From the China Daily, The Walt Disney Company and the Shanghai municipal government have signed a project proposal to build the first Disney park on the Chinese mainland. This will be the second Disney park in China, the first one being in Hong Kong which opened to guests on September 12, 2005.
Under the proposal, Disney will take a 43 percent stake in Shanghai Disneyland. The other 57 percent will be owned by a joint-venture holding company, owned by the Shanghai government.
Total investment is estimated to be about 24 billion RMB. The first phase will include the theme park itself, a hotel and a shopping center. The entire property will cover an area of 1.5 square kilometers. By the conclusion of the whole project, a sprawling complex will cover an area of six to eight square kilometers.
The park is slated to debut in 2014, at the earliest.
Analysts in Shanghai are confident that the park there will surpass the Hong Kong success and contribute trillions of RMB to the local GDP.
