South China Mall

Dongguan, China

New South China Mall in Dongguan, China is the largest shopping mall in the world when measured in terms of gross leasable area, and second in terms of total area to The Dubai Mall (which has extensive non-shopping space including a zoo, a hotel complex and a theme park). South China Mall opened in 2005 and for more than 10 years it was mostly vacant as few merchants ever signed up, leading it to be dubbed a dead mall. In 2015 a CNN story reported that the mall had begun to attract tenants after extensive renovations and remodeling, though large portions remained vacant.