Two Disneyland Attractions You Won't See In China And Why
Shanghai Disneyland opens today in China after so much anticipation that people lined up for as long as four hours during trial runs over the past month and you need tickets in advance to get in through Saturday. Walt Disney DIS +0.63% expects 50 million visitors a year. Chinese thrill seekers have seen The Lion King movie and might have a Mickey Mouse emblem on a shirt or handbag. So visitors to the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disneyland, the first such park in mainland China, will hope to replicate the experience of the tens of thousands who enter Disney’s legendary cartoon-theme amusement parks in California and Florida every day. For the most part, they can, according to a comparison of attractions on each park’s official website. You can take flights with Peter Pan and Dumbo the elephant in China as well as the United States, for example.
Yet Disney’s public relations staff says 80% of the Shanghai park is new or “reimagined.” It notes in particular that Mickey Avenue replaced Main Street U.S.A. as the amusement park entrance. The entertainment conglomerate also left out two American attractions possibly because Chinese visitors would scream in horror rather than elation. They are:
