After 20 years of negotiation, the Walt Disney Company will build its first Chinese theme park in Shanghai.

• The opening of such a large American theme park will have many cultural and financial implications for Shanghai, a city proud of its rich cultural history.
• The park will be bigger than the original Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and will be similar in style to the Paris and Hong Kong parks.
• The goal of opening such a park is to create demand for Disney products (TV shows, movies, games, characters, toys, boardgames, DVDs and plenty more) among China’s 1.3 billion citizens.

Facts & Figures

• The park will cost $3.5 billion dollars to build, will occupy at least 1,000 acres of land in the city’s Pudong district, and is set to open in 5-6 years.
• Only 20 foreign films (often censored) are permitted to be shown in Chinese theaters every year.
• Disney already sells Disney merchandise at 6,000 locations in China.

Best Quote

“It’s a signal that now they will tolerate a certain kind of Western investment” – Orville Schell, Director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations