New | Theme park operators rush to join boom in China

Billed as the cutest place on Earth, the newly opened Hello Kitty Park is the latest addition to an increasingly crowded market for amusement parks on the mainland.

Since its soft launch last month, the park in Anji county, Zhejiang province, has been drawing swarms of tourists to a pastel wonderland, set on 60 hectares, that houses a grand castle, a themed theatre, an aqua amusement zone and a dozen rides including a skyscraping Ferris wheel.

While the centre's shops are ringing up brisk sales of Hello Kitty dolls, along with the restaurants serving up Hello Kitty-shaped cakes, the park's backers are out to defy a number that is far from pretty: of the roughly 3,000 theme parks on the mainland, only 30 per cent are profitable, according to Yang Yanfeng, a researcher at the China Tourism Academy.

Sanrio, the patent owner of Hello Kitty, is banking on a "bright future" for the mainland's theme park market. But a reminder of the competitive pressure is just three hours' drive away in Shanghai's Pudong district, where the first Disneyland on the mainland is under construction and is due to open at the end of the year.

In Beijing, US media group Comcast Corp gained government approval last year to build one of the company's Hollywood-themed Universal Studios parks in the east of the capital.

Dalian Wanda Group, controlled by one of the country's richest men, Wang Jianlin, has been making headlines for an ambitious expansion of its entertainment empire. Wanda last month opened The Han Show and Wanda Movie Park in Wuhan, Hubei province, as the mainland's largest commercial property developer shifted its focus to entertainment, culture and tourism.