Hong Kong has huge indoor malls with corridors fifteen or twenty feet wide, and low ceilings. At Ocean Galleries Mall, hurrying crowds of people look straight ahead without interaction or detour. They know what they want. Such downtown malls are like strip malls on American highways, built for getting to what you want, and getting out, with a little seduction to impulse buying on the way. There is not much pretense of a place of public assembly or interaction, though I recall that one mall had an ice skating rink. These malls are not markets with street life, they are private spaces for maximum flow.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001