In 2011 in Shanghai, Disney Resorts made its official arrival in the city.
The multinational entertainment company broke ground on a new resort site on the outskirts of Shanghai, marking the occasion with a celebration that included a choir singing in both English and Mandarin and Mickey Mouse dancing onstage in a traditional Chinese costume.
"This is a defining moment in our company's history," said Disney CEO Robert Iger to a crowd. The new park, he promised, would be "both authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese."
Disney's arrival is a high-profile example of a theme-park boom taking place in China.
"There has been amazing growth in the Chinese theme park market," says John Gerner, the founder of a US-based consulting firm called Leisure Business. "The government is encouraging domestic consumption - and when consumers spend more internally, one of the things they spend on is leisure."
Theme park development, says Gerner, tends to follow the growth of the middle class. With more disposable income, people have become more interested in spending on leisure and entertainment.
The country's middle class has expanded rapidly in the last two decades, and in 2011 alone, six major theme parks opened across the country, many in smaller, second-tier cities.
The rush to build new theme parks and capitalize on this new market, however, is no measure of the quality of parks that are opening. Many parks are still not turning a profit and many are aging quickly, without any reinvestment from park runners.
As Disney and other international parks arrive, China's theme parks will have to improve to compete.
Loss making
"Surveys show that the majority of theme parks (in China) have been loss making," points out Michel Brekelmans, the co-head of L.E.K. Consulting's China operations based in Shanghai.
China's largest theme park chain, Happy Valley, opened its first park in the 1990s, offering a more Western-style format, introducing its own characters and dividing the park into different themed areas. While Happy Valley has been successful and expanded, the majority of parks opening in China are either animal themed or loose adaptations of existing theme parks.
According to Brekelmans, the majority of new parks will present visitors with an amalgamation of thrill rides, roller coasters and Ferris wheels. "More recently local operators are realizing that theming is a key factor in marketing the park and creating the overall experience," he says. "We're seeing more attempts to come up with original concepts."
With the arrival of Disney and other multinational projects, he says, more expertise and dedication are being shown across the board. "A wave of joint ventures with foreign players is entering the market, bringing with them the skills and concepts to succeed in China," he says. "Slowly local players are learning lessons, and many smaller upstarts have exited the market."
Brekelmans believes that China's theme park developers are slowly becoming more creative and savvy about the market, adding their own cultural flavor to home-grown parks.
"We are seeing attempts to come up with original concepts based on Chinese culture and history such as Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) parks or The Monkey God," he says.
Part of the learning curve, he adds, is the realization that smart marketing and well-placed reinvestment provide an important boost to theme park revenue. "For theme parks to be successful on their own, it's critical to drive repeat visits," Brekelmans says. This means reinvestment, offering new attractions that can bring visitors back for their second, third and fourth visits.
"In China, this does not necessarily mean coming up with a new attraction every two years, as these can be highly risky and capital intensive investments," Brekelmans says. "China has a great tradition in staged acrobatic performances, for instance, and these could be a great draw for people if done well and to a high standard."