1. Starhill Gallery: Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia
URL: http://www.starhillgallery.com/
Stay at the Ritz-Carlton next door (where every suite comes with its own butler), browse through an entire floor of art galleries on Starhill’s Muse level, then head down to the Feast Village (open until 1 a.m. nightly) on the ground floor, where you can choose from more than a dozen great restaurants including Shook!, which incorporates elements of Japanese, Chinese and Italian cuisine plus a 3,000-bottle walk-in wine cellar.
2. Harbour City Mall: Hong Kong
URL: http://www.harbourcity.com.hk/
You can get your exercise at the half-mile-long Harbour City mall, but your marathon might be interrupted if something catches your eye in one of the 700 shops. Fuel up at one of 50 restaurants or take it easy in one of the mall’s two multiplex cinemas. Big name brands found here include Burberry, dunhill, Prada and a flagship Gucci store. Come on the weekends for free concerts or camp outside the Videowall, a 12- by16-foot outdoor video screen broadcasting the latest weather and news.
3. Roppongi Hills: Tokyo, Japan
URL: www.roppongihills.com/en
The former Roppongi nightlife area has gone upscale lately, first with the opening of the Roppongi Hills shopping complex in 2003 and now with the brand new Tokyo Midtown development. In addition to a wide selection of chic shops and restaurants, both complexes offer visitors charming parks and beautiful museums, like the Mori. Roppongi Hills also has an 820-foot-high observation deck called Tokyo City View, while Tokyo Midtown has an attached Ritz-Carlton for those who can’t bear to leave.
4. VivoCity: Singapore
URL: http://www.vivocity.com.sg/
The enormous rooftop sky park at the 1.5-million-square-foot VivoCity mall contains both an open-air amphitheater and a huge water park the size of four Olympic swimming pools. If you have any energy left after shopping, head next door to the nightclubs in the St. James Power Station.
5. The Siam Paragon: Bangkok
URL: http://www.siamparagon.co.th/
The mall has a seven zone aquarium called Siam Ocean World where you can dive with sharks and stingrays, a 14-screen multiplex with an IMAX screen and a 38-lane bowling alley equipped with private karaoke rooms. When you fly out of Thailand, arrive several hours before your flight and wander through the endless duty-free shops at the new Suvarnabhumi airport.
6. SM Mall of Asia: Pasay City, Philippines
The SM Mall of Asia truly represents the mega-mall trends sweeping the region. A 20-passenger tram carries shoppers around more than four million square feet of floor space on the nearly 50-acre footprint. Ice-skating competitions are held on the mall’s Olympic-size rink. Browse through 600 stores, take in a movie at the Philippines’ first IMAX theater or catch a concert in the open-air Music Hall facing Manila Bay.
7. COEX Mall: Seoul, South Korea
URL: www.coexmall.com/foreign/english
The environment-themed COEX Mall has shopping arcades modeled after ecosystems like forest, ocean, lake and waterfall. If navigating the largest underground shopping and entertainment complex in Asia (1.3 million square feet) is not challenging enough, you can always jump into the shark and stingray tank at the mall’s aquarium, or gain cultural appreciation of Korean cuisine in the kimchi museum.
8. Dream Mall: Taiwan
URL: http://www.dream-mall.com.tw/
If you’re driving through the southern city of Kaohsiung and suddenly think you see a 334-foot tall ferris wheel festooned with Hello Kitty iconography on the roof of a gigantic mall, you’re not hallucinating. The new Dream Mall opened last month, giving Taiwanese access to more than 4 million square feet of shopping and what the Taipei Times described as ‘a sub-zero playground.’
9. South China Mall: Dongguan, China
URL: www.southchinamall.com.cn/english/index1.jsp
A river runs through Dongguan city’s South China Mall, the largest mall in the world. Sporting two five-star hotels, a spa, theme park, ‘California’ beach and a replica of the Arc de Triomphe, the mall may represent the shape of things to come in China. Industry watchers predict that by 2010, China will have seven of the world’s 10 largest malls
10. Mall of the Emirates: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
URL: http://www.malloftheemirates.com/
When the heat starts to get to you in Dubai, hit the slopes at Mall of the Emirates. Nearly 300 feet high, the Ski Dubai indoor slope is always snowy and cool on those hot Middle Eastern days. New retail extravaganzas are coming soon to Dubai, including the Mall of Arabia, which will include 1,000 retail outlets, more than 100 food and beverage choices, two hotels, a giant cinema and a monorail. It’s set to open in 2009.
http://www.forbestraveler.com/luxury/asian-mega-malls-story.html
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