders of these malls are clearly betting in the future. If China's economic growth continues at the present rate, the "wealthy class" in China will soon exceed the population of the United States. Walking through this mall today, though, does leave me with a question: How long can malls like this continue to operate if everyone is window shopping?