central shopping area vs main shopping area

[keannu]

In Korea, many people, especially youngsters like to say "중상" ,which means the central or main place for shopping where a lot of stores are concentrated in a district. A city can have many districts and each district can have this kind of area.
What do you call such area? Main or central shopping area? I have never heard of such area when I was in Canada.

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello, keannu.:-D
A "shopping district", perhaps?
It's different from a "shopping mall", isn't it?

 

[keannu]

I'm not sure of your answer, there are a few of such expressions in a dictionary, but I meant the biggest, central one. Maybe I can add "central" to any of them to express my idea, but I don't know if native speakers use it.

shopping district[area], shopping center[mall], (shopping) arcade

 

[Gillnetter]

I'm not sure of your answer, there are a few of such expressions in a dictionary, but I meant the biggest, central one. Maybe I can add "central" to any of them to express my idea, but I don't know if native speakers use it.

shopping district[area], shopping center[mall], (shopping) arcade

In the past most shopping was done in the central part of a town or city. Since the advent of shopping malls in the US in the 1950s it is difficult to point to any one area and describe it as a center of shopping. It may be that in some smaller towns and villages most shopping is still located in the middle of a community. I live in a rural part of southern California. If I want to shop for food I go to the eastern edge of the nearest town. If I want to purchase a new automobile I go to the western edge of that town. Banks are seemingly placed everywhere. If I travel to the nearest city, San Diego, I would go to the downtown area for banking or for governmental services. If I want to shop in San Diego I would go to one of the shopping malls in the nearby suburbs. As is the case in most cities, the better restaurants are near each other in the downtown area. The placement of upscale restaurants and one-of-a-kind shops are the direct result of rehabilitation plans by the local city and country governments with assistance from the state and federal government.