New Disneyland project launched in Shanghai
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Walt Disney Co. inked a deal with a Shanghai firm Friday at a ceremony marking the start of a long-awaited theme park project in China's largest city.
Shanghai Shendi Group Co. Ltd., a state-owned company registered in August, signed the deal with Disney for the development of Disney's Shanghai project.
Shanghai International Tourism Resort Administrative Committee, a new government agency, was set up Friday to manage the project.
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Construction workers work at the site where Walt Disney Co's theme park will be built in Shanghai, Nov 5. |
Shanghai's Disneyland received the green light from Chinese authorities a year ago. It was expected to cover a relatively small 4 square kilometers at a cost of 25 billion yuan (3.6 billion U.S. dollars).
Disney and the Chinese side had been negotiating on and off for more than a decade, and the last round of negotiation took months.
A source familiar with the negotiations said "American negotiators were impressed by the Shanghai Expo getting 70 million visitors and decided that Disney had to become part of the great city."
The project will be in the heart of a planned "international tourism resort" that covers 20 square kilometers in Shanghai's Pudong New District.
A Shanghai government spokesman said the theme park and the low-carbon tourism resort would be a key program in the city's development strategies for the coming five years.
He did not mention, however, when construction would start.
Shanghai lies at the heart of the prosperous Yangtze River delta region known for its export-oriented economy, but the area's development has been hampered increasingly by limited resources and rising labor costs.
"Disney will attract millions of visitors every year. And the influx of visitors will bring new opportunities for the region to develop a modern service industry," said Lou Jiajun, dean of the tourism department of East China Normal University.
Shanghai Disneyland will be the U.S. entertainment giant's third theme park in Asia after Tokyo and Hong Kong.
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