Walt Disney executives and their Shanghai partners saw construction work finally begin yesterday on a long-sought theme park that will feature the world's biggest "Magic Kingdom" castle and ambitions to match.
The 24.5bn yuan (£2.3bn) park in Shanghai's south-eastern suburbs aims to lure legions of newly-affluent Chinese with world-class facilities that will be "authentically Disney, but distinctly Chinese", said Disney CEO, Bob Iger.
After more than a decade of haggling, Shanghai's Communist leaders seemed equally enthusiastic about the project, which will serve as an anchor for an "international tourism resort zone" with hotels and other large-scale entertainment venues. It will be Disney's fourth theme park outside the US, after Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.
Both sides are hoping the park will prove more successful than Hong Kong Disneyland, which has struggled to remain profitable.
Like other foreign entertainment companies, Disney has struggled to break into the tightly-controlled China market while also fending off rampant piracy of both software and product lines.
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