First Glance: The F&B Offerings at Chaoyang Park’s New Alien-Like Central Park Plaza

The newly opened Central Park Plaza will not be new to anyone who lives close to Chaoyang Park. Impossible to miss, its wavy, ominous, and transparent black casing gives it the appearance of a building plucked straight out of Gotham City combined with the spaceship from Arrival.

Directly opposite Chaoyang Park's south gate, Central Park Plaza stands out from the comparatively boring skyscrapers nearby by putting a sense of fear in your heart. Luckily, we visited during a chipper Beijing afternoon to take a stroll around the seven buildings (named A1-7), three apartment buildings ("Capital Residences by Armani Casa"), and two office towers.

Despite its initial threatening appearance, the Ma Yansong-designed complex is surprisingly serene, sporting lots of pine trees and bamboo as well as sculptures and modern functional buildings with metal façades that reflect natural landscape. That peacefulness is reflected in Ma's shanshui philosophy, which "expands beyond nature and captures the individual emotional response to the surrounding world.” Such elements can also be found in other buildings created by Ma, including Conrad Beijing, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago, US, and the Absolute Towers in Mississauga, Canada.

Compared to other new Beijing malls like Hopson One, Space 3, or WF Central, Chaoyang Park Plaza does not have such a heavy food and beverage focus and so far includes a smattering of restaurants and cafés such as Jamaica Blue Coffee, Cheers (plus a terrace), Benqijia (ramen), The Mission, Gongcha Milk Tea, Better Me Milk Tea, Atlas (whiskey bar), Blaq Coffee, X Flower, Kafelaku Coffee, and an I-Fitness Lab gym. Those together provide more than enough options for the nearby office workers though will unlikely have people flocking from far away.

Given that fact that the massive office buildings have less than a dozen companies currently stationed inside, we can expect to see more restaurants move in soon.

Walking around these buildings, it’s hard to believe you are in Beijing. Actually, it’s hard to believe you're anywhere on Earth, its sleek and surreal design transporting you far away and instilling an inner zen. Or at least there would be if there weren't three bored security guards at any one time following you around, ogling visitors as if they might tempt defacing this new, shiny building.

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Photos: imad, Tracy Wang