[EN] Disney to Open Shanghai Theme Park in 2012

Aug. 1, 2005 (Bloomberg) - Walt Disney Co. will open a theme park in Shanghai in 2012, the Hong Kong Economic Times said, without identifying the source of its information.

 The company will start designing the park next year, the Chinese-language paper said. The construction will begin in 2008 and the park will open in 2012, the paper said.

 Disney is close to finishing a $3.5 billion theme park in Hong Kong , which is scheduled to open in September this year. The Shanghai park will be built on a 500-hectare site in Pudong East, three times bigger than the one in Hong Kong , the paper said. No hotel is planned for Shanghai , it said.

 A group of officials from Shanghai visited the Hong Kong site two weeks ago, the paper said. Staff in charge of the management of Hong Kong Disneyland will be relocated to Shanghai at the end of the year, it said. Designers transferred from the for the Hong Kong park are also moving to Shanghai , the report said.