SHANGHAI: Dipping golden shovels into a trench of sand, Walt Disney Co. executives and their Shanghai partners broke ground Friday for a long-sought theme park that will feature the world's biggest “Magic Kingdom” castle, and ambitions to match. The 24.5 billion yuan ($3.7 billion) park in Shanghai's southeastern suburbs is meant to serve as a brand-building cornerstone, luring legions of newly affluent Chinese with world-class facilities that will be “authentically Disney, but distinctly Chinese,” said Disney CEO Bob Iger. After over a decade of haggling, Shanghai's communist leaders seemed equally enthusiastic about the project, which will serve as an anchor for an “international tourism resort zone” with hotels and other large-scale entertainment venues. It will be Disney's fourth theme park outside the US, after Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The Shanghai park will have several advantages going for it, including the general lack of historic attractions in the region, which is home to over 300 million people all looking for ways to spend their growing incomes and leisure time.
