China's Capitalist Revolution

Timon Singh

It appears the capitalist revolution is well underway in the People's Republic of China. Firstly, McDonald's have established over 800 restaurants in the country since 1990, with 200 more in Hong Kong, but now another symbol of the 'decadent west' is about to set up shop in the Communist country - Disney.

The Chinese government have given the go-ahead for the Walt Disney Company to build a theme park in Shanghai. The planned location for the park - the former industrial area Chuansha, in Pudong district, near the city's main international airport - has already been cleared of its former occupants to make way for the theme park.

It will be the first Disneyland in mainland China and is expected to open in 2014.

The deal may come as a surprise to some, but China's policy towards the West seems to have lessened in the last decade with prosperity booming in the country. In fact, it is rumoured that the Disneyland Shanghai deal has been gestating for almost ten years, with the main obstacle being the approval of the deal by local government.

Shanghai mayor Han Zheng has already said that an announcement from the city authorities could be made later this week with details of the plan.

Pared down Disney?

Over the past month or so, there have been concerns regarding the size of the new park, with figures putting the park size at 116 hectares of land - 10 hectares smaller than Hong Kong Disneyland. However, this has been downplayed with a industry analyst saying that the two parks would be of similar size.

"It will not use all the 400 hectares [in Chuansha town] at once," the insider said to The Standard in November.

"The agreement between Disney and the Hong Kong government said Disneyland cannot gain anything if the park does not make a profit," he said.

"Disney wants to expand the park more than anyone else to make more money."

Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents chairman Michael Wu Siu-ying said it would be "fair competition" if the two theme parks are of similar size as they can attract different types of visitors.

"The Shanghai theme park will be for visitors from eastern and Northern China and the Hong Kong park for international visitors and from Southeast Asia."

Disneyland Hong Kong opened in September 2005.

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