Thousands more visited the resort’s Wishing Star Park recreational area and Disneytown, a retail, dining and shopping district that is home to the Walt Disney Grand Theatre, where guests may experience the first Mandarin production of Disney’s musical hit THE LION KING. According to the China Daily, hotels are preparing packages for visitors to the park.
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For fans of the theme park industry and those with an interest in the ongoing cross-pollination of various world cultures as China emerges as a priority for American entertainment companies, Iger’s entire spiel is worth watching (the other speeches are translated as well). Disney theme parks have always been good at creating enormous spectacles like this, but the combination of their traditional brand of magic/technology with elements of Chinese culture makes this entire presentation unlike any other show you’ve ever seen.
Iger and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang read out letters of support from Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping.
Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Yang stood on stage in front of the park’s lavish storybook castle and joked that the rain was a sign of good luck – the “rain of U.S. dollars and RMB”, he said.
Walt Disney World said it had shut down all its Florida resort beaches and marinas as a precaution after the incident.
Ownership: Disney isn’t going it alone on this project. “It was so fast”, said Mr. Zhang with a grin. By contrast, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, drew 19.3 million people in 2014.
Disney has just opened a new theme park near Shanghai, where it hopes to tap China’s booming middle class and domestic tourism.
Years in the making: Construction began more than five years ago in April 2011.
About 60 more parks will open by then to serve Chinese consumers, including Dalian Wanda Group Co.’s chain of 15 “Wanda Cities”.
In an Associated Press report posted on SF Gate, Iger explained that the first of Disney’s theme parks in the mainland is “distinctly Chinese” as it was created to fuse the magic of the brand with the rich culture of the land. “We didn’t just build Disneyland in China, we built China’s Disneyland”, he said Wednesday at during a preview tour.
Three hundred thirty million people live within a three-hour drive or train ride of Shanghai Disneyland. So far, the park here has suffered none of the cultural missteps that marred Disney openings in France and Hong Kong over the decades.
There are already some 300 theme parks in China and another 60 on the way, but nothing comparative with the size and scope of Disney.
Jin Yasi, a 33-year-old housewife from Wuhan, came with her husband and their two daughters, aged 6 and 3, dressed as Elsa from “Frozen” and as Snow White.
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Shanghai also features the largest castle and longest parade route of any Disney park in the world. Ticket touts, however, were more in the know, calling out to visitors outside the park and offering tickets for between 500 yuan ($75.86) and 700 yuan, compared with the official website price of 499 yuan.
