The red carpet is being rolled out, Woody and Jesse from Toy Story are practicing their moves, and even the trash bins are being polished to bright shine.
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Walt Disney World said it had shut down all of its Florida resort beaches and marinas out of precaution after the incident. It was a hard-fought victory for Disney and a sign of how open China has become to welcoming American culture.
That’s certainly the case with Shanghai Disneyland, which the company says “reflects the beauty and unique identity of today’s China”. The largest of all the lands, Fantasyland, is inspired by Disney’s animated films and home to the majestic Enchanted Storybook Castle-the tallest, largest and most interactive Disney castle in the world.
“There’s a certain romance to it for me”, said the 19-year-old college student, who only managed to get a ticket from a friend who works as a travel agent because online tickets were snapped up within minutes of going on sale in March.
“The resort captures the promise of our bilateral relationship”, President Obama said in a letter which Disney chief executive officer Robert Iger read at the grand opening ceremony, according to Bloomberg.
“We didn’t build Disneyland in China, we built China’s Disneyland”, said Iger.
The resort is Disney’s sixth, and fourth overseas.
One Chinese academic believes it could still take years for the Shanghai Disney park to be profitable.
Read about the competition among theme parks in China here.
“Since she was young, my little girl has always loved Disney princesses, so I wanted to bring her to the park to fulfil her dream”, she told Reuters. “We built China’s Disneyland”.
Disney has also had to fend off accusations of cultural imperialism, most recently from Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin, who is developing his own entertainment properties. In Shanghai, it is called “Mickey Avenue”. 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.
Perhaps the most Chinese feature of the park is the food.
Disney calculates there are 330 million people living within a three-hour journey of Shanghai who are potential customers. Entrance fees are 499 yuan (S$102) during peak periods and 370 yuan at other times.
RECRUIT: An actress dressed as the title character from Mulan rides past in a parade at Walt Disney’s Shanghai Disney Resort theme park during a trial run ahead of its official opening. Company founder Walt Disney oversaw its construction in Anaheim, California, on a 65-hectare (160-acre) orange farm.
Ms Zhao Qiong, 36, was one of the first visitors to the park, along with her four-year-old daughter.
Shanghai received an early introduction to Disney when the animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” showed in the city’s cinemas in 1938.
The initial reception here has been positive.
The monumental task of opening the park, which included planting 2.4 million shrubs, stocking 7,000 pieces of merchandise and training 10,000 employees, has had its challenges.
“We are most looking forward to all the characters she likes”, said mom Gao Piepeia, a park visitor.
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Lu remembers five years ago, when the site was just a ramshackle village surrounded by farm land. “He was so thrilled that he couldn’t go to sleep last night”, said Ning.
