A few weeks ago I had to go to an office located in a mall in the north-east part of Beijing. When I arrived there I put my autopilot on and followed the people in front of me to the elevator. For some odd reason I could not go to the 4th floor but everybody could go to the 5th floor. Not being able to communicate with my fellow passengers on why the lift seemed to discriminate against me, I went to the 5th floor, let everybody out and decided that I could have a private face to face discussion with the Number 4 button (ie hit it several times until it lit). Once I realized that I wouldn’t win this battle I retreated to the lobby and that’s when I realized that there was no mall anymore… nothing. I called the person I was supposed to meet and ask her if they had moved and if not how could I get to her. That’s when she explained that the mall had closed over the Chinese New Year vacation and that they were stuck in an empty mall with no access from the outside but the willingness of the guards to let them reach their office. They had left their office 4 days before the CNY and everything was in place, then when they showed up the following Tuesday the mall was empty… Ah China…
 |
| Finally realizing that building hundreds of malls all over the city in a short few years is not such a great idea |
