As the public spotlight remains fixated on Wanda’s international stars-studded unveiling of an $8.3 billion film studio complex in Qingdao last Sunday, Wang Jianlin, Chairman of Wanda and China’s richest man, has already moved on. On Tuesday, Wang signed the contract with the municipal government of Wuxi to build a “cultural tourism city” there, Wuxi Daily reported. Highlights of the $5.8 billion complex include a large outdoor theme park, a children’s indoor theme park and an “extreme sports hall.” The latter, also an indoor facility, claims to host “the most adventurous” entertainment activities such as car-racing, surfing and zip-lining.
“Wuxi Wanda City will have richer content than Disney. [We] expect to attract 20 million tourists a year,” Wuxi Daily quoted Wang saying. “Wanda has confidence that [the tourism city] will surpass Disney in both revenue and number of visitors.”
As part of Wanda’s scheme to transition from commercial real estate to tourism and the so-called “cultural industry,” the Wuxi complex is only one of the ten cultural tourism cities that Wanda is building across China. It is preceded by projects of similar scales in the cities of Haerbin, Nanchang, Hefei and Qingdao, investments in which totaled $14.7 billion. All five projects took off in a flash within just five months. Other confirmed cities include Beijing, Guangzhou and Wanda’s hometown, Dalian. Each cultural city features different amusement facilities. The one in Nanchang, for example, claims that it will be home to the world’s largest aquarium, according to People’s Daily.
For local government officials, these Wanda projects are certainly something to welcome. Not only will they look great on the year-end evaluation by boosting GDP growth and employment –in the case of Wuxi, it is estimated that at least 30,000 new jobs will be added—they may be also in line with the country’s increasing need for strengthening its soft power. The Chinese government wishes to “show that the Chinese dream can compete with the American dream,” as political science professor Stanley Rosen pointed out in a ChinaFile conversation about the Qingdao film studio. Having the mainland’s own version of Disney World or Ocean Park could as well be part of that dream.