Shanghai mall installs slide for shoppers

Forget stairs and elevators – a Shanghai mall has installed a five-storey enclosed slide for shoppers.

Spiralling down some 54 metres, the 76cm wide chute at the Printemps mall in the Pudong New Area is covered in bright patterns and is named The Happy Slide. It take just 16 seconds from the top floor of the mall to the ground floor.

Printemps, despite a 150-year retail history in Paris, has been experiencing declining sales at the mall, prompting the management to think outside the box to attract more customers.

While the slide is free to use, it is only for people aged between seven and 60 years old, provided they are not pregnant and do not have cardiovascular or back problems. At the moment, the attraction is open only to VIP mall members, and they need to wear a safety bag and cross their arms while sliding.

Shaped like a traditional twisting Chinese dragon, the stainless steel tube is covered in cartoon-style flowers, stars and musical instruments.

Images show a man in a suit taking the slide, as well as another emerging with his smartphone shooting video.

However, one Facebook user questions its safety: “China can’t build escalators properly without people falling through them, so you’d be nuts to go down this.”

Singapore’s Changi Airport put up the state’s tallest slide, measuring four storeys, or 12m, high in 2010, and it is still a major tourist attraction.