Less a place to shop, and more a shopper's palace, the West Edmonton Mall is where the glitz, glamour and thrill of “retail entertainment” was born.
The West Edmonton Mall (WEM) was the largest mall in the world when it was built in 1981. It wasn't just big though, it broke new ground in what mega-malls could offer their customers. This is a mall with a zoo, a massive pool complex, cinemas, an ice rink, an amusement park, music venues, a skate-park and a shooting range. It all helped to bring in the shoppers. Some thirty million visitors wander through its endless corridors every year, shopping and dining at more than 800 shops and restaurants.
While it has since lost the “world's biggest” title to new mega-malls in China, many think that the WEM remains the best, offering incredibly diverse shopping and top-quality entertainment experiences. Not that it looks like much from the outside – a series of giant concrete boxes surrounded by hectares of car parks. But it is when you're on the inside, especially in its mammoth entertainment complexes, that the mall really shines.
The World Waterpark has over 2 hectares of warm water lapping six bays, each of which has a wave machine able to create waves up to 2 metres in height. Under its huge arched dome, there are tube slides to corkscrew through, a white-water slide to raft-ride down and even a bungee-jump into the pool.
Galaxyland, the mall’s amusement park, is actually the second-largest indoor amusement park in the world, with 24 rides ranging from beginner to extreme. Perhaps the best-known is the Mindbender, the world's largest triple-loop roller coaster to be found under a roof.
The wide expanse of the lake is home to real-live penguins and sea lions, while the Sea Life Caverns aquarium has all manner of aquatic life, from tiny colourful tropical fish to menacing sharks. But it's the exotic shopping that pulls in many of WEM's countless visitors – especially the upmarket “themed” streets found off the main mall corridors. Europa Boulevard has the quaint stylings of a European street, while Chinatown keeps its shopping Asian-style.
And if you want to keep the mall experience going until late, then head to Bourbon Street. With its late-opening clubs and restaurants recreating New Orleans' sultry night-time scene, it's definitely the place to party. You might forget that you're actually in North America's most-northerly city, even if just for an evening.
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