There was a shop at the corner of Fuxing Lu and ShaanXi Nan Lu called LEACLUB which I watched going through what looked like an expensive shop-fit last year. It seemed to take forever and when it was completed I went in for a look and was very impressed with the range of expensive leather furniture and wooden furniture. It was the sort of shop I would support if it was in the same country as my house.
Imagine my surprise when I walked past the shop this week and found it all bricked up. I swear, the day before it was still open. Things happen so quickly here. One day a shop is there and the next there is no evidence of it ever existing. In Nanjing, this happened a lot – the most memorable was Costa Coffee on ZhuJiang Lu which was there one day but not the following day. The photocopy shop near the children’s hospital, which I used regularly didn’t just close, the whole building was demolished when I returned several days later to do a bit more copying.
On Fuxing Lu there were a couple of men finishing up after bricking up the windows and it occurred to me that the tenants had not just emptied the shop of all the stock but had taken the window frames from the ground floor and most of the glazing too. I thought this was akin to peeling the wallpaper off the walls when you move house.
However, the word on the street is that the authorities are closing all the shops on that south side of Fuxing Lu between ShaanXi Nan Lu and Jiashan Lu. If this is true (only time will tell), it will be a shame as there are some very popular small retailers on that strip selling snacks as well as goods.
Let’s see what these properties are replaced with. Let’s hope it’s not another shopping centre, we don’t need any more of those in this city. Watch this space.