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China's Biggest High-Tech Amusement Park Under Construction
Chinese children will not have to go to Disneyland to experience the wonder of high-tech amusement facilities, as preparations for the construction of a high-tech theme park is now under way in central China's Hubei Province.
Land reclamation has finished on the theme park, the first of its kind to have won the approval as a key project from the Development Planning Commission.
Covering 66 ha. of land, the park will be built in the state scenic spot of Donghu Lake in Wuhan, known as the industrial center and transportation hub in central China, and the capital of Hubei Province.
Upon its completion in 2003, the project is expected to cost a total 150 million $US, according to Liu Pingjie, manager of the Investment Department of Wuhan Yangtze Entertainment Development Co. Ltd, the contracting company building the park project.
Liu said that the company will raise 75 million $US of funds from overseas.
He added that the Disney theme parks in Los Angles, Orlando and Tokyo as well as the Ocean Park in Hong Kong have proved themselves to be tourist magnets.
Although there are many theme parks across China's inland regions, there is not yet a comprehensive amusement park featuring high-tech entertainment facilities in the mainland market, he said.
Liu took Wuhan as an example saying that the city with over 6 million people does not have a single amusement park.
The company first proposed the design of the park in 1996. An entertainment company and a finance firm of the United States designed it and presented a report on feasibility studies.
The park will be divided into five parts, namely, a world pavilion park, a cartoon theme of Money King kingdom, a wonderland China, the ancient European world and an American corner.
The municipal government of Wuhan has supported the project by convening a special coordinating panel responsible for the project. It has also planned to appropriate 100 million yuan (12 million $US dollars) to upgrade roads to the site.
Located on the middle reaches of China's longest river, the Yangtze, Wuhan is an important city in central China. It has strong scientific and technological research power, with the backbone industries of photoelectrics, automobile parts and components, and steel and bio-engineering production bases.
Under its five-year development plan in the new century, the city has approved 242.1 billion yuan (about 29 billion $US) of the budget for accelerating the pillar industries.
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