Shanghai Disney shows what’s in store with flagship opening
As work on US$5.4 billion theme park enters the home stretch, fans can enjoy a taste of the fun when the resort's huge shop opens today
The countdown to lift-off for Shanghai Disneyland begins in earnest on Wednesday with the opening of its flagship Shanghai store, the first of its kind on the mainland and the biggest in the world.
The opening comes a day after the topping out of the theme park's iconic central attraction, the Enchanted Storybook Castle, another milestone in the Walt Disney Company's efforts to tap rising affluence on the mainland.
The much-anticipated US$5.4 billion Shanghai Disney Resort is expected to open its doors next spring but city residents and mainland tourists will get a taste of how Disney will blend its products with Chinese elements when the flagship store begins business in Shanghai's Lujiazui financial district today.
More than 2,000 products, from clothing, bags and stationery to smartphone covers, will be available at the store, which has 860 square metres of indoor retail space.
Disney chairman and chief executive Robert Iger and chief operating officer Tom Staggs were in Shanghai yesterday as a golden finial was installed on top of the tallest of the castle's eight towers. The castle was the tallest, biggest and most complex Disney castle ever built, Disney said.