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| - Pacific Mall is a Hong Kong FOB's wet dream come true in North America (well Canada really). It is arguably the largest Hong Kong/China style Asian shopping mall I have ever seen on the continent (although I'm sure post 2003 there are fierce competitors in Ontario province vying for the title).
The Chinese name is Tai Koo Guong Cheung, and the name Tai Koo is arguably lifted from Tai Koo Shing in Hong Kong (that also sports one of the first biggest shopping malls in the early to mid 1980s in Hong Kong on the island itself).
The complex or compound rather, is impressively huge, sporting easily space for 500 small businesses. If you have ever been to Japan, Taiwan, or Hong Kong, you may have stepped into these smaller multi story shopping arcades where the average retail store space is much smaller than a 1 bedroom studio. Now imagine 500 of these wall to wall, each selling a product or a service (or snack/food drink) and scattered across a very large building with a gigantic mall sized multi story parking lot, and you pretty much have Pacific Mall.
Most of the vendor offerings come imported from China and/or Hong Kong, and chances are you will find competing vendors offering similar if not identical items, so it will pay to window shop and walk around for the best price. I don't doubt that some items are shall we say counterfeit or bootleg (e.g. DVD movies or software) so if it looks cheaper than an official import, then that is why. I am also willing to bet that the vendor list http://www.pacificmalltoronto.com/directory.html is already out of date.
Businesses come and go very quickly in these parts and I'm sure what you saw 6 months ago might not be there anymore (what can I say, HK and Chinese peep$ work in cut throat pace$).
From 2003 this was the kind of variety of warez, products, services offered:
- real estate agency (former gossipy bitchy friend & high school classmate of mom's ran the joint, probably not around anymore)
- shops selling dried sundries (sour plum candies and the ilk)
- chinese herb shops that also sell dried $eafood like $hark'$ fin and dried $callop$ and abalone
- tapioca milk tea type drink stalls
- the latest home console electronic gadgets
- Chinese pop music and movie CD/DVD stores (check for the DVDs priced lower than CDN$10 and shady looking DVD case artwork to ID them as "China" DVD-9 imports/non official pressings). Arguably you will find Chinese subtitled or dubbed animation too.
- clothing stores (some are branded, some are not). Be a true AZN and try to bargain the price down.
- probably some hair salons
- cutesy gadgets, plush toys, decorations any local AZN would need for vanity purposes (including their cars). Need some cutesy kiddie character air freshener or good luck charm dangling from your rear view mirror? Or perhaps some thug ass car mod that makes your car look like Knight Rider's KITT? I don't doubt there are import motors accessories type shops here or nearby.
- stalls or shops selling retro style street food snacks (huge plus)
On the upper level of Pacific Mall, you will find the food court, and based on the last visit in 2003, a coin-op arcade (a must for the local AZN mall rats and thug ass wannabe's with their rice rocket$, but beware some of these kid$ you cannot F around with as they know people)
Also on this upper level is Pacific Heritage Town, which probably deserves its own listing (and probably is already listed), where they recreate (or try to) a market from the old days, but the concept ends up being more interesting than reality. A good effort nonetheless locally.
If you be da shiznit AZN, then you will probably try to spend every waking hour here (even for the AZNs visiting from out of town). For those who have been there, done that, one trip or visit is really all you need and then Pacific Mall or Tai Koo, is no longer a novelty.
Case in point, Pacific Mall's neighbor, Market Village, used to be THE hanging place for the AZNs 13 years ago. But now it is just a shadow of its former self, as the Pacific Mall structure makes MV look like a dwarf.
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