Amusement parks are rising across China, indicating the economic progress of the country even if its GDP growth rate figures are no longer the highest in the region. On this weekend, the Wanda Dalian Group would open in Nanchang City the first of 15 to 20 Wanda theme parks the company would build by 2020.
By June 16, Shanghai Disneyland would formally open to the public, while on May 21, Ancient Exploration, the dinosaur project of the Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park, opened on an area of 20,000 square meters. The park has 60 dinosaurs, such as the diplodocus, pterosaur and tyrannosaurus rex, reported China Daily.
The park uses virtual reality technology at the interactive areas of Ancient Exploration to allow visitors to experience how the dinosaurs lived and make guests feel like the large animals are approaching. Among the fun things that visitors could do in the park include act like hunters, see the ancient world from a different perspective from a glass bridge, and rest at the man-made beach and tree house.
In 2012, Time included the park on the list of To 10 Weirdest Theme Parks in the world because of its attractions such as a gothic Cinderella Castle, an Arabic restaurant, a European blue bridge and a Russian entrance hall. However, while the park’s rides are quite fun, there are apparent copyright violations.
The breaches include many parts looking like Disney theme parks, cartoon characters that look a lot like Snow White, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and even the slogan which reads: “Disney is too far, please come to Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park.” ABC asked the park management in 2007 about the similarity, and the response of Yin Zhiqiang, deputy general manager is: “We do not have any agreements with Disney. The characters in our park just look a little bit similar to theirs.”