China’s giantWanda group this week opened a major theme park in Yunnan province, South West China.
Construction of the Wanda Xishuangbanna International Resort took four years and cost some $2.5 billion (RMB16 billion).
The attraction which extends over 5.3 square kilometers, is the first outdoor park to be built by Wanda, which has expanded from commercial property into cinema. It is the group’s third major cultural tourism project after the Han Theater and a massive indoor theme park in Wuhan.
The resort, which makes much of ‘Dai’ regional culture, includes a world-class outdoor theme park, a first-class international stage show, luxury resort hotels, a lakeside bar street, a Wanda Plaza, and the only first-rate international hospital in Xishuangbanna.
Related Stories
The park has five lands and 27 recreational facilities including a roller coaster that is 45 metres high and runs through a rain forest.
Popular on Variety
“Tourism is a key developing industry in Wanda’s fourth transformation, and we intend to become the largest travel company around the world, with 200 million tourists and realize a revenue of RMB100 billion (US$15.5 billion) within five years,” said Wanda chairman Wang Jianlin at the opening ceremony.
The park’s 1,200-seater Dai Theater was designed by the late British architect Mark Fisher with a stage show orchestrated by Franco Dragone, a pairing previously used by Wanda at the Han Theater. Fisher also designed the Automobile Museum at Wanda’s yet to open Qingdao Movie Metropolis.
In addition to resort-style parks, Wanda last year announced plans for the establishment of 100 minitheme parks that would be installed in urban locations including its shopping malls.
Disney and DreamWorks Animation are involved in major theme parks near Shanghai that are expected to open in 2016 and 2017 respectively. Universal recently firmed up plans to open a park near Beijing in 2019. But the U.S. conglomerates do not have the field to themselves. A number of other Chinese companies are developing parks which cater to the growing demand for leisure, entertainment and travel.
More from Variety
Loading comments...
Most Popular
Must Read
- Music
COVER | ‘My Job Is to F—ing Sing’: Bad Bunny on the 'Pride, Pain and Love' Behind His Massive Puerto Rico Residency
By Andrew Wallenstein
- Film
How Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ Endured a Hellish Production to Become Hollywood’s First Summer Blockbuster
- TV
‘This Is Real Life’: How Bravo’s ‘The Valley’ Navigated Drug Addiction, a Violent Incident and a Cast Member in a Mental Health…
- Music
Barbra Streisand on Her New Album, Not Being Paid Enough for ‘Meet the Fockers’ and if She’ll Ever Direct or Perform Live Again
Sign Up for Variety Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to ourTerms of Use and ourPrivacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the GooglePrivacy Policy andTerms of Service apply.
Variety Confidential
A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast
