A succulent forest area that is taller than people, suitable for taking photos. You can feed the little parrots in the interactive area. Many malls are committed to expanding more fresh and interesting experiences beyond shopping features.

Retro Dingding Car shuttles through the block.

aerial suspension bridge is thrilling.

succulent forest area is taller than people, suitable for taking photos. You can feed the little parrots with your own hands in the interactive area of ​​

.

Children feed docile capybara to eat.

Colorful ice sculptures let the heat dissipate.

Many malls are committed to expanding more fresh and interesting experiences beyond shopping functions.

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In the hot summer, many citizens love to visit shopping malls and sigh at the air conditioner. Nowadays, large shopping malls in Guangzhou can not only appreciate the popular art graffiti and light and shadow art up close, but also be in the "tropical rainforest" to watch waterfalls and stroll through the flower corridor; watch ice sculptures and build snowmen in the "Arctic Town"... It feels satisfying to hear that offline shopping malls can still play like this. Many young ladies and "fresh meat" took photos and posted them on Moments, Weibo, Xiaohongshu , and even recorded short videos to upload them to Douyin and other platforms.

It is understood that some shopping malls and commercial districts in Guangzhou are created through careful themed areas, holding themed events, art and cultural exhibitions from time to time, and introducing ornamental art installations, attracting more and more consumers, especially the young people born in the 1990s and 2000s who grew up in the Internet era, return to offline and go to the mall to eat, drink and have fun in their spare time, becoming daily leisure and entertainment.

text/Guangzhou Daily All-Media Reporter Wen Jing and Chen Xin Photo/Guangzhou Daily All-Media Reporter Su Junjie Photo by

Video/Guangzhou Daily All-Media Reporter Su Junjie Photo by

Theme Landscape Bringing freshness to tourists

In the past, some consumers had many shops, and shops from different brands were connected one after another. The difference between merchants and commercial districts may be different brands and shop types. In the past, the differentiated competition methods between shopping malls were nothing more than the rich and diverse types of catering introduced by this store, and the other one was cinema, gym, bookstore, baking workshop... However, these differentiated competitive points seemed to have gradually become homogeneous. Now, offline shopping malls and commercial districts have targeted the theme "landscape creation", and through design means, they have built offline entities into "Internet celebrity check-in points" that the younger generation likes, adding new charm to physical businesses.

All-media reporter walked into the underground commercial district of Fashion Tianhe, located in , Tianhe District, on the weekend and found that many young people wearing Hanfu were posing for POSE in different public areas to take photos, and young people dressed as various anime characters were also traveling through it. Among them, the "Night Shanghai" theme area located in the central area is a theme scene created by the main force in recent years.

"The design group used the old Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s as the background to build a dock scene at the entrance of the theme area." Lai Jingyi, a designer of the scene design department, introduced to the all-media reporter that the design inspiration came from the classic TV series "Shanghai Beach", which made tourists feel like they were in the Shanghai Beach back then. The design team also specifically looked for various props, such as old bicycles, Paramount stages, telephone booths, etc. The window grilles of some shops have been specially designed, with colorful glass glass, and the pillars in the aisle have been "old" and pasted with "old posters" from that era. The retro-style "Dingding Car" is not like the small train driving directly on the ground of the mall in some shopping malls. The designer has designed fixed tracks to make people feel more immersive.

"The theme block in Shanghai at night has been completed for some time, but the design team will still update and change from time to time in some scenes, and some small scenes will even be replaced every 1 to 2 weeks. This will make the design continuously improve and also make tourists feel fresh every time." According to the designer, the new theme "Arctic Town" that will be open to welcome guests will be the first ice and snow theme park in Tianhe CBD, covering an area of ​​more than 3,000 square meters, simulating the natural snowfall process, so that southerners can experience the fun of playing real snow and playing snowball fights without going far away. In the future, the town will be an ice and snow theme park integrating leisure, entertainment, shopping and tourism. In addition to different entertainment projects, it will also be equipped with commercial streets, catering areas, internet celebrity restaurants, special ice bars, etc.

experiences the mystery of nature in a realistic "exploration"

In addition to meeting social and entertainment functions, large shopping malls have also expanded their functional scope to the "Popular Science Education" module. Most of the botanical gardens I visited in the past have a vast semi-outdoor environment, either far away from the downtown area, or in the "low terrain" urban area, this summer, an indoor high-rise "Aerial Botanical Garden" appeared in Zhengjia Rainforest Pavilion. Here, visitors can see a truly "symbiosis and coexist" tropical rainforest scene, the unique animals and plants of the rainforest, and the unique climate environment of the rainforest such as lightning and thunder are all displayed in front of them.

General Manager of Guangzhou Zhengjia Rainforest Ecological Botanical Garden Co., Ltd. Li Chengtang told reporters that there is already an aquarium and a museum, and now it is focusing on building a rainforest museum. Several museums mainly explain the chain of earth's evolution. "The ocean is the origin of all things. Museums can understand the history of biological evolution. The focus of the rainforest museum is on the diversity of biology, showing tourists a whole chain of popular science education, so that while everyone can experience the mystery of the rainforest, they can also have deep thoughts on protecting the earth, protecting the environment, and how to live in harmony with nature." The biggest difference between these museums and the theme museums of many shopping malls lies in popular science. "If children who come to visit can engage in related professions in the future and become botanists and scientists, it is of course a good thing worth encouraging."

So, how difficult is it to build a tropical rainforest museum? "For tourists to truly accept our popular science, they need to create an immersive experience through design means," said the designer. The Rainforest Museum is divided into five main lines: it includes many strange flowers and plants such as konjac, monkeybread, and rainforest plants with blood-sealed throat; rainforest animals including sloths, toucans, and raccoons; butterflies, fireflies, and other rainforest insects and reptiles; scenes mainly based on popular science such as the nature center of the small museum bring intuitive popular science education; in addition, there are several very photogenic "Internet celebrity check-in points", such as the strong vitality of the succulent botanical garden, the peacock garden with flowers like fairy tales and fairylands, and the altitude waterfall.

All-media reporter learned that the most difficult part of building a "air botanical garden" in the city center is to rely on artificial creation of a real rainforest ecology to meet the diversity of animals and plants. "We have made many considerations during design. For example, the architectural structure must first meet the tropical requirements, and find the most suitable light for different animals and plants, and have a strict grasp of temperature and humidity." The designer introduced that how the "towering trees" in the rainforest museum were moved to the sky high in the city center? It turned out that the design and construction team spent a full few months to hoist 35 meters high and then plant large trees into the rainforest area by shifting.

"Mist, waterfall, tall cactus, very realistic." Mr. Zhang, a citizen, told reporters, "Many popular science things are also suitable for children to see. For example, the microscopic world enlarges tree roots, ants, etc. many times, making people as big as insects. Through the exhibition, we tell us that a lot of garbage cannot be degraded and will affect the growth of animals and plants. These contents are quite meaningful."

was designed to integrate tourism and cultural elements and parent-child elements

with the K11 shopping mall, which focused on art last year, opened in Guangzhou, integrating humanities, art and nature into offline retail has become a new focus of attention in the industry. At the same time, after recent years of hard work and active transformation, Guangzhou offline shopping malls have become a major trend to integrate tourism culture and artistic elements into commercial bodies. However, different shopping malls and commercial districts each have their own "playing methods". The past ten years have been the decade of rapid development of my country's e-commerce platforms. Similarly, it has also been a decade of challenges and transformation for offline shopping malls. Faced with the impact of online shopping, the models of offline shopping malls and commercial districts have undergone iteration and upgrading. In recent years, in addition to the continuous enrichment of business formats in Guangzhou, including catering, cinemas, bookstores, training institutions, children's playgrounds, art exhibitions, sports areas, etc., the more important thing is "higher appearance" and "stronger experience".

"We understand the mall as urban living room ", Fashion Group President Tian Hong said in an interview with all-media reporters that since the mall is regarded as a "living room", it contains the functions of "living room" such as socializing, "we will socialize, eat, watch movies, etc. in the living room. At present, shopping malls are not just scenes of product sales exchange, but should meet the needs of everyone's aggregation. Some people believe that online shopping will steal offline physical store business, which is a fact, but online One thing that can never be achieved when shopping is people’s aggregation and communication. Places where young people need dates and bases for family education. These are all offline shopping malls that can meet people’s needs through design. "

Tian Hong believes that in the future, medical services will even appear in shopping malls. "Now beauty salons are common in shopping malls, and there may be dental clinics and pet clinics in the future. Or, for example, golf experience driving ranges and ski simulation experience fields, they may appear. The definition of business boundaries is different now than before." "Being the most fun shopping mall" is the goal pursued by some large shopping malls. Tian Hong said, "We go to surrounding cities for two or three days to travel, taste local food, and experience local culture. These are things related to local history and humanities. Everyone will go to the local area. If you can experience local characteristics in the area when shopping at your doorstep, you will be more happy."

The requirements for offline theme design in the future will be higher

Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Zhengjia Group Xie Meng said, "A giant building grows in In this city, it does not serve this generation, but more importantly, we can continue the next few generations, and large commercial entities can develop sustainablely, which must be related to education. "

Of course, with the improvement of consumers' aesthetics and the high requirements for offline consumption experience, the design of creating a realistic and immersive theme block actually continues to increase the requirements for the design team. For example, the theme blocks based on Highway 66 cannot be paved with floor tiles like shopping malls, and asphalt roads must be paved. For example, the small town of Arctic is divided into "sub-cold zone" and "cold zone". The "sub-cold zone" has plants such as pine trees, while the "cold zone" is ice and snow.

In addition, cooperating with large IPs to conduct irregular exhibitions is also one of the main ways for many large shopping malls to "suck customers". All-media reporters saw earlier that there was a Pikachu theme exhibition in Tianhe Taikoo Hui Mall, which restored the classic scenes and street scenes of the movie "HTM10 Detectives Pikachu ", which attracted many fans to take photos. It is so cute that the audience can take photos with Pikachu through the AR photo camera.

reporter observation: In order to "attract" young people who are addicted to online shopping, many shopping malls are currently committed to expanding more fresh and interesting functions in addition to shopping functions, in order to break through the homogeneity of shopping malls. This summer, many shopping malls in Guangzhou have already been working hard to prepare a wealth of themed activities. A wide variety of themed activities are designed to satisfy the appetites of different groups. However, many theme activities and art installations that "breakthrough" for "breakthrough" often fall into another homogeneous stalemate. How to avoid becoming a link on the assembly line and truly make oneself creative and powerful attraction still requires repeated thinking and polishing.