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World’S £100M China Theme Park To Create 580 Jobs And Lure 1.5M Visitors


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HOLA441

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/world_s_100m_china_theme_park_to_create_580_jobs_and_lure_1_5m_visitors_1_3659732

The world’s first Chinese cultural theme park is set to be created in South Yorkshire - at a cost of more than £100 million.

A consortium involving Chinese investors, a former Alton Towers boss and a leading UK-based development company have been granted a lease by Rotherham Council for the 120-acre former Pit House West site, next to Rother Valley Country Park.

The project will create 200 jobs during its construction period and then 380 permanent jobs.

Developers predict up to one and a half million visitors each year could be attracted to the park - which will be called Visions of China - and have promised entry will be ‘affordable’ for struggling families.

And they have promised the scheme will not be another flop like other South Yorkshire visitor attractions such as the failed National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield and Earth Centre in Doncaster.

So who want's to visit this then?

Will it only employ Chinese people to be culturally authentic?

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HOLA442

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/business/world_s_100m_china_theme_park_to_create_580_jobs_and_lure_1_5m_visitors_1_3659732

So who want's to visit this then?

Will it only employ Chinese people to be culturally authentic?

That's weird, I went to china and visited this place:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_of_the_World

"The Window of the World (Chinese: 世界之窗; pinyin: Shìjiè zhī Chuāng; alternatively 小人国) is a theme park located in the western part of the city of Shenzhen in the People's Republic of China. It has about 130 reproductions of some of the most famous tourist attractions in the world squeezed into 48 hectares (118 acres)."

I could have saved myself the trip. :unsure:

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HOLA443

That's weird, I went to china and visited this place:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_of_the_World

"The Window of the World (Chinese: 世界之窗; pinyin: Shìjiè zhī Chuāng; alternatively 小人国) is a theme park located in the western part of the city of Shenzhen in the People's Republic of China. It has about 130 reproductions of some of the most famous tourist attractions in the world squeezed into 48 hectares (118 acres)."

I could have saved myself the trip. :unsure:

sounds tacky

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HOLA444

Dear All,

This is just down the road from me.

The interesting thing is that the local NIMBY's didnt want a factory over the road from this, but did not and have not raised a peep about this.

I dont see how it will make money? The projections are not at all risk based. I have a rule of thumb on this sort of thing.

Divide the number of jobs by 10 to get the real jobs. i.e., the ones that will pay more than the minimum wage. Then Halve the number of visitors. Double the environmental impact. If it still stacks up then it may be a starter.

Bonner

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HOLA445

'Visions of China'? Surely it'll just be a gallery of photos and paintings of the mills from Victorian times? Not too far from where China is for the average citizen.

For the other 'Vision of China', they could visit the local Chinatown/takeaway.

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And they have promised the scheme will not be another flop like other South Yorkshire visitor attractions such as the failed National Centre for Popular Music in Sheffield and Earth Centre in Doncaster.

Seems to be on the right sort of scale (unlike the NCPM and Earth Centre which were approached in a woefully half-assed style).

Will it be a success? I can't see it myself. Stick in some decent theme park rides and they might have a chance.

Some suggestions:

Tiananmen Square dodgems (keep clear of those tanks!)

Yankee puppet shows (watch the wily Chinese make the Americans dance for their supper)

Financial roller coaster (watch your currency drop like a stone)

Ride the rapids (closed due to lack of liquidity)

Rifle range (shoot 3 dissidents and win a knock-off iPod)

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HOLA4412

*Sigh*

It will just be themed, like Gulliver's world (does that still exist?) Or Camelot..... i.e. it will be 1900s Chinese, i.e. the park entertainers being Fu Manchu and bugs bunny type Chinese stereotypes.

The recent Yorkshire Oriental festival in Todmorden did pretty much exactly this. People dressing up as Fu Manchu, peasant hats and bowing (Chinese people do not bow, especially Southerners) with massive buck teeth and yellowing up, like Chinese version of the minstrals.

I can't wait to go, so I can take massive massive offense kick up a fuss and get paid a wad of hush hush money. B)

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HOLA4416

A very similar park was tried and failed in Florida, it lasted 1993 until 2003. I only realised it was there because I was staying in a villa near it a few years ago, checked out the area using google maps satellite view and stumbled across what looked like a miniature great wall of China!

If you can't make a go of a business like that on Disney's doorstep, with the volume of tourists going through the area, how the hell is it going to work in Yorkshire?

Info. on the failed Florida park here.

Youtube video giving a tour of the abandoned site if you want to see what it looks like now :

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  • 1 month later...
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HOLA4418

http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/barnsley/white_elephant_fears_over_china_theme_park_1_3762610

John King, planning officer with CPRE South Yorkshire, said: “The creation of Shaolin temples, Shanghai streets, oriental tea houses, spas and a hotel will hardly be in keeping with the character of the area, and will have a significant effect on the appearance of the country park and the wider landscape.

“However you look at it, Visions of China is an original scheme. But we’re also really concerned about whether such a niche development can be sustained over the long term. And then what would happen? We don’t want to see a white elephant in Rotherham’s Green Belt.” The charity wants to see developers start a fresh application process, which would give local people a chance to examine and have their say about the new plans, it added.

Rotherham Council said the site does not legally require new outline planning permission.

A white elephant, surely not.

Everyone will want to visit it...

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