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Zhuhai has moved one step closer to getting a massive ocean-themed entertainment centre, said to be the largest in Asia.
The 143-hectare Zhuhai Chime-Long Ocean World passed its preliminary environmental impact assessment on Wednesday, according to an announcement posted yesterday on the website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection's South China Institute of Environmental Science.  
Preparation work is under way for a more detailed environmental study before construction begins in December. The project is expected to be completed in 2012.
 A Zhuhai Chime-Long investment company  plans to invest up to 3.05 billion yuan (HK$3.46 billion) in  the park, the environmental impact assessment revealed.
 The investment company belongs to Chime-Long Group, a theme park conglomerate based in Guangzhou's Panyu district.  
The group runs a water theme park, a night-time zoo, a crocodile park, a wildlife park and several hotels in Guangdong. 
The company declined to comment on the Zhuhai project, but a staff member involved said it was reportedly to be the biggest in Asia in terms of  area.
Ocean World will have an ocean circus, night safari, convention centre, hotels and residential buildings, according to the Macao Daily News.  
It  will apparently be developed in several phases, with the first one entirely on land. 
The park will be built on Zhuhai's Hengqin Island,  which Beijing has designated as a base for the diversification of Macau's economy.
Just a few hundred metres from Macau's Cotai Strip,   Hengqin is three times the size of Macau but has fewer than 7,000 residents. The place is well known for oyster breeding. 
  Hong Kong's Ocean Park is spending about HK$5.5 billion to redevelop its facilities. 
A tourism expert in Hong Kong said he was not worried by the potential competition the new park could pose to Hong Kong's Ocean Park.  
Joseph Tung Yao-chung,  executive director of Hong Kong's Travel Industry Council, said: 'Whether an ocean park is attractive or not depends very much on its facilities and whether it can provide a good education for kids. 
'Size is not everything. I believe it will provide extra incentive for our park to be even better.' 
 A Hong Kong Ocean Park spokeswoman said  more theme parks in the region would provide customers with more choices and benefit their leisure lives. 
Ocean Park was confident it would continue to thrive because of its unique attractions, she said. 
Oyster restaurants in the neighbourhood of the future Zhuhai Ocean World said the city government had told them to move before the end of this year, to pave way for the theme park's construction.
'The government still hasn't told us how they will compensate us,'  a restaurant manager said.
World of difference
Zhuhai's Ocean World, designed to be nearly twice the size of Hong Kong's Ocean Park, will cover, in hectares: 143




Zhuhai's ocean park passes green test