When It Rains, It Pours

For the last few weeks in Shenzhen, we’ve been experiencing bouts of torrential rain almost daily and when you add to this the occasional typhoon then you’re in for a fun ride. As an Englishman, I’m not usually caught without an umbrella but on the odd occasion I do forget, there’s not much to do but find shelter.

Waiting

Faced with the choice of an early shower or staying at home the only other option around here is to entertain yourself in one of the many mega-malls which have sprung up around most of the more affluent neighbourhoods (like Coastal City). While I have absolutely zero interest in shopping some of the building’s interiors are quite impressive…

Escalator Stack

On one such wet afternoon, I decided to go for a wander around the self-acclaimed “King Glory Plaza” in Luohu on the slightly more scruffy east side of the city. Set apart from its rather ageing surroundings the mall is a shining beacon of China’s love affair with commercialism and sports the most amazing set of stacked escalators I’ve ever seen.

Criss Cross

It’s enormous interior atrium extends eight floors top to bottom with parallel escalators positioned diagonally on top of each other; 16 in total. The result when viewed from the highest level is mesmerizing but probably pretty terrifying if you’re acrophobic. It would be so cool to drop a high-speed video camera off here and watch it back in slow motion!

P1070951

Looking back up there’s an equally cool view of this feat of engineering – I wonder how much it all weighs?!

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Some of the lighting is also pretty cool – these crazy-looking chandeliers are suspended from the ceiling and dangle all the way down the centre of the atrium.

Don't Look Down

The other end of the building sports a more traditional but still dizzy-inducing escalator arrangement. I like to imagine James Bond being thrown off the balcony here and managing to save himself by grabbing the hanging lights!

David avatar

7 responses

  1. wow… great series of images!

    1. Thanks, I came back to this place especially to take them since the first time I visited I didn’t have my camera. It’s simply a mad building!

  2. Yang avatar
    Yang

    You should feel lucky as I am stuck at the London westminster tube station and paying 50p to enter a public toilet, and I am sure you don’t want to see a image of that cubicle!

    1. Thanks for that lovely image Yang! I do hope you enjoy you stay in London 😛

      1. Too many comiplenmts too little space, thanks!

  3. Really great pics. It’s good that bad weather doesn’t stop you shooting. I must re-read your post on getting pics from flickr onto blog posts.

  4. my first time to see them all. Great taste 🙂

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