Disney opens $5.5bn theme park in mainland China

Shanghai / Bloomberg

Walt Disney Co.’s $5.5 billion Shanghai theme park, its first in mainland China, opened with fireworks, a dancing Mickey Mouse, dignitaries, and messages of support from two of the most powerful presidents in the world.
“I hope that Shanghai Disney can provide visitors with safe and premium experiences and become a world class theme park. I hope it promotes exchanges across cultures of the world,” according to a letter from Chinese President Xi Jinping, read by Vice Premier Wang Yang at the park’s opening
ceremony on Thursday morning.
Tens of thousands are expected to stream into Shanghai Disneyland on its debut, after nearly two decades in the making. The resort is the largest foreign investment ever for the Burbank, California-based company, as it intensifies the race to dominate China’s $610 billion tourism industry.
“The resort captures the promise of our bilateral relationship,” US President Barack Obama said in a letter, which Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger read at the ceremony attended by senior officials including Shanghai’s Communist Party secretary and its mayor.
The entertainment giant has already begun construction to expand attractions within the park’s 7 square kilometers of land, Iger said at a briefing on Wednesday. The existing resort covers about 3.9 square kilometers.
While most of the 300 theme parks in China are currently unprofitable ventures, Disney is leading an incoming wave of top-notch megaparks developed by both local and foreign operators competing for a tourism industry that is set to double by 2020.
About 60 more parks will open by then to serve Chinese consumers, including Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s chain of 15 “Wanda Cities.” DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc’s $2.4 billion DreamCenter is scheduled for 2017, while Haichang Ocean Park Holdings plans a marine park an hour from Disneyland and Six Flags Entertainment Corp.’s Shanghai park will be its first outside North America.

Chinese Preferences
From the peony flower design on the turret of the park’s centerpiece castle, to a comedic Beijing opera interlude in the Mandarin version of the Lion King musical, Disney has taken pains to
incorporate Chinese elements at the 963-acre resort.
Leia Mi, the concept designer for the Shanghai park’s castle, said that Disney conducted thorough market research into Chinese preferences. For example, while other Disneylands showcase a castle that guests walk through, the Shanghai park castle was designed with eating and retail space within them to meet Chinese expectations.
While the castles in Hong Kong and Anaheim are a tribute to the Disney character, Sleeping Beauty, the designers also chose to represent all the Disney princesses inside Shanghai’s castle. For most Chinese, there isn’t one Disney princess that stands out, Mi said.
“The Chinese can learn the princesses over time and this gives them an opportunity to have an introduction to all of the princess stories,” said executive producer Ali Rubinstein.

Most Ambitious
Disney’s designers and engineers said that the park was the grandest and most ambitious they have created, aided by new 3-D design technology that allowed them to identify and solve problems before construction began.