Exploring the Largest Asian Mall in North America : Pacific Mall
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- I have heard from many locals in the Toronto area that the real Chinatown is just north of Toronto in Markham. Just over the Toronto border at the intersection of Steeles Avenue & Kennedy Road is Pacific Mall, the Largest Asian Mall in North America. The mall hosts over 450 different stores and services, each independently owned and operated.
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Recorded October 6, 2022
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I’m surprised over the years of making walking videos in Toronto that neither Ken, or Johnny have ever made a video showcasing pacific mall considering it is such an interesting cultural centre.
There's always a first for everything
In your opinion, what makes it an interesting cultural center? Also if you were mall owner, how would you improve mall and area ? Thanks
@@app_game_system, 'those guys' don't like this part of Toronto much (at least Johnny doesn't), therefore, they don't do videos from it and the other similar places that much.
@@app_game_system, Toronto may not have much outside the old downtown and midtown core, but it does have things that attract tourists, which is why the city gets just as many millions of tourists as does New York (I'll admit, though, that because of New York's density, many of the neighbourhoods in it that Action Kid visited in his videos in Brooklyn, Queens & Long Island City have more character to them than any neighbourhood in the Inner 'Burbs [North York, Scarborough, Etobicoke, East York, and York] of Toronto [and was the reason why I left the Inner 'Burbs for downtown in 1994.])
@@app_game_system , Toronto has _always_ been mentioned as being like New York ( _officially_ , yes, _physically_ , no-it's more like Los Angeles physically) by a lot of people (Peter Ustinov called it 'New York run by the Swiss' when he once visited here), and others have made the same observation (it's considered to be like New York because it's the media and financial centre of Canada just like New York is for the United States.) The _only_ thing it doesn't have is the _density_ of New York City, which is why Johnny's, Ken's, and Lizzo C's videos are all set in the downtown and midtown areas of Toronto, and Johnny looks discomfited when he accepts requests to visit any place in the Inner 'Burbs (much like how he was when he visited Fairview Mall in North York in one video.) But Toronto's still a great city to live in and pay a visit to (although, if we don't get out collective poop together and stop voting for people like John Tory every four years, it won't last.)
Hey ActionKid, Thanks for the upload. I always enjoy going to the Pacific Mall. At the height of the pandemic, this mall was a ghost town. It used to have the market mall next door which has been torn down. I saw the scale model there showing a really modern concept of what the developers planned. I've spoken with many vendors there and they were not too happy with Condos being built on this site. We used to visit during New Year celebrations and the festivities were pretty amazing, with dragon dancing, parades with drums and talent showcases. Really a lot of fun. I hope this place comes back even stronger in the future. Don.
i'm actually sad to hear that the mall next door was torn down!
I remember going there over a decade ago and seeing tons of vendors selling bootleg anime dvds. 15 year old me was blown away by that lol.
yes, 1 went in, and the other had to wait outside. Had to call ahead to notify them that you were coming.
Pacific Mall is so modern, spacious, organized, and clean compared to some of the Asian malls I've been to. 15:42 Love the Chinese architecture of the Pacific Heritage Town and the whole food court area. 😍 19:00 It's cool to see the Terracotta Warriors statues, but they might be replicas. I believe the originals would be preserved inside a museum. 20:17 Terracotta Warriors guarding the men's room, you're too funny, AK! 🤣 Thank you for sharing this walk through the mall, AK! 🤗
You're welcome, it was fun to visit this mall and I really enjoyed my time there!
I did not realize that Toronto has such a big Chinese community. It was really nice seeing the Pacific mall, especially the food court and the Terracotta Warriors guarding the bathrooms.
Glad you enjoyed it! I was surprised to find out about this mall too!
The Toronto area has an ethnic Chinese population of about 700,000. The largest concentration of Chinese people in Toronto is in the NE suburbs, which have a Chinese community of about 350,000.
There's also two Chinatowns near downtown, one at Dundas & Spadina, and one at Gerrard & Broadview, but those are smaller and neighbourhood sized, with a population of just a few thousand. The Spadina Chinatown was founded in the mid 20th century I think, as the old one was largely demolished to build City Hall and other government buildings, so the Chinatown was moved a few blocks West to Spadina. I'm not sure when the Gerrard street Chinatown was founded, but I think it was some time later.
The suburban Chinatown was founded with large scale immigration from Hong Kong, around the neighbourhoods of Agincourt and Milliken, around 1980, and later joined by mainland Chinese and expanding into Markham and Richmond Hill.
A lot of people might not know it but Pacific Mall is built on the site formerly occupied by Cullen Country Barns, a farm-themed complex opened in 1983 that housed shops, a theatre, and restaurants. Pacific Mall opened in the mid-1990s amid a period of significant Chinese immigration to Canada.
Very interesting, thanks for sharing!
@@ActionKid Me and my brother rode our bicycles to that area in the 1970’s and it was just farmland back then. Cullen Barns was a gardening and nurseries business
You'll get hungry soon by the time you get up there of the mall. It got the ambience of Asia. Awesome mall. Xie-xie ni for sharing, AK.
I look forward to seeing the sites of this mall Action Kid . With 450 shops there has to be some hidden bargains somewhere in this mall . What a treat
I'm sure there are many bargains within the mall
This mall seems to be on it's last legs, it used to be thriving with a variety of stores (who remembers the giant arcade upstairs) especially clothing knockoffs. After the raid most of them shutdown and now theres a phone repair on every corner. I wouldnt be surprised in the next 10 years if it follows the same fate as Market Village and gets torn down for more condos
was wondering what happened to the clothing stores. Used to be lovely
It did seem quiet in the mall, I hope it survives because it's a cultural center with great food.
unofficial Initial D competitions at the arcade lol
There was a giant arcade there? It wasn't giant when I visited there.
First the Dragon Centre, now the Pacific mall.
Awesome exploring the largest Asian mall in North America Pacific mall! Keep up the good work
Great looking mall , especially the food court looked awesome 😎Long idles and lots on variety on certain items , overall great looking mall 😎Thank you for sharing A K 🙂👍!!!
You're welcome! I loved all the various stores and stalls in the mall
Looks like a fun place to eat, shop and hang out in the cold months.
Thank you my friend.
2:48 This is the second video in a row with people standing still with their arms above their head what the hell?
I wish you went down the West most part of the main floor. Its my favorite because it only has shops on 1 side and windows on the other. Back in the 90s all the stores selling bootleg games were along that aisle.
Loved going there on weekends and enjoyed looking at some of that sweet Asian Pie...
I live ten minutes from there and I only go there to buy glasses for myself or my family. An optical stall every few feet! IMO, it’s worth a one time visit! Also, there have been police busts for bootleg dvds over the years!
The shops are a little too cookie cutter for me. Too similar to one another. Although I do enjoy the food court. The food was good
Hahaha that's where I get my Rx glasses & sunglasses, too! I don't go there otherwise unless I crave bubble tea or need car accessories.
@@JoJo-st6jk, I plan to go there next month to get computer parts at a store there that sells them.
Looks fantastic! Wish I was there!!
This would be a teenagers DREAM MALL!! 😅😅. I imagine this mall is really busy in the summer and on the weekends w/teenagers and families.
Yes, it often is!
Oh no, the first thing you smell is food!! Lol!! The smell of food will lure anybody in anywhere 😅😅.
Right beside the Pacific mall was the market mall which got demolished. From what I understand,. the city of Markham granted the developers to build some condos there.
Where did you hear that? From what I've read, the new mall that is supposed to replace Market Village has been delayed by a lawsuit from Pacific Mall, regarding a previous agreement between the three landowners about the shared use of the lands for things like parking, and how that would be affected by the new mall.
A few other GTA malls are building condos or have plans to, but the malls are still staying. There already was a condo planned for the Market Village redevelopment. I would expect if there are more condos that would be in addition to the new mall?
@@pauly5418 Is it better to have more condos or more mall space? Also is there a conflict between Pacific Mall and Market Village ?
Which I'd shame the market was actually nice
Nice looking mall 👍🏽
Covid has had a negative impact. Just three years ago this mall would have had three times the people walking around, and fewer empty stores.
Not just Covid, there were a few police raids that shut down a few stores selling knock-off goods, as mentioned above.
@@Neville60001 Oh I know about that. The mall is notorious
@@Nunavuter1, strange thing; when I visited the mall a few months ago, there was a store selling what else but.... _knock-off videos_ (I saw a copy of _Turning Red_ there, when the Blu-Ray/4K disc hasn't come out yet.)
@@Neville60001 That's what the mall is known for.
I find with Pacific Mall the stores aren't always open so if you see something you like, best get it then. If you go back at another time the store might not be open.
13:57 - Aden camera. they have been there for 15-ish years lol. The mall still looks the same
That is a cool and a big mall.
a lot of stores have gone out of business. the only good thing about the mall is the upstairs food court. you have bascially the nail salons, the cell phone case sellers, the boba tea sellers, a few hair salons, fake knock off items sellers. there is a so called japanese dollar store down in the parking lot area in the basement of the mall. it's all made in china though.
also the steeles and kennedy area is mainly populated by chinese of the fujian descent.
I want to go to this mall next week to check out the toy stores and see if they have any dolls from Dragon Models for sale.
It's pretty big in terms of size, Noted the place is quite low in human traffic, could be a weekday...? Looks like the Mall is 70-75% occupied?....the pandemic has really killed off many businesses globally...Toronto is no exception...thanks AK for sharing the shops inside...
Overall the area has declined in quality. A big driver of traffic was the market village across the parking lot and since that's been demolished it's gone down significantly. Another thing is they have been raided quite a few times the past few years resulting in store owners not carrying knockoffs anymore which is a big reason people went to the mall
What? I didn’t know market village was demolished? I haven’t been to that area for over 10 years I think. We were just at first Markham place a few weeks ago, it was insanely busy on a Saturday.
@@cleon700 Great observation, if you were mall owner, how would you improve mall ? Cheers
@@app_game_system, something has to be done about this condo boom, it's going to destroy Toronto completely is it isn't stopped and some guidelines put in place as to what gets built and who they will house.
Toronto was maligned as a "Provincial, or Toronto the Good," city because of everything being closed on Sundays several decades ago, but it's also been a city of firsts or largest, for example, tallest free standing structure CN Tower, first operational fully retracting domed stadium Skydome aka Rogers Centre, etc. and now the largest Asian Shopping Mall! The best part is it's a very diverse city!
At least when it was Toronto the good it was a safe homogeneous city.
Very cool!
Mark, Skydome was the first stadium with a retractable roof in _Canada_ , not the first one anywhere (there were others built in the 70's in the United States that were first, the Houston Astrodome being _the_ first.)
@@Neville60001 True, but it was the first fully functional retractable roof in Canada that worked. Montreal's Olympic Stadium roof did not open and close although it was supposed to be operational.
Russell peters brought me here. 😂
Hi action kid please one request can you see if there's a nail store inside that mall cuz I'm planning on coming to the city next week?
looks like there are plenty of nail store options...have a good trip !
Yes, there’s Nail salons everywhere in Toronto, mostly Asian owned.
I think nail salons are everywhere; let us know if you find one inside this mall. I'm sure there are numerous inside and outside mall area.
Angel said good morning to action kid
As someone who goes here often, at certain times it very busy and at times its not, so maybe thats why there isn’t much people.
Are there any American malls in Asia ?
Asian Malls have Western Retail stores such as Burberry, Chanel, Cartier, Prada, Valentino, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Gucci, Givenchy, Hermes, and more. Costco, Walmart, Aldi also have stores in Asia.
@@Bk6346 Not sûre these luxure european brands would like to be associated with American Costo and Walmart
Funny how where those statues of those warriors are is where the washrooms are...
this mall still sell have that store with the guy who sells those counterfeit marlboro cartons under the counter ? lol
This mall has been around for the last 30 yrs or so. However it is not the biggest asian mall. The biggest Asian mall is in Richmond BC. Its much larger and modern. Great video tho.
Hello Ken.....
I go there only for the food court.
Great
Good to see..but there is no shop with Indian stuff
Canada has the largest country with south Asians in it meaning Indians, Pakistani, Bengali, Sri Lankan, Nepalese so you should know that. This city Markham even has a large amount of Indians but you won’t see Indian stores because it has the largest percentage of East Asians meaning Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese, and Mongolian or just northern Chinese.
Actionkid, if you saw my comment i deleted i apologize. The old saying *there's a time and place* came to mind after I wrote it and i knew i fkd up lol. I deleted it and please enjoy your day!
❤❤
Lots of Asians but not The Indians here
Mall owner(s) should change name and mall concept to include other nationalities, cultures, and non-Asian countries. Twenty years ago it times were different; but now post Trump anti-China sentiment, it may be better for Asian malls and neighborhoods to diversify and be inclusive of other countries. Comment as you wish. Cheers!
fuck that bro i live in markham and honestly i’m never going to pacific mall it’s just the place where the chinese can have time away from us other people
Largest Asian mall no way.
Yes it is.
@@JTCFC1 I don’t think so
@@floridaroadways well your wrong because it is.
Which is the largest Asian mall in North America, then? Something in Florida, perhaps?
@@bobbbxxx Fort Lauderdale
Sterile and boring
Very ugly mall !
Do you feel better now? LOL.
Yet Another Warehouse Selling Plastic Crap.😭👎🚫