Rain can not dampen the spirits of those at the happiest place on Earth, especially when today is opening day for Disney’s new Shanghai resort.
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Speeches by Communist party leaders alongside songs by a Chinese children’s choir and greetings from Sleeping Beauty and other Disney characters graced the opening of the first Disney theme park in mainland China.
Thousands weathered the rain to attend the $5.5 billion resort’s opening day, almost seven years since the project was first announced and after five years of construction.
Along with six themed lands, including Treasure Cove, devoted to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, as well as Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, the Shanghai resort includes a Broadway-style theatre, two hotels, a 123-acre park and a shopping district with more than 50 retailers. Disney hired Chinese architects and designers to create a blend of classic Disney while honoring the Chinese culture. Shanghai Disney Resort reflects Disney’s 60-year history of innovation, creativity and storytelling, in a way that is authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese.
The Shanghai park could lose money for the first couple of years as it ramps up, but if can attract 18 million annual visitors, it should produce $150 million in earnings before interest, taxes and other items by 2018, Anthony Diclemente, an industry analyst at Nomura Securities, wrote in an investor note Wednesday.
The two scored tickets for Disneyland Shanghai’s “soft opening” from a friend of a friend who works at the park.
China’s tourism market is filled with inexperienced but ambitious competitors for Disney, from theme parks to golf resorts to cultural parks.
“I have visited the resorts in California and Tokyo, and I feel so proud that we can visit Disneyland in our home city now”, she said.
The firm estimates some 330 million people within a three-hour radius of Shanghai, China’s financial centre, could afford to come to the park.
Having already purchased my 499 RMB ($75 US) park ticket for July, here are 5 things I can’t wait to check out.
Wiley is now working as a creative entertainment lighting designer at The Walt Disney Company. The construction of the resort, a joint venture between Disney and the state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group, broke ground in 2011. But China’s main military newspaper has also warned that Zootopia, a story about a rabbit police officer in an animal city, was a tool for spreading U.S. propaganda and ideals.
Under dark skies and intermittent showers, Walt Disney Co. officially threw wide the gates of its most expensive global resort to mostly orderly crowds on Thursday, creating a beachhead for the popular entertainment company in the most populous nation.
Thousands of tourists from home and overseas flocked to the highly anticipated Shanghai Disneyland despite the rain, although some patrons expressed frustration over long queues.
But Disney denies the allegation, saying its philosophy is to integrate local elements throughout, from the first Chinese-language production of “The Lion King“, to the food and the attractions – even the Disney castle is topped with a traditional peony flower. In 2014, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., drew 19.3 million people.
Thousands of people streamed through the Magic Kingdom’s doors, opened 30 minutes early, with some sprinting through the rain-drenched park in hope of being the first to ride attractions such as a futuristic rollercoaster based on the “Tron” science fiction films.
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“The period when we would blindly follow where Disney led has been gone for years”, said Wang, founder of the Wanda company which bought Hollywood studio Legendary Entertainment for $3.5 billion in January.
