IN PHOTOS: 5 things to know about new Shanghai Disneyland

SHANGHAI, China – US entertainment giant Disney opens its newest theme park in the commercial centre of Shanghai on Thursday, June 16, a massive $5.5 billion project aimed squarely at the mainland Chinese audience. 

The resort is the US entertainment giant’s 6th in the world and 3rd in Asia, including one in China’s semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong.  

The launch of the resort, representing one of the biggest ever foreign investments in China, comes as growth in world’s second largest economy slumps to its lowest level in a quarter century.

But the world’s most populous country is simply too big to ignore, Disney chairman and chief executive Bob Iger said: “We wanted to make a strong statement. After all, this is the largest market in the world,” he told journalists the day before the park opened. “This is by far the most creatively ambitious and technologically advanced destination that we have ever built.”

Disney has set the entrance fee at 499 yuan ($76) during peak periods and 370 yuan ($56) for other times, in a country where the average monthly disposable income is just $278. 

Here’s what you visitors can expect at the newly opened theme park:

Six ‘lands’

 

Shanghai Disneyland is divided into six distinct areas – some entirely new to Disney including the pirate-themed Treasure Cove. The total resort covers 3.9 square kilometres including a shopping and entertainment zone “Disneytown” accessible without tickets.

Tune in tomorrow morning for the Shanghai Disney Resort grand opening gala on Disney Facebook.https://t.co/AO7xNd6ZxU

— Disney (@Disney) June 15, 2016

 

But with a total of seven square km of land available, Disney is keen to expand, chief Bob Iger said before the opening: “We’ll probably do that sooner rather than later.”

Distinctly Chinese

 

Gone is “Main Street, U.S.A.,” founder Walt Disney’s vision of small-town America, and a staple of other parks. Instead, Shanghai Disneyland features the first “Mickey Avenue.”

Tune in tomorrow morning for the Shanghai Disney Resort grand opening gala on Disney Facebook.https://t.co/AO7xNd6ZxU

— Disney (@Disney) June 15, 2016

 

From the traditional peony flower on the castle to murals that replace the animals of the Chinese zodiac with Disney characters, the company is aiming to be culturally aware. A stage show based on the movie Frozen has dialogue and songs in Chinese, urging the audience to sing along for “Sui ta ba” (Let it Go).  

 

Get your Fastpass 

 

Some popular attractions have posted waiting times of two hours or more during a trial period which started in early May. Disney expects waiting times to improve after the opening and recommends a “Fastpass,” which allows visitors to return at a set time to skip the line. Among the most popular attractions is Soaring Over the Horizon, a film which imitates flight. Other favourites are rollercoaster “TRON Lightcycle Power Run” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” which pays homage to the original ride with new technology and content from the films. 

 

Characters, iconic and otherwise

 

Shanghai received an early introduction to Disney when the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs showed in the city’s cinemas in 1938. In the 1980s, classic Disney cartoons aired on Chinese state television, while more recently, hit movies like Zootopia have introduced new characters, which Shanghai Disneyland features in its parade. But Chinese visitors might be less familiar with Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck’s uncle, and Tiana from the The Princess and the Frog both making appearances in the park.   

 

 

Mickey and Minnie steamed buns

Mindful most visitors are Chinese, around 70 percent of the food is geared toward local tastes. Disney expects to serve 12 million heads of the Chinese vegetable bok choy a year. Food on offer includes the “Mickey Pork Bun” and “Minnie Red Bean Bun”, traditional snacks sporting mouse ears. Some early complaints targeted food prices, so Disney is allowing packaged food and drink into the park. But there are still plenty of visitors munching on American-style corn dogs.

 

Surrounding the celebration of the park’s grand opening are a few controversies and problems. 

There is competition for tourist cash as China builds more theme parks than any other country in the world. One Chinese academic believes it could still take years for the Shanghai Disney park to be profitable.

“It will take around ten years for the Shanghai park to make profits overall,” said He Jianmin of the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

Disney has also had to fend off accusations of cultural imperialism. Days before Shanghai Disney opened, Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin who is developing his own entertainment properties accused the US company of a cultural invasion.

But Disney denies the allegation, saying its philosophy is to integrate local elements throughout, from the first Chinese-language production of The Lion King, to the food and the attractions – even the Disney castle is topped with a traditional peony flower.

The massive store inside the park is selling Minnie Mouse in traditional Chinese dress, as well as a doll evoking 1920s Shanghai glamor.

“We didn’t just build Disneyland in China, we built China’s Disneyland,” said Iger of Disney.

The Shanghai park’s opening comes as tragedy marred Disney’s resort in the US state of Florida, after an alligator snatched a two-year-old child at the shore of a lake by a hotel in the massive complex, with police saying Wednesday the toddler is believed to be dead. – with reports from Bill Savadove, AFP/Rappler.com