usatoday24
There are shopping centers that are traveled. And there are others that are inhabited. In Wuhan, South of the Yangtsé Riverthere is one so big that it costs to locate it In a single idea. Not even the locals manage to agree: some compare it with a theme park, others with a vertical city. Those who already know him, simply call him by name: Wushang Dream was (武商梦时代).
Actually, it is not just a matter of size, although the 800,000 square meters it occupies They do not go unnoticed. What makes it a difficult place to cover is its ambition. He doesn’t want you to pass, he wants you to stay. You don’t even need to plan what to do: you can ski, try traditional street food, ride a roller coaster that crosses several floors or take your children to a snow park without leaving the building.
Between artificial snow and neon lights: this is how one day is lived in the Wushang Dream was
It was not an improvised project. The Wushang Dream was is Fruit of six years of works and many concentrated ambitions. Behind is one of China’s most veteran commercial groups, which invested 12,000 million yuan (about 1.5 billion euros) with a clear idea: lift the largest “pure” shopping center of the worldaccording to its promoters, and turn it into a new cultural, gastronomic and entertainment axis. All that, in the center of Wuhan, just where two of its busiest streets cross.
Since opening in 2022, the place has not stopped receiving visitors. According to the group’s own figuresit is one of the busiest spaces in the country and is part of the call “Gold triangle”Commercial of the city. The motto is clear: here it is not only bought. It comes to spend the day, or at least try. Because with its 13 levels, its 600 stores and its snowy park on a roof, it is not difficult to lose the notion of time.
It is not necessary to go abroad to find strong emotions. Inside the complex, one can ski on snow slopes or slide by An ice cream. All this happens in differentiated, but well integrated areas: the WS Dreamland amusement park and the WS Snow Miracle space, which maintains a controlled temperature environment all year. The company ensures that the interior remains at about -5 ° C.
More than an extravagance, the center seems to look for an alternative form of urban leisure. What are separate weekend plans in other places –ir to the park, pass through a store, dinner out – here it becomes a continuous experience. And if you do not see it, the building is responsible for reminding you: the mechanical stairs connect thematic areas, the posters indicate activities for children and adults, in each plant there are something else.
One of the most unique areas of the complex is in the subsoil. It’s called “Chu Feng Han Wei” and it’s not just a food street. It is a complete recreation of Wuhan from the 80swith old posters, appliances from another era, shop windows with recorders, enameled thermos and tube televisions. Some visitors stop in front of their children and explain how things were “when they were little.” Others simply sit down to eat.
Several of the premises that have a presence here are historical in the city: from the low -beef of Lao Wancheng to Sikimei vapor soups. Some have adapted their letter to the environment, with exclusive dishes that can only be tested in this commercial version of the past. Halfway between theme park and gastronomic fair, the area has become one of the busiest points in the center.
Those who prefer the new to the nostalgic also find their land here. Among the more than 600 stores in the center, several have been presented as “First” in its category. Is, for example, The largest Sony store in the regiona space that not only exposes products, but allows you to try calmly. There is also a large space for Huawei, an urban design bookstore and even a Starbucks with personalized decoration for Wuhan.
The result is a type of audience that not only enters by necessity, but out of curiosity. Young people looking for the latest releases, technology fans who compare prices and functionalities in situ, visitors who enter with the idea of “seeing what is” and end up doing sound, image or connectivity tests as if that were an electronics fair.
Within the building there is also space for more visible innovations. Patrol do not make it vigilant on foot, but employees who move in equilibrium scooters. Visitor information centralizes interactive screens. And in some areas, logistics management incorporates Artificial Intelligence Models to anticipate needs depending on the time or volume of public. Everything looks for the same: that the center works as a miniature city, with its own rules, schedules and routines.
At this point, it is difficult to pigeonhole the Wushang Dream was. Is it a shopping center? Yes, but it is also a theme park, an urban gallery, an architectural experiment and a place where many go without intention to buy anything. There may be its success there: in having turned a space designed for consumption into something more similar to an urban capsule where the day spends, see things or share time.
Images | Hubei government | Wushang Group
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