I took Sunday off from my usual schedule of studies and decided to venture out a little bit around my neighbourhood. Last week I wrote how there seemed to be a bit of more traffic around yet malls still seemed a bit empty. So I went a different direction today and decided to go to Dawanglu area which makes up part of Beijing’s business district. It’s also famous for having some very expensive shopping malls with high end and luxury retailers throughout.
One of the first impressions of walking in that direction was how much more traffic was on the roads. It’s not the bumper to bumper Beijing traffic jam that is considered to be the norm, but there was enough traffic going both ways that we had to watch our step when crossing the roads.
A heat-sensing camera was set up to take our temperature as we walked through and some people were flagged with “high” temperatures around 36.6 C or more. I’m not even sure what a normal temperature is because I’m always registering in the upper 35.X’s. I suspect the elevated temperatures of others is because… they’re still wearing their winter jackets! Or at least heavier jackets than I would wear, which was just a sweater. So I’m pretty sure these people aren’t at risk of having a fever but that their bodies are simpler hotter due to their clothing choices.
We walked around a bit and, as per usual, nobody was actually in the stores buying anything but there was foot traffic around all of the stores. I did notice that the jewelry and perfume sections seemed to be practically empty but when we walked through the food court underground, it was pretty busy. The well-known restaurant chain Xiaobu Xiaobu (for boiled meat), had a waiting list to be served. We then went up to the fourth floor to an expensive bookstore, Rendez-vous, that also had a few people inside, either reading or chatting with others while having a coffee.
There was even more foot traffic outside the buildings when we went for lunch at a seafood restaurant, CrazyOnes. A small-ish place restaurant, it had two other couples when we arrived but after us no one else came in. It is Sunday afternoon so maybe that’s why. Maybe it’s busier during the work week.
And walking by the Apple store, which only re-opened a couple of weeks ago, and there were quite a few people inside, either trying out the computer, getting assistance from the shop clerks, or doing whatever else people do in an Apple store. The headphone section seemed to be the least occupied, for whatever reason. What the reason, it seems Apple has resumed its normal operations in Beijing.
So we finished with Beijing SKP 1 and then went to Beijing SKP 2 just across the street. It only just opened and hosts even more expensive shops than SKP 1. If SKP 1 could be considered high end and pricey, SKP 2 was just silly. But SKP 2 differs also in what it presents to the public: it’s much more arty than SKP 1. SKP 1 can be considered useful in some way, SKP 2 is, well, for the people who have money and want to be able to show the receipt to others. The clothes certainly didn’t look comfortable. SKP 2 is mostly famous for what you see when you first walk into the building: a realistic flock of sheep in a pen:
SKP 2 is also famous for its art displays, so much so that it’s difficult to differentiate between what’s being sold and what’s being displayed. Despite the price tags on some of the items on sale, there was quite a bit of foot traffic throughout the building. But, as far as I could see, nobody was buying anything. 5000 RMB shoes on futuristic spider-legged display shelves? 16,000 RMB handbag? Nope. Didn’t see anyone grabbing any of that stuff. I did see people grabbing lots of photos and selfies in front of these items and other displays. There was some foot traffic in the fragrance store, Bydero, but again, I didn’t see people actually buying anything (though they did smell nice).
Art installations and lots of space exploration vehicle mockups made up the entire third floor. Aside from the sheep at the front door, there is a penguin display that greets you as you come up the escalator, around which there are a variety of shops with clerks staring at their cell phones with sparsely decorated or clothed mannequins. Looking at the price tags of these things it’s no wonder the sheep are the most talked about: most people would be scared away from entering the building!
And then there is a whole space-themed displays spread out all over the third floor. At first it looked neat, like a museum of sorts, but then when considering how much things cost in this building, I started to wonder, why would they put these things here? Are they trying to educate the rich people? Or are they maybe selling these items or tickets to the space stations China has planned to build? Is this where we go to book our space flight tickets? An interesting choice of theme given the current global crisis.
And after all of those installations, there were some others that seemed to be thrown in amongst the different, high-end shops. I’m not entirely sure what they were meant to do but they had me wondering why these shops would be put amongst these displays. Is this the new fashion of modern art? Is this something that happens in other major city centres? Modern art and commerce all rolled into one?
After our SKP adventure and oogling, we decided to make our way down to Hopson One, another mall by Jiulongshan subway station. Again, the streets were busy outside with foot and vehicle traffic. Teslas, Porchses, Mercedes and BMWs all drove by, one after the other, intermingled with Audis, Toyotas, Cadillacs and other imports. Very few Chinese-brand cars. This is the moneyed district.
Along the way, we saw one true sign of Spring: cherry blossoms!
And Hopson One was hopping. It wasn’t as busy as usual since you could still walk in a relatively straight line, whereas in more normal times you’re walk would be more like a crawl and you’d have trouble dodging people. Unlike the SKPs, there were people in the shops and they were buying things. Notably the Xiaomi and Zara stores. There wasn’t a line up at the famous tea shop but there were two rows of takeaway bags from the looks of it, suggesting that orders were still going strong.
Finally, after some 19,000 steps around the malls, the sun was setting outside and it gave a nice send off.
These malls are only a part of the overall picture. They do show people have returned to Beijing and that they are going out. As the number of people requiring to be in quarantine shrinks, we’ll see more people our and about and, as a result, more people return to work to help service the crowd.