Mickey Finds a New Home

By YU LINTAO

Mickey Finds a New Home

By YU LINTAO

The first Disneyland on the Chinese mainland is expected to open in 2014

In a few years, the Chinese will no longer need to go abroad or to Hong Kong to meet their cartoon idols, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

On November 5, an agreement between the Walt Disney Company and the Shanghai Shendi Group (SSG) on the building of a Disneyland in Shanghai was officially signed. The Shanghai fun park will be the fourth Disney theme park outside the United States besides Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Huge project

The whole project, which is to cover 1.16 square km, will be the largest Disneyland in the world, said He Jianmin, Director of the Tourism Department of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, which participated in the appraisal of the project.

The construction will be divided into three phases. The first phase, including a nearly 1-square-km theme park area, is to involve an investment about 25 billion yuan($3.68 billion) and is planned for completion around 2014. After it opens, the number of tourists is expected to add up to 10 million every year, while the total tourists visiting the whole park will be 30 million annually,He said.

Water will be one of the main features of the first phase of the Shanghai Disneyland.A 0.39-square-km lake will be built in the first phase, which will take up a sizeable proportion of the entire park. It will be used as a base for water recreation activities and transportation.

In the northeast of the lake, a 7,000-square-meter arti fi cial island will be built. On the north side of the lake are spaces for the construction of a public transportation hub,entertainment facilities and hotels. A river which will surround the park has been under construction since October. As a whole, the park will present to tourists an impression of a water world.

The section to be built in the fi rst phase will focus on the theme of a magic kingdom.It will include fi ve different theme areas.

A 20-square-km Shanghai International Tourism Resort will be built to surround the theme park. A joint venture set up in August by Disney and the SSG will be in charge of operating the Shanghai theme park.

CFP

A special Disneyland subway line is to be built to link the fun park with the urban area of Shanghai.

Long-awaited

From the idea of cooperation to the formal signing of the agreement, both parties of the park’s construction have waited for more than a decade.

Walt Disney was the first big U.S. entertainment company to have access to the Chinese market. In 1986, the China Central Television (CCTV) and Walt Disney signed an agreement to air the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoon series in China. Since then, Disney has had wide-range cooperation with its Chinese business partners in areas such as movies, TV and Disney brand product promotions and sales.

With the success of the cartoon series,the idea of building a Disney theme park in Shanghai struck the then city leader.

A decade-long negotiation between the two sides began. But, Disney was cautious about site selection, the first Disney theme park in China opened in Hong Kong in 2005.

The establishment of Hong Kong Disneyland made negotiations between Shanghai and Disney much harder. There was fi erce debate centered on whether a second Disneyland was needed in China.

“If a Shanghai Disneyland is built, it is certain many mainland tourists would choose Shanghai instead of Hong Kong,” He said.This became a major barrier to negotiation.

As early as 2000, Xu Kuangdi, then Mayor of Shanghai, said 100 million richest Chinese lived in the Yangtze River Delta where Shanghai is located, and they themselves could sustain a Disney park. They also wanted it. To this end, the Pudong New District reserved a piece of land for a theme park for more than 10 years, said professor He.

In the next 10 years, with the rapid economic growth of China, Shanghai rose to be a financial center and the consumption capacity of the Chinese also became greater,which increased the feasibility of building another Disney theme park in China.

In 2009, Shanghai of fi cials said the city was fully prepared to host a Disneyland.

Driving a new economy

Disneyland will become a new engine for Shanghai to power its economy in the wake of the World Expo. It is estimated when Disneyland is built, it will provide 50,000 new jobs. The fun park is also expected to attract around 80 percent of mainland tourists, as well as part of the tourist fl ow from other Asian countries.

Zhu Lianqing, a researcher from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, says the Disneyland project will bring the area huge benefits. The project will boost economic development in Shanghai and bene fi t many sectors, including real estate, tourism,retail, and the animation industry.

Many people living in areas adjacent to the planned park think when the park is completed and with the improvements to transport systems, the value of their properties will rise considerably.

Yang Yu, a research fellow with the National Development and Reform Commission, said in an interview with CCTV the park would not only lift the value of nearby real estate and boost tourism but would also be helpful in transforming the city’s economic structure, which would move from depending mainly on manufacturing to service industries. During this transformation, the city still needs competitive brands and products. So building a Disneyland is an important step for the city to realize this purpose.

Concerns

Although there were low construction costs and millions of domestic tourists are expected, and experience based on the operations of the other five Disney theme parks could help Shanghai Disneyland succeed, the fun park still needs to further reduce costs of construction and operation and introduce new attractions to ensure making pro fi ts.

Setting the prices of tickets is also crucial. A questionnaire done by theShanghai Morning Postshows ticket prices concern tourists the most. Ninety percent of the respondents said the price would be acceptable if it was 400 yuan ($61) or below. Other matters that concerned respondents were transportation and operation times.

“I am really looking forward to the Shanghai Disney theme park. We are a generation that grew up watching Disney cartoons. Even now, I like Mickey and Donald Duck very much,” said Zhao Jingna,a 29-year-old white collar worker in an education service company in Beijing.

But not all have great expectations for the park. Zhang Xiaoli, a postgraduate at Beijing Language and Culture University,said ticket prices were too high for a student,even at 400 yuan.

Disneyland will also encounter competition from domestic amusement parks in China such as Happy Valley, an entertainment theme franchise which has opened in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Happy Valley has developed rapidly in recent years in the domestic market and is loved by a great number of tourists. Its ticket price is much lower than the average price of Disney parks.

The entry of Disneyland will bring about pressure on the domestic popular culture industry. The cooperation agreement also authorized the joint venture to produce cartoon movies and TV shows. These will promote both the Disney brand and the Shanghai park. It is also to publish a Disney-branded magazine. The agreement also calls for the joint venture to authorize local manufacturers to produce Disney-branded toys in China and sell them internationally.

But many Chinese from popular culture and entertainment industries are not overly worried about the impending competition.

“The entry of Disneyland into China provides a good opportunity for the Chinese animated movie industry to learn. Disney has fi rst-class ideas and experience in animated movie making, which is what the Chinese animation industry needs to learn,” said Zhou Ying, who works at the Cartoon and Animation Industry Base in Shanghai.