No fairytale ending for amusement park

The unfinished Wonderland Amusement Park in the Changping district of Beijing was demolished on May 10, 15 years after construction stopped.

Construction started in the mid-1990s by the Reignwood Group and the venue should have been the biggest amusement park in Asia. However, construction stopped in 1998 and the park became a derelict site.

Though unfinished, the park's fairytale castles still attracted visitors every year. According to some media reports construction was halted in 2008 because of financial difficulties.

But Beijing News quoted an employee of Reignwood Group on May 7 as saying that most land covered by the park is forestry land and the policy of protecting this type of land after the severe floods of 1998 forced them to abandon construction.

Demolition began on April 20, and a large shopping mall may be built on the site, Beijing News reported.