One City, One Wanda Plaza

November 17, 2018

It's here, though perhaps you could argue that it has been here for awhile already, under planning, under construction, and under the eyes of many Wuwei people curious - excited? - to see the arrival of the Wanda plaza.

At first glance, it might not seem like much: a parking lot. A 4 story building. A shopping mall. A movie theater inside. A supermarket. A number of restaurants to eat at. A lot of things that Wuwei already has... in abundance. But, none of those other buildings have the name: Wanda plaza.

And that is what is critical here - the name. Wanda. It's the name that is found on one shopping mall-style building in almost every large, prosperous city in China. It's the name that people recognize. It's the name that elicits responses such as "Oh, well, there must be a _____________ in there, then," where you can fill in the blank with any of the following: western restaurant, movie theater, supermarket. It's the name that might, just might make the name of your own city sound a little bit better.

It's been here for a month now, with the grand opening - full of shows, lights, singers/dancers and hefty discounts - occurring almost exactly a month ago while I was in Chengdu, but I finally managed to find time in my schedule to enjoy the 10 kilometer round trip walk there and back to see just what it's like .. and if it is any different than the other above- and below-ground shopping malls that dot Wuwei.

From the outside, it looks impressive. The architecture is, in my opinion, fairly attractive and alluring for a four-story square box. Electronic display screens break up the curves and ruffles of the siding, displaying deals and advertisements, news or reminders. The newest restaurants to make it to Wuwei - what many students have told me is the sign that Wuwei is becoming something in the modern world of globalization, tourism and foreign interest and influence - are strategically placed on the corner of the building that directly faces perhaps the city's busiest street leading to and from the train station: McDonald's and Pizza Hut.

Inside it's much the same, and it was surprisingly comfortable for a large building. Bright colors hide escalators and walkways. Decorative figures - abstract shapes, animals, representations of weather and landscape - descend from cables to hang at eye level and turn the large, open space into a smaller space that feels bigger.

As expected, it has both a movie theater and a supermarket - with the latter boasting a fairly extensive, fresh bakery and a selection of goods whose prices boggle the mind - eggplants are half the price of the nearby wet market, while peppers are double; eggs undercut the wet market by half a kuai, while processed snacks are more expensive than even the stores on campus who likely buy goods at another step down the distribution chain.

It's an opportunity to buy some produce at a discount and diversify my shopping locations in light of the recent closure of my favorite market.

It's full of restaurants on the fourth floor - with McDonald's making a second appearance in the form of a small drink and ice cream shop - that includes the standard variety of restaurants I've come to expect in a Chinese shopping center: a few hot pot restaurants; a few barbecue places; a few dishes restaurants (with those preparing Sichuan food not shy of the fact); a few drink shops selling milk tea, tea and coffee; and a few Chinese brands that seem to be pseudo-Western. Does the ice cream treat shop named Dairy Fairy remind you of anything?

It contains two "game cities," as my students have translated the name into English. The arcade designed for young adults features claw-games, race and ride simulators, point-and-shoot safari hunts, individual KTV booths for a quick song with friends, Dance Dance Revolution style dancing games, and the same type of "skill" games that I remember from Chuck-E-Cheese or a quarter spending spree with Grandma at the local bar and pizza shop. The arcade for younger children removes some of the more physical or electronic-shooting style games and mixes it up with a few ball pits, brighter lights and more cartoon characters than you could count.

The escalators run constantly, shuttling people past signs that are international - which Chinese and English, though perhaps most of the English is just a little bit incorrect, with letters swapped or omitted in many words.

The escalators shuttle people past these signs, up and down the floors, but the shoppers themselves don't often shuffle into any of the shops that line the hallways .. they, like me, appear to be here mostly just to look. And on this escalator, I asked myself, "Why?"

Looking around, particularly in the wake of last week's Single's Day, brings an answer readily to mind: the lower levels of the mall, with the exception of McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut, the supermarket and the game centers, is composed of what I'd estimate to be 70%+ clothing stores, with even more booths in the center of the hallways sporting rack after rack of clothes.

In Wuwei, in China, in my experience, nobody buys clothes in the store. Wuwei has three shopping malls full of clothing stores already, and usually the only people in them are those workers waiting for customers to enter.

Why don't people don't buy clothes in the store? I've asked my students any number of times. It's too expensive, they say. And it is. It's quite expensive, particularly for students on a budget as small as theirs. It's too expensive in a China that has an incredible system of online shopping, used extensively to buy clothes at a much cheaper price - a system of online shopping that broke records less than a week ago. Singles Day (November 11, named such because 11.11 is as single as one can get in the calendar year) is a huge event in retail in China, capitalizing on e-commerce, and in some cases, offering discounts on already discounted items, such as clothes. According the South China Morning Post (a source I'm quoting from a daily China news article I get via WeChat), consumers in China (many of whom are my students, I am positive) spent $2 billion on goods in the first two hours, $19 billion in the first nine hours, and an estimate of more than $26 billion in the single day - more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined.

I like this building, and I hope that you didn't read my thoughts above negatively, because I think the building could offer a lot to Wuwei in terms of building up a recognition and prestige that comes with this chain of Wanda plazas. It offers people, who might otherwise never have the opportunity, a chance to explore and experience a more "authentic" Western food and culture that comes with Pizza Hut and tables set with forks and knives .. opportunities that I am providing to my own students, in a different way. I just hope that once the buzz of the grand opening dies down, the building still provides a lot to my home for these two years.

That is something we will have to wait for together, another chapter to this story. But for now, I'll enjoy this chapter, click publish on this blog, and head back to the Wanda plaza supermarket to capitalize on select produce for my lunch.