Hong Kong shopping malls...

I thought I should give them a mention in this blog seeing that the shopping malls in HK have evolved into something that you never really see in North America. There are shopping mall EVERYWHERE here. You can hop on the MTR and get off at ANY stop and sure enough, there will be a shopping mall at one of the exits. In any case, here are a few that I've gone to so far in no particular order:

K-11 Art Mall (Tsim Sha Tsui)


K-11 is apparently new and sadly kinda... dead. There aren't that many people at the mall despite the fact that it's in the prime real estate area of TST, which is a sort of the heart of HK. There are a few cute art displays and cool mall directories but there aren't that many stores and the stores in there are on the high end. There's one decent bookstore and a nice supermarket but it's a mall that you can go through in about half an hour and come out with next to nothing.

Times Square (Causeway Bay)


This place was massive and made me feel like a back-country hick. Most of the stores in the main section of the mall are high end brands like Gucci, Channel, Hermes. What's kind of lovely though, is that shops are grouped together so you have the stationary stores on one floor, women's clothing on the next etc; etc; There are some really cool shops like the stationary and instrument shop on the higher floors but it's not really a place to buy someone's birthday present (unless you wipe your ass with $100 bills...) as I learned on my first trip there. There are plenty of art displays and the design is crisp and clean. Gorgeous place... almost too gorgeous.

Shatin Plaza/Citylink Plaza/whatever else is connected to this place including Snoopy Land (Shatin)

Ok, the first thing you have to know about this place is that it's a bloody maze. It's so bloody big that I can't really take a picture of it. The entire mall is connected to about a gazillion other malls via random tunnels and passageways. It's not a friendly place for me seeing that I'm completely directionally challenged, although I do know my way to Honeymoon Dessert and for now, that's all that matters. There are tons of shops selling just about everything (only one bookstore though), about four or five supermarkets, twenty jewelry shops and a gazillion stores selling cheap clothing. While the two malls above are about quality rather than quantity, Shatin Plaza is the other way around. It bombards you with tons and tons of shops that offer cheap to mid-ranged priced products rather than having a few shops selling expensive stuff. That would be wonderful if everything wasn't so bloody hard to find.

Festival Walk (Kowloon Tong)


I think this one is my favourite mall not only because there's a skating rink but it's actually well designed, beautiful and not as overwhelming. Just look at the lines in this place, the architecture makes this place look so surreal:


Stores are in the mid-range in terms of pricing and there aren't that many. According to its wiki page, Festival Walk is trying to focus more on customer service rather than having a gazillion stores. I guess it kind of works because I had concerned mall helpers ask me if I wanted any help when I was wandering around hopelessly in search of cheap food. You see, the only scruple I have with this mall is that its food selection is pretty small. I ended up going to the Shatin mall to find my meal.

In any case, I think the point I want to make here is that there are tons of malls in HK. So many that they end up competing with each other for business. Architects, businessmen and investors all make an effort to come up with some crazy idea to draw customers. Artwork, architecture, customer service, quality vs. quantity... the mall has become more than just a place to buy things, it's become almost a cultural hub here. It's an artistic space for contemporary artwork, it's a commercial space that demonstrates the economic prosperity that allows a good portion of HK citizens to go to these places and buy whatever they want to buy (including, may I note, giant gold statues and jewelry - there's seriously about 10 jewelry stores in big shopping malls and several near local and tourist hotspots) and all of this is perfectly normal in HK.

Just think about the malls in Canada. Yes, some of them might have interesting architecture and sort of cute decorations for the seasons but even in the country's biggest city, you won't find a mall at every subway stop. Nor will you find a mall where polite customer service ladies are at every corner just in case you need directions. Very few malls will have special attractions like Snoopy Land or random art displays in front of the mall and there is no sense that each mall is trying to continuously outdo each other in terms of impressiveness.

There isn't much competition between the malls in Canada. You usually go to the nearest one to your house or the one that has whatever you want. In HK, there are about 10 different malls near your house and at least more than half of them have what you want. The result? These crazy theme-park/work of art/art gallery/mall/entertainment centre things...