The comments were made by Walt Disney Co. Asia Parks President Bill Ernest, amid concerns the new Disneyland Shanghai park could siphon out visitors from the company’s already active Hong Kong amusement destination.

Ernest commented that in America, with only the quarter of the Chinese population, there are two large scale resorts, one in Orlando, Florida as well as one in Anaheim, California.

According to Ernest, there is lots of room to accommodate more of such venues. He made the comments while at the Disneyland Hong Kong groundbreaking ceremony, adding that the entertainment giant believes the business is sufficient to support the two amusement parks.

The proposal for a Disney theme park to be developed in one of Shanghai’s districts was finally approved last month by China’s planning agency.

The move has been seen as part of the Chinese government push to make the country’s biggest city and main financial hub into a international tourist destination as well as global services center.

Although Ernest claimed that it was too early in the negotiation process with the Chinese government to have any accurate numbers about the resort’s price tag, the estimated cost of the proposed Shanghai Disneyland Park has been set at $3.5 billion.

As for the Hong Kong theme park, it’s already schedule to go through expansion, as $465 million have been announced last July by Disneyland and was seen as a long-overdue project in order to attract more young adults by dealing with the fact that the the park was considered too small.

The speculations started when The Hong Kong Economic Times reported that an unnamed source had said that Disneyland was planning a further expansion, following a deal last July to grow the park by nearly 25%.

But a spokeswoman for the entertainment company denied these plans.

She told AFP that the park’s position at the moment is to introduce the plans for an extension as already agreed to in July 2009 with the construction of three themed sections carried out in phases. She added that no discussions on other expansion has been done.

Disney is ready to contribute 6.2 billion Hong Kong dollars (795 million US) to develop a set of 30 new attractions spread over the course of five years.

Under this agreement the Hong Kong Government is set to retain control of 52 percent through an ownership stake.

Since its 2005 debut, Hong Kong Disneyland has been keen to increase the quality and number of its attractions at the amusement park as it struggles to bring visitors. The Hong Kong park originally cost three billion US dollar to built.

Since Chinese Government officials gave the green light for a similar project to be developed in one of Shanghai’s up-and-coming districts earlier this month, the future of Disneyland Hong Kong was perceived as being more fragile.

The Shanghai project will be the first for Disney on mainland China and will be launched in 2014.

Concerns have been raised about the potentiality of having two large Disney them parks within the same world region.

One of the smallest of all the entertainment giant franchises with only 116 hectares (1.2 square kilometres) in surface area, the first phase of development for Shanghai Disneyland will be smaller than its Hong Kong counterpart which has a surface area of 126-hectare.

A theme park dedicated to the writer’s work is scheduled to open in Shanghai to coincide with the World Expo in May 2010, it was announced Friday.

Yang Wenyan, the project’s media partner and director of the Chinese Haha kid’s channel, said the eight hectare attraction will feature the celebrated author’s stories such as the Little Mermaid, the Emperor’s New Clothes and the Ugly Duckling.

Yang said the park is set for a launch on May 11, timed to go hand and hand with the activities of the World Expo. He added that the attraction’s opening marks the 60th year of diplomatic relations between Denmark and China.

Denmark has promised the park a copy of the famous Andersen bronze statue which decorates the front entrance area of Copenhagen city hall.

The Hans Christian Andersen park will be located in the northeast suburbs of the Chinese financial hub. The project was first revealed in August 2006, but was postponed because of financing difficulties, according to Chinese media.

Shanghai Gujing Investment and Development Co Ltd, the project’s most important investor, has not divulged any budget information, but it has been said that the attraction costs around $12.5-millionto develop.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s involvement with the World Expo is scheduled to also include another icon; Copenhagen’s famous sculpture of the Little Mermaid will be shipped to Shanghai and will be featured as the centrepiece of Denmark’s pavilion.

Hans Christian Andersen (1805 –1875) was a Danish poet and author celebrated the world over for his famous children’s stories.

During Andersen’s lifetime, the author was acclaimed for delighting kids worldwide. His poetry and fairy tales have been translated into more than 150 languages.

The fourth, after similar projects in Shenzhen, Beijing and Chengdu, is a hugely-financed entertainment venture and the

brain child of China’s Overseas Chinese Town (OCT).

Covering an area of more than 900,000 square metres, Shanghai Happy Valley will boast seven themes including

“Sunshine Port”, “Happy Times”, “Shangri-la”, “Ants Kingdom”, “Shanghai Beach”, “Gold Mine Town” and “Hurricane

Bay”.

Water will be main theme at Happy Valley which will provide visitors a variety of entertainment programs as well as huge

funfair equipment and shows. The attractions, namely the Wooden Coaster-Fireball, Diving Coaster, Mine Train Coaster,

Space Shot &Turbo Drop and Mega-Lite, will use machinery imported from the Netherlands, Germany and the United

States. The site will also have a two-kilometre-long road and a 2.5-kilometre-long canal which will connect the attractions.

Acrobatics, song and dance shows and concerts will be presented in the 4,500-seat OCT Theatre, while the Arthur Palace

will showcase exhibitions and food venues with a seating capacity for up to 1,400 people.

Chairman of OCT Shanghai Liu Pingchun, said the Shanghai project is part of a nationwide chain development chart by

OCT which aims at setting set up more Happy Valleys in different cities in China. Mr. Pingchun added that negotiations

are under way with the Wuhan municipal government concerning launching a Happy Valley in order to serve Central China,

but the Wuhan project will be more modest than Shanghai’s.

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