It took a few years, but Shanghai Disneyland has finally been approved! The original idea to build a Shanghai Disneyland was thought up by former premier Zhu Rongji in 1990 during his tenure as mayor of Shanghai. It took Disney and the Chinese authorities almost 20 years to get from an idea to an approved plan! In 2006 it seemed there would be a go (see my blogpost about it), but it seemed the Shanghai mayor was not able to get it past the State Council.

The park will be about 1000 acres, which would be similar to the parks in Tokyo and Paris, and bigger than the original Disneyland in Anaheim. The location will be quite close to the city, somewhere between Pudong airport and downtown. The legal structure will be a joint venture in which Disney will only have a 40% minority share (maybe that’s part of the reason why it took so long to agree on this?), and 60% will be owned by a consortium of government appointed companies. That likely won’t make it a lot of fun to manage the business, good luck with that Disney…

Accoring to a CCTV report this morning the park should open in 2014. Considering how quickly the Expo Shanghai 2010 site was built, that seems like a very long time. Just in time for my kids to be old enough to appreciate the Magic Kingdoma and its rides, though. If we still live in Shanghai by that time of course (I have no plans to leave), but otherwise we’ll surely come back to visit.