The Hong Kong government will pay $750 million (HK$5.8 billion) for its 53 percent stake in the company, while Disney will pay $650 million for the expansion set to take place between 2018 and 2023. The expansion will see 20 new attractions open, bringing the total to 130.

The smallest of Disney’s international theme parks, Hong Kong Disneyland suffered its first loss in four years of HK$148 million in 2015 in which an unspecified number of park employees were laid off. The park has seen a nine percent drop in visitors, which is blamed on a fall in mainland tourists visiting the territory.

Even as the theme park faces competition from a growing number of Wanda theme parks on the mainland and even local rival Ocean Park, it also has to compete with Shanghai Disneyland, which has received some four million visitors since opening this past June.

Hong Kong Disneyland’s last expansion began in 2009 and is set to conclude with the opening of new attractions inspired by Disney’s Frozen and Iron Man properties. Set to open in January 2017, the Iron Man Experience will feature Marvel characters battling in the sky over Hong Kong landmarks like Victoria Harbor and the Tsing Ma Bridge.

Hong Kong lawmakers remained optimistic that the theme park can bring back tourist dollars to the city.

“Since the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, actually more tourists visited Hong Kong Disneyland because of its unique positioning and attractions,” said Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So Kam-leung.

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The passes can be reserved by consumers by paying a deposit now, and then paying the remainder come November 11. The price of the season passes has not yet been unveiled, but they are non-transferable.

The season passes will be available in three tiers that allow pass holders entry on any day, any weekend, or just Sundays. However, the season pass won’t be valid during next year’s Spring Festival (between January 28, 2017 and February 2, 2017), nor on peak days or public holidays.

At present time, Shanghai Disney Resort sells one-day admission tickets that cost 499 yuan for a single adult on weekends and 370 yuan on weekdays. Two-day tickets are also available, and reduced pricing is offered to children and seniors.

The season passes are not affiliated with the souvenir passports offered to Shanghai Disney Resort visitors.

Since opening in June, Shanghai Disneyland has received 97.1 percent positive feedback while some park visitors are to said to have frequented the park seven times, said travel agency Lumama Tourism.

Although many consumers complained that admission tickets and food concessions at the park are too expensive, demand for tickets for the park’s opening was so high that Shanghai Disney Resort’s online ticket retailer crashed. At the same time, a number of counterfeit tickets to Shanghai Disneyland have been sold to unwitting consumers.

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The new theme park will incorporate Chinese elements into its design, similar to plans made for the Shanghai Disney Resort, which just opened this past June. The new park will feature garden landscapes inspired by Chinese literary works such as “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea” and “Butterfly Lovers”.

The first phase of the four-square-kilometer complex will include two resort hotels and a Universal CityWalk retail-entertainment complex. Transportation for visitors between the park, hotels and CityWalk will take place on a manmade river.

Universal Studios Beijing is located in the eastern Beijing suburb of Tongzhou near the Beijing-Harbin expressway. There will be subway access via Beijing Metro Line 7 and the Batong Line, while the parking lot will be able to accommodate 10,000 cars, 300 taxis, 180 tour buses and 50 buses.

Previously scheduled to open in 2019, the 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) park will be the sixth of its kind in the world, and the third Universal Studios theme park in Asia.

Besides Shanghai Disney Resort, other theme parks that have recently opened in China include Hello Kitty World and the LEGOLAND Discovery Center.

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Dalian Wanda announced this week that it is closing its Wuhan indoor movie theme park due to “upgrades and renovations”. No re-opening date was given.

When the park opened in late 2014, the park said it expected three million visitors in the first year. However, the Chutian Metropolis Daily quoted a former Wanda employee who said the Wuhan park was only attracting 200 people a day.

Previously, Wanda CEO Wang Jianlin had publicly identified Shanghai Disneyland as a rival that will fail in the Chinese market.

“They shouldn’t have entered China,” the billionaire told China’s state-run CCTV prior to the opening of the Disney theme park this past June. “The frenzy of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and the era of blindly following them have passed,” adding that the Disney theme park “lacked anything new and had cost too much.”

Wang said Wanda would make it impossible for Disney to make a profit in China over the next 10 to 20 years. Primarily invested in real estate ventures, Dalian Wanda has diversified its portfolio into the entertainment and cultural sectors.

Planning to open 15 theme parks in China by 2020, Wanda has set a target of hosting 200 million visitors  to become the world’s biggest tourism company. “We want to be a model for Chinese private enterprise, and we want to establish a global brand for Chinese firms,” the company has stated.

Dalian Wanda does not own as many intellectual properties as Disney, which may have led it to purchase film studios Legendary Entertainment, responsible for making the Chinese box office hit Warcraft.

However, controversy surrounded the opening of Wanda’s Nanchang park this past May when actors at the park were seen wearing costumes of Disney-licensed characters like Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Captain America. The same month, riders on one of the park’s roller coasters were stranded 70 meters above the ground when their ride malfunctioned.

Meanwhile, other theme park operators in China are taking a different attitude towards their competitors. “Domestic and foreign theme parks are something like Chinese and western food,” said Liu Daoqiang, president of the Fantawild theme park. “They compete and complement each other, and each may have its fans.”

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Chongqing’s foreign trade and economic relations commission has revealed that the Disney group is looking to develop a new theme park in China’s central and western region and is putting forward the city for consideration.

“We attach great significance to Disney’s project in western China. Currently, we are actively preparing for a project to participate in the bidding. We believe that Disney’s new project will undergo comparisons and assessments during the competition for the site selection. It is possible that our municipality will receive the project,” wrote the commission.

However, the commission said nothing is official yet.

By contrast, neighboring Sichuan has denied any rumors that it is seeking to host China’s second Disneyland.

The post With Shanghai’s Open, Chongqing Now Wants Its Own Disneyland appeared first on The Nanfang.

Thrill seekers at an amusement park in Fujian received more than they bargained for when the ride they were on suddenly malfunctioned, stranding them for hours while suspended 30 meters in the air.

The ride, at a park in Quanzhou, suddenly stopped on its own at 3pm on Monday.

The last rider was rescued at 5pm after firefighters used ladders to reach the stranded riders, described as mostly students enjoying themselves on summer break.

According to a park spokesperson named Yao, the malfunction is likely due to a steel wire getting caught in the ride mechanism.

The riders say the worst park of their experience was being caught in the sun with no shade. They said they were able to prevent themselves from becoming afraid by chatting to each other.

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With the opening of Shanghai Disneyland still weeks away on June 16, the new arrival to mainland China didn’t think it had to compete against its own characters.

“We vigorously protect our intellectual property and will take action to address infringement,” Disney said in statement to Bloomberg News. “Our characters and stories have delighted generations, these illegal and substandard imitations unfortunately disappoint all who expect more.”

In contrast, Wanda chairman and China’s richest man Wang Jianlin viewed the opening of the Nanchang Wanda Park as being a hallmark of Chinese innovation.

“Chinese culture led in the world for 2,000 years, but since the last 300 years, because of our lagging development and the invasion of foreign cultures, we have more or less lacked confidence in our own culture. We want to be a model for Chinese private enterprise, and we want to establish a global brand for Chinese firms,” said Wang at the park opening on Saturday.

Nanchang Wanda Park features theme areas called Fairy Lady Land, Pottery Village, and also Bamboo Forest and Adventure. The 200 hectare theme park features buildings that look like porcelain, and has amusement rides that are shaped to resemble porcelain cups.

Wanda plans to open 15 such theme parks in China.

Wanda has told the China Daily that the costumed non-Wanda characters were operated by individual stores and have nothing to do with Wanda itself.

The post Disney Not Happy That Snow White Swung By Wanda’s Theme Park in China appeared first on The Nanfang.

Shanghai Disney Resort is the sixth Disney theme park in the world. There are two in the United States (California and Florida), as well as one in Tokyo, Paris, and Hong Kong.

Below are some more aerial photographs of mainland China’s first Magic Kingdom:

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The Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee interviewed nearly 2,000 people face-to-face and collected 3,500 questionnaires and the results were surprising: almost 90 percent of those aged between 41 and 50 are excited about going to Disneyland, compared with just 82.5 percent of those under 30.

Income levels were interesting, too; 78.4 percent of those making RMB100,000 or more per year want to visit the park, while 85.7 percent of those making less than RMB50,000 are eager to go. The results show that China’s famous “da shu” and “da ma” (uncles and aunties) have replaced children as perhaps Disney’s biggest target audience. Maybe the park is revising its marketing campaign as we speak…

Although nearly every group in the survey was excited about the opening of the park, it may not be affordable for all. Negative comments started to appear online after a week of trial operations. Shanghai Disney Resort has been criticized for its high prices, with visitors saying they can’t afford to eat or stay in the park. Visitors also complained the food wasn’t appealing and that the “fairytale is a lie.”

In response, Xinhua published an article saying the food is priced in the “upper-middle” range. A cheeseburger set, including the burger, fries and Coke, is priced at RMB80, which is “slightly higher” than that of the chain restaurants at RMB30-40. One piece of xiaolongbao is priced at RMB6 which is the same as famous restaurant Din Tai Fung.

The post It’s the Middle Aged and Lower Income Folks Most Excited About Shanghai Disney, Not Kids appeared first on The Nanfang.

At every stage of its development, Shanghai Disneyland was heralded as being designed with “Chinese characteristics” in mind as a way to cater to many of park’s future visitors. And yet, the design elements we’ve seen so far mashes disparate elements together without any focus on a coherent, unifed whole.

We’ve seen Chinese food served on Mickey Mouse head-shaped plates, Chinese paper cutting featured as part of Disney Resort Station, and golden finial atop the Enchanted Storybook Castle featuring the Chinese peony flower. With a cookie-cutter approach to be as unsubtle as possible, there may be no limits to how low the pandering will stoop in order to remind park patrons that the Magic Kingdom they are visiting is still physically located within China.

But what has to happen, will happen. And that’s how we’ve arrived at a Donald Duck mascot wiggling his butt while performing tai chi.

As seen daily during its trial run before the official opening on June 16, Shanghai Disneyland has been featuring a daily performance of tai chi by the famous foil to Mickey Mouse. At 12:40 every day, Donald Duck is out with fellow mascots Chip n’ Dale performing moves from the ancient martial art alongside a man dressed in traditional Chinese clothing.

A mascot suit with an oversized-head may not be the ideal clothes to wear while trying to perform tai chi, but then the performance may not be completely faithful to its origins. As seen in a CCTV television report, Donald Duck and his fellow martial arts practititioners turn around and start wiggling their butts for the audience.

Park tourists were pleased by the performance, and are heard on camera calling it “great”.

How has this “butt-wiggling” come to represent the very best of Chinese culture and a vast intellectual property? Xu Chang, an “image engineer” working at the park, explained it to CCTV reporters this way:

Our Disney mascots are able to naturally tell display the special characteristics of our ‘China  story’, of which tai chi from the Tang Dynasty era plays a very important part. We hope this will will be very familiar for our Chinese guests; at the same time, we hope will the strong characteristics of the Disney characters will shine through their performance for our visitors to see.

But the welcome only extends so far. The CCTV news report refers to Donald Duck as “America’s Donald Duck”, suggesting the Disney mascot will always be a foreigner in China even though his new home is located in Shanghai.

Watch the CCTV news report below:

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