Big mall with little use

After a slow start, Apple's iPhone has jumped to India's second largest smartphone supplier by pushing phones to Mom-and-Pop shops in the world's fastest growing smartphone market. Although Apple is still catching up to other smartphone makers like Samsung, analysts say Apple is finally taking India seriously. But not being taken seriously is a huge mall in China. New South China Mall in Guangdong Province opened in 2005. With 5 million square feet of shopping area, the mall can accommodate 2,350 stores, making it the largest shopping center in the world in terms of leasable space - more than twice the size of Mall of America, the biggest shopping center in the United States. At the outdoor plaza, hundreds of palm-trees blend with a replica Arc de Triomphe, a giant Egyptian sphinx, fountains, and long-stretching canals with gondolas. Only problem is, the mall is virtually deserted. Despite the bombastic design and grand plans, only a handful of stores are occupied. Walking among shattered shops - its dusty corridors and escalators covered in soiled sheets - is a walk through a ghost mall. Rubbish piles up along the sides, paint is coming off the walls, and store signs and advertisements have faded. So basically, they built it, but the shoppers didn't come. This was obviously a huge waste of money, and it should be torn down so the land could be turned over to a more profitable use. Or they could actually start attracting shops and shoppers so that the mall has a use.