New South China Mall - the largest shopping mall in the world

New South China Mall  in Dongguan, China is the largest shopping mall in the world based on gross leasable area, and ranked second in 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 several years it had been mostly vacant as very few merchants have ever signed up, leading it to be dubbed a dead mall. In 2015 one CNN story reported that the mall had attracted some tenants after extensive renovations and remodeling of the facility, though large portions remain vacant.

Dongguan, with a population in excess of 10 million, is located in southern China's Guangdong province, about 50 km east of the province's largest city, Guangzhou. The mall was built on land formerly used for farming, in the Wanjiang District of the city. The project was spearheaded by Hu Guirong (Alex Hu), who became a billionaire in the instant noodle industry.

The mall contains sufficient space for as many as 2,350 stores in approximately 659,612 square metres (7,100,000 sq ft) of leasable space and 892,000 square metres (9,600,000 sq ft) of total area.

The mall has seven zones modeled on international cities, nations and regions, including Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, Venice, Egypt, the Caribbean, and California. Features include a 25-metre (82 ft) replica of the Arc de Triomphe, a replica of Venice's St Mark's bell tower,a 2.1-kilometre (1.3 mi) canal with gondolas, and a 553-metre (1,814 ft) indoor-outdoor roller coaster.

Since its opening in 2005, the mall has suffered from a severe lack of occupants. Much of the retail space was empty up to 2009, with over 99% of the stores vacant. The only occupied areas were near the entrance where several Western fast food chains are located and a parking structure re-purposed as a kart racing track. A planned Shangri-La Hotel has not been realised. Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Sam Green made a short film about the South China Mall called "Utopia Part 3: the World's Largest Shopping Mall." The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS's documentary series POV.

Originally called "South China Mall", the centre was redubbed as "New South China Mall, Living City" in September 2007.

The mall was formerly owned by Dongguan Sanyuan Yinghui Investment & Development, Hu Guirong's company, but a controlling interest in the mall has been sold to the Founders Group, a division of Beijing University.

The recent makeover was orchestrated by PKU Resources, which took over the property from the original owner Hu Guirong in Dec. 2006