Five-storey super slide opens in Shanghai shopping centre

Shopping malls are soul-destroying temples to the gods of capitalist consumer culture.

Ye shall sacrifice hours of your life, hundreds of your pounds, and in return ye shall get a denim shirt and a new SCART cable for your telly.

So hats off to the top dogs at the Printemps Department Store in Shanghai, China, for injecting some much-needed entertainment into the tiresome experience.

The brand new, accurately-named Happy Slide is a mammoth five-storey construction that whizzes customers from the shopping centre’s top floor to ground level in 16 fun-filled seconds.

At 54-metres long, it looks like one hell of a ride, though the Shanghai mall has some way to go before it catches up with the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, Canada, which boasts the world’s largest indoor theme park, a water park, full-sized ice rink, marine life centre, and not one but TWO mini-golf courses.

One thing's for certain, it sure beats taking the escalator.

[Images: People's Daily]