Graphics: Retail Revolution

(Beijing) – New shopping malls pop up in big Chinese cities seemingly every few months, and nowhere was this truer than in the central city of Wuhan last year.

A survey of 171 cities around the world by real estate company CBRE Group Inc. found that Wuhan opened nearly 1 million square meters of new shopping mall space, equal to 140 soccer fields. Most of that new retail area went into use immediately, and rents paid by merchants went up from a year earlier.