The Future of Shopping is a 7,000sqm Food Hall in Liangmaqiao
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Our first impressions of Hello Mart in Liangmaqiao is that it's the apex of massive forces currently reworking Beijing's consumer landscape. The new sprawling 7,000sqm food court/craft beer bar/grocery store/crafts emporium/English school/ice cream dispensary/art store appears to be a prototype for the type of "mall without walls" shopping experience that (if the government has its way) will pockmark the city as a replacement of the shops, restaurants, and mom and pop grocery stores being forced to close in the name of "beautification" and population control.
All fruit and veg comes individually wrapped – it's the future!
Speaking as someone who lives in this area, Hello Mart could potentially be very convenient given the dearth of small grocers nearby. Granted, Sanyuanli Market – considered one of the best places to buy niche Western food items in Beijing – is a couple of blocks away and there is a smattering of smaller grocery stores on Maizidian to the south, but the prices you'll pay at Hello Mart, no matter how fresh the produce, are not going to draw anyone in for a weekly shop. Then there's the packaging, which is like BHG on steroids – almost everything is individually wrapped (sorry, zero-wasters) – which in a bizarro-land way kind of makes sense, considering how long it's likely to sit on the shelves.
The dry foods area has both home staples and more niche imported items
There are, however, some upsides to having a pricey dry foods section; namely, that it's stocked with some hard-to-find products that warrant the hundreds of kuai you're desperate to blow. If it's Italian cooking oils, foie gras imported from France, or a 1977 bottle of Maotai you're after (c'mon, it's only RMB 100,000!) then you know where you to go. As for everything else, you're probably able to find it in your closest Jenny Lou's.
Speaking of which, that foreigner favorite has teamed up with Hello Mart to provide reasonably priced and expansive wine and cheese sections. This may in fact be the most practical part of the store, and a godsend should you be on the hunt for last-minute dinner party provisions.
Fancy a RMB 5,555 bottle of "Snake Venom" AKA the world's strongest beer? You'll find it here
Then there's the neat beer fridge area that wraps around into a Ram Beer-operated 30-plus-tap bar. Again, don't expect this place to usurp your local bottle bar given the prices (RMB 40-60 for 330ml or plus RMB 20 for 500ml), and the mall atmosphere, but it's well-equipped and stacks a decent range of limited edition brews in the fridge if you're looking for a treat.
A simple gaifan or noodle dish will set you back RMB 30-40 (worth it for the tray alone)
Finally, there's the food court. No doubt that the selection of noodles, Chinese snacks-on-sticks, seafood, and overpriced attempts at Western food will be popular among locals and nearby embassy and hotel staff (it was very busy when we first dropped by for a mid-week lunch) but the options will get old quite quickly. Vegetables are scarce save for one six-option salad station, and the huge seafood tanks are more akin to what you might find at a high-end Chinese restaurant rather than the back of a food court (as such, it boasts "the longest LED screen in Beijing").
The attached Land of Grain bakery stocks European-style breads with higher-than-average prices
Couple these aspects with the adjoining Land of Grain bakery, an overpriced café, lots of forlorn-looking arts and craft dealers dotted throughout, a space dedicated to modern art, a small playschool, and themed private dining rooms for hire at RMB 500 a pop, and you get a space that sells a lot but doesn't really know what it wants to be.
Stalls offer any number of services, from tailoring to those blown-sugar animals you used to see on the street
To put it bluntly: If this is what government-mandated shopping utopia looks like in Beijing, we'll a) need a bigger paycheck and b) be ready to kiss goodbye to the vestiges of charm that the city has to offer. But hey, if those things don't concern you, Hello Mart is convenient as all hell.
READ: Groupe Flo Caters to the Masses With New Upscale Food Court in Sanyuanqiao
Hello Mart 城市市集
Daily 9am-10pm
48 Liangmaqiao Road, Chaoyang District
朝阳区亮马桥路48号
(010) 5382 2114
Photos courtesy of Hello Mart, Anna Pellegrin Hartley, Tautvile Daugelaite
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