BBC News - China suffers amid euro slump

A Venetian-style gondola cruises lazily down what, at first glance, might just pass for a one of the canals of Venice.

Bridges cross the waterway. A replica of the bell tower of St Mark’s Basilica, one of Venice’s landmarks, stands by the canal bank.

“Welcome,” a woman’s voice says on the recorded commentary, “to the South China Mall“.

While the canal looks European, we are in a shopping mall in Dongguan in southern China.

It bills itself as the world’s largest commercial mall. Some call it the Great Mall of China.

The canal wends its way through the middle of the mall. The gondolas are full of Chinese schoolchildren, kitted out in orange life vests. Their trip on the canal takes about 10 minutes to complete.

China today has enough cash to recreate a little bit of Italy just to draw people to a shopping mall.

That’s why, in its hour of need, Europe is hoping China will sail to its rescue and use some of its money to help bailout the eurozone.

But if you venture into the rest of the mall, it is even more bizarre. Apart from a few shops the place is almost all empty.

via BBC News – China suffers amid euro slump.

Strange Random Shopping Mall Quote:

“I want to shake off the dust of this one-horse town. I want to explore the world. I want to watch TV in a different time zone. I want to visit strange, exotic malls…I want to live, Marge! Won’t you let me live?” – Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta – American Actor and Writer, b.1958)

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