This past Spring, I came across a post on Reddit about an abandoned, five-story underground mall in Chengdu, China. The pictures were an interesting – albeit incredibly eerie – time capsule and the history of the place was absolutely fascinating. Built originally as a Cold War bomb shelter in 1960, it was later converted into a shopping mall that opened in the early 90s. Further lore details the illegal and illicit activity that eventually wound up there, sort of like an underground version of Hong Kong’s infamous Kowloon Walled City.

As I was out-and-about one day, I came across one of its entrances. My eyes lit up.

It wasn’t too far from my hotel in the general vicinity of Tianfu Square. The first entrance I saw was completely boarded up. As I walked further down the street, I came across another … and another. With no plans and all the time in the world, I vowed to find the one open entrance to this mythical place.

Closed-off entrance to the abandoned underground mall in downtown Chengdu, China (©2026 Deborah Clague).

And so I did.

Currently the only publicly-accessible entrance to the abandoned underground mall in downtown Chengdu, China (©2026 Deborah Clague).

Upon entering the mall, there are a few shops still open. These include a food stall, multiple nail salons, phone accessories, clothing store and one shop specializing in military gear. Continuing to walk further beyond this, all storefronts – dozens and dozens of them – are completely closed up, some with dusty furniture and merchandise still inside. All resembling an early 90s liminal space fever dream.

The most curious thing is that there was absolutely no barrier to me entering this abandoned mall, despite it resembling an OH+S nightmare. Some people looked at me, perhaps questioning why a middle-aged white woman was wandering through, but no one stopped me and I decided to explore. I eventually went down two levels. The lighting started to get darker and the smell of mildew started to get stronger. I regretted not wearing a face mask and fear going down deeper into this mall will one day be my cancer origin story. But in the moment, I just sought the adventure.

This was actually one of the most fascinating things I experienced during my recent trip to China and offered such an unsanitized (figuratively and literally) glimpse into the development of China that no museum could match. With how quickly everything evolves in this country, I anticipate it won’t exist in the near future. I’m actually shocked it’s still around today.

There are very, very few images and background on this abandoned mall on the internet. Here it is, in all its glory, as of September 2026.