Opinion | Mainlanders looking forward to Shanghai Disneyland opening
People in and around Shanghai look forward to visiting city's newest theme park in 2015, with many likely to prefer it to Hong Kong's
Mainlanders, especially those from the Yangtze River Delta, are eagerly looking forward to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland at the end of 2015.
It will set the stage for an intriguing fight for visitors between the Shanghai amusement park and its much-maligned Hong Kong sibling, which opened more than seven years ago and lost money until last year.
Shanghai residents' interest in the new park rose last week when the municipal government announced the details of an extension to the No11 subway line that will connect Disneyland to the inner-city Xujiahui area, with the trip taking only about 50 minutes.
An artist's impression of the Shanghai theme park, a 24.5 billion yuan (HK$30.5 billion) project mostly funded by the municipal government, was unveiled last month. The Enchanted Storybook Castle at its centre will be the tallest and biggest such structure at any Disneyland, Shanghai TV reported.
Internet postings also show that people from the neighbouring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are getting excited at the prospect of being just a two-hour drive away from a meeting with Mickey Mouse.
They said they would prefer to go to the Shanghai park rather than the Hong Kong one once it opens. They won't need to buy airline tickets or apply for permits to visit the special administrative region and will be able to save the thousands of yuan many spend on a night's accommodation at one of the two hotels at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Many mainland tourists have complained that they are forced to stay at the park because it is too far from other hotels.