Dalian Wanda Group unveiled the first of its 15 planned entertainment complexes in Nanchang, capital of East China's Jiangxi Province on Saturday, part of a battle for market share with the Disney park opening in Shanghai next month.
The complex, which is named Cultural Tourism City, has an outdoor theme park, a movie park, an aquarium, resort hotels and retail facilities. It covers nearly 2 square kilometers. The total investment in the complex was 40 billion yuan ($6.09 billion), according to the website of the People's Government of Jiangxi Province.
The opening ceremony came after Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, said it will be very hard for the Shanghai Disney Resort to make a profit even in two decades because it has to compete against Wanda's urban projects set to open across the country.
"Even a strong tiger cannot defeat a pack of wolves," Wang said in a May 22 broadcast on State broadcaster China Central Television.
Wang has already shown his ambitions in the culture and tourism segment, where he has sought to grab a big share of the growing middle class.
In an annual report released in January, Wang said the target for the culture arm of his group this year is 66.64 billion yuan, which would be growth of 30 percent from the previous year. He said the brand of the Cultural Tourism City should exceed of that of Disneyland and then go global.
"Chinese culture led the world for 2,000 years, but in the past 300 years, we have more or less lacked confidence in our own culture due to our lagging behind in development and the invasion of foreign cultures," Wang said on Saturday. "We want to establish a global brand for Chinese firms."
Wanda will unveil its second Cultural Tourism City in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui Province, this September and another five are planned to open within China in the next three years. By 2020, Wanda will have launched 15 Cultural Tourism City projects in China at locations including Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province, Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province, Wuxi in East China's Jiangsu Province, and three to five overseas.
At the Nanchang project, tickets for the outdoor theme park will cost 198 yuan on most days and 248 yuan on peak days, nearly half the admission fees of Shanghai Disneyland, which are 370 yuan each for regular tickets and 499 yuan during peak days for adults.
"I may bring my daughter to this place," Huang Xin, a civil servant, told the Global Times on Saturday. "That's not because there is so much fun, it is because we do not have too many choices."
"But I will also take my daughter to Shanghai Disneyland, because it has a better brand operation, and it is the fairy kingdom for kids," Huang added.
