China's quest for 'est' not quite the best

China loves being "est". Biggest, tallest, widest, highest, all words spoken proudly in China to describe buildings, dams, bridges and anything else that a superlative adjective can be applied to, and this includes shopping malls. Although Beijing's Golden Resources Mall is 6 million square feet and six stories tall, it doesn't quite qualify as the biggest.

In 2005, Dongguan in South China's Guangdong province boasted the world's largest shopping mall. Unfortunately its 6.5 million square feet didn't draw enough customers and most of its shop space remained boarded up. It closed in 2008.

The soon-to-be biggest mall in the world will be in, where else, Dubai, and will sport an ice skating rink in the desert among its many offerings. All over the world, gigantic malls are springing up. But as the economic winds blow chilly wherever one goes, it is time to take stock of how we spend our money and where. Supporting small, local businesses adds the human dimension to what is an impersonal exchange in the mega stores.

I visited the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, last Christmas, expecting to find crowds to rival China. At 4.2 million square feet, it remains a destination for millions of eager shoppers each year.

Its logo, a bright neon star on top of waving stripes creates a sense of vastness and excitement - of wide open spaces where the buffalo roam. Indeed, it is estimated that if one spent 10 minutes at each store, it would take 86 hours to see them all.

In the center is a full-scale amusement park and if that isn't interesting enough, you could try the Adventure Aquarium, the Dinosaur Museum or the NASCAR Motor Speedway. Restaurants are too numerous to count and major department stores take up vast amounts of space. Arcades and theaters add to mix.