Archive
Largest Empty Mall in the World: New South China Mall
Located about 50 miles north of Hong Kong in Dongguan, China, the New South China Mall is the largest mall in the world by gross leasable area. Twice the size of United States’ Mall of America, it was opened with room for 2,350 stores in 7.1 million square feet of leasable space.
No mall in the world can rival New South China in any category, except perhaps number of tenants.
Despite having every amenity a shopper could want, the mall has been 99% vacant since it’s opening in 2005.
Where your Apple products come from: Foxconn
Previously Sometimes Interesting featured Guiyu, the Chinese town tasked with disposing most of the world’s electronics. What about the origins of the electronics we buy? It’s probably not a surprise to hear many are also made in China, and sadly the working conditions for those who build iPods isn’t much better than those who take them apart.
Imagine a place where eight workers share a dorm room and televisions only exist in common areas. Imagine a suicide rate so high the employer installs netting on the side of buildings to prevent workers from jumping.
Welcome to Shenzhen, China, where much of the world’s electronic components are created. Read more…
Lighthouses: A Reference Guide
Lighthouses are a dying breed. Ships feared dark coastlines and relied on lighthouses to keep them safe from dangerous rocks. Today with GPS and other technologies, fewer ships need them so new lighthouse construction is extremely rare.
From candle-powered and manned lighthouses thousands of years ago to the modern, stand-alone LED lighthouses of today, it has been an interesting evolution for the coastline protectors of the world. What follows is a chronicle of important lighthouses in history.
Hotel that took 25 Years to Build: The Ryugyong
North Korea has not historically been known for progress or leading the world in anything. In the mid-1980s they wanted to change that by building something massive, something that would be world-renowned. The project would symbolize progress for North Korea and introduce new, Western investors. It was decided to build a hotel – taller than any in the world – and in 1987 construction on the Ryugyong Hotel began.
It was intended to be completed in 1989 in time for the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students, but developers would face nearly every conceivable hurdle and by 1992 the project was abandoned. Read more…
Electronic Waste Dump of the World: Guiyu, China
Ever wonder where those old used computers end up? How about all those old CRT monitors, cell phones, keyboards, and PDAs? We’re told when we drop off our old electronics for recycling that they will be properly disposed of; in some cases we pay recyclers to ensure our old electronics are disposed of in the correct way.
It is easy to wipe our hands of these discarded items, feeling we’ve done our part – but have we? What we don’t know is what the “recyclers” do with these parts and where the discarded items end up. You rarely hear about electronic waste sites; perhaps it is time we start paying more attention. Read more…
Abandoned Resort: Sanzhi, Taiwan
Sanzhi might look like a town out of a Star Trek episode, but it is actually an abandoned tourist destination in the north of Taiwan. The concept behind Sanzhi was to build futuristic pods that would act as summer villas for the affluent who wanted retreats from the city. It was an idea that was well received and even gained financial backing from the government. Construction began in 1978, but investment capital dried up in 1980 before the project was completed. The company would go bankrupt and the property was left to rot. Read more…
The Island Shaped Like a Battleship: Hashima
Populated from 1887 to 1974, Hashima was originally purchased by Mitsubishi to be run as a coal mining facility. Just off the coast of Nagasaki, Hashima had the first concrete buildings constructed in Japan. For nearly one hundred years, Hashima enjoyed prosperity while the coal mines flourished. In the 1960’s petroleum started to replace coal for energy, and coal mines started closing around the country. By 1974 Mitsubishi announced it was closing the mine, and it has been uninhabited ever since. Read more…
Over 200 Dead Bodies on Mount Everest
As of mid-2011, Mount Everest has claimed the lives of over 216 known mountain climbers. The area above 26,000 feet is called “the Death Zone”, where breathing fresh oxygen from canisters is necessary for all but the most experienced climbers. The atmospheric pressure is about a third of that at sea level, meaning there is about one third the amount of oxygen to breathe. The air is so thin recovery of bodies has proven impossible. Given this, many victims lay where they took their last breath.
