Work begins on Shanghai Disneyland

In a carefully staged groundbreaking ceremony interspersed with singing & dancing, Iger said the new park would feature a blend of East & West & underscored the importance of the $3.7-billion project for Disney.

Reporting from Shanghai-
Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert A. Iger was joined by Shanghai's Communist Party chief & the city's mayor Friday to officially commence construction of a long-awaited theme park that will give the Burbank company a critical beachhead in mainland China.

Iger, the Disney chief since 2005, revealed few details about what attractions the Shanghai location would include except that designers had selected to replace the traditional Main Street entrance with 11 acres of green space that would lead to the largest Storybook Castle of any of the company's three theme parks.

"This is a defining moment in our company's history," Iger told the audience from an indoor stage set up across from the site of the planned resort, which they said would be "both authentically Disney & distinctly Chinese."

Financing for both Shanghai Shendi & Disney will consist of 70% equity & 30% debt, Disney said.

The resort will be co-managed with Disney's joint venture partner, Shanghai Shendi Group, a conglomerate of government-owned companies that hold a 57% stake in the project set to open in 2014.

Shanghai officials said the resort would be a boon for the local economy, describing it as China's largest foreign invested venture in the service sector.

The kickoff comes after over a decade of bureaucratic wrangling complicated by everything from Disney's inability to launch a dedicated tv channel in China to what to do with ancestral graves belonging to villagers evicted from a 963-acre site.

For Disney, the park represents a highly sought entree in to of the most promising consumer markets in the world to sell merchandise & market film & TV brands despite tight government restrictions.

"This project will improve Shanghai's international profile as a world famous tourist location," said Mayor Han Zheng. "Shanghai Disney Resort will be a role model."

"We think this resort will quickly become a special place," Iger said.

Iger noted in a news conference later in the day that the Shanghai park was located within a three-hour automobile or train ride of 330 million people, lots of of whom belong to a fast-growing middle class.

Its construction comes as the sometimes maligned Hong Kong Disney park is undergoing significant expansion to offset criticism that the site was small & didn't feature attractions.

Despite the close propinquity of the parks in the same country, Iger said China was a gigantic market for the destinations.

Friday's ceremony gave lots of reporters their first glimpse of the planned site -- about one.5 square miles of upturned soil in a still rural part of eastern Shanghai.

Earth diggers affixed with giant red bows were parked in formation. Villagers lined the local roads, some waving at the convoy of vehicles going to the event.

"Let the dream start," an announcer said.

Minutes after Shanghai Party Chief Yu Zhengsheng announced the official groundbreaking, kids sang "When You Wish On a Star" in Chinese. Costumed Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Goofy & even Princess Jasmine then danced onto the stage.