Aiming to build the world’s largest tourist company by 2020, Dalian Wanda Group is investing 100 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion) to build a theme-park complex and series of commercial centres in China’s central Hunan province, with chairman Wang Jianlin aiming to surpass Walt Disney.
Wang’s Beijing-based conglomerate has signed an agreement with the local government to put 50 billion yuan into a Wanda City project in Changsha, the provincial capital, with the rest of the investment going to build 15 Wanda Plaza malls in cities such as Changde and Yueyang, according to a new statement on its website.
Meanwhile, the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disney, which opened in June, attracted four million visitors in its first four months and will be close to breaking even in its first full year, the US company said last week.
China’s second-richest person, Wang earlier this year said he would drive Disney out of China, but he visited the Shanghai resort last month and while on a trip to the US visited Disney CEO Bob Iger.
The Changsha investment follows two Wanda City projects which opened earlier this year in Hefei and Nanchang, eastern cities within a four-hour train ride from Shanghai. Already the company has 133 Wanda Plaza complexes. Wang also plans to open five Wanda Plazas overseas.
