A Wish Upon a Star

“To all who come to this happy place； welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here， age relives fond memories of the past .... and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals， the dreams and the hard facts that have created America .... with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world，” declared Walt Disney as he opened Disneyland in 1955.

In June 2016， 61 years later， Shanghai Disney Resort， the Chinese mainland’s first Disney resort and the world’s sixth， welcomed Disney fans from across China and around the world. “I think Walt himself would be impressed， maybe even surprised， to see what his great dream has become in 2016 in Shanghai，” grinned Robert Iger， chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company. And the project took 17 years of painstaking efforts to give birth to such an instant icon.

The park’s history can be traced back to 1990， when Zhu Rongji， then mayor of Shanghai， visited the original Disneyland in Anaheim， California. Zhu was deeply impressed by the experience and vowed to bring such an amusement park to his city. Actual talks between Shanghai and Disney didn’t happen until nine years later， at which time Robot Iger investigated Shanghai and chose the last stop on his tour of the surrounding area as the place – a tract of land near the villages of Zhaoxing， Qigan， and Jinjia in Pudong District. “They were small villages with crisscrossing rivers， ditches， and dogs，”recalled Iger. “There were few pedestrians during early development of Pudong， and the new airport had just opened. It was hard for me to imagine what my Disneyland would look like down there several years later.”

Although negotiations brought a series of twists and turns， the rapid development of China’s economy guaranteed enormous potential for Disney， which reaped tremendous rewards for its efforts. In 2002， the municipal government resumed negotiations when Shanghai’s per capita GDP hit 4，200 yuan. In 1955 when the first Disneyland opened， American per capita GDP was US$2，419， and in China it topped US$8，000 in 2015. Per capita GDP has eclipsed US$10，000 in 10 provinces in China， topping US$15，000 in Shanghai.

Final approval was received in November 2009， and ground broke in 2011. Following the concept of “authentically Disney， distinctly Chinese，” the theme park pays homage to its host with plentiful Chinese elements and culture： Magnolias， Shanghai icons， top its castles， flanked by Chinese gardens and ponds， with windows decorated with papercuts of Mickey Mouse. Performances were uniquely designed： The Lion King， musical， after 19 years on Broadway， was adapted into a Chinese edition for Shanghai， its first foreign-language version.

By the time the doors opened in June 2016， over 1，000 Imagineers had contributed to the project， 150 from China. The occupation of Imagineer was created by Walt Disney in 1952 particularly to design and construct Disneyland. Over 100，000 people took part in the Shanghai project， including more than 10，000 performers at the opening ceremony.

Iger considers his company’s US$5.5 billion investment in Shanghai as significant as a big purchase of a vast tract in central Florida in 1970.

Shanghai Disney Resort has been massively popular. In less than a month after it opened， Agence France Presse （AFP） reported that it drew approximately 1 million visitors. With a figure surpassing the Palace Museum （Forbidden City） in Beijing， it has become the top choice for many tourists in China. Industry delegates are optimistic about its future， predicting 15 to 20 million visitors a year.

Yong He， vice president of the Chinese Photographers Society and a native Shanghai photographer， has been photographing the project since the day Disney arrived in the city， documenting the dramatic changes in the city as well as residents’ experiences welcoming such a massive park.

As Yong put it， “I wanted to capture so much going on around us that I would get the big picture of our era.”