ENTERTAINMENT giant Disney opened a massive theme park in Shanghai on Thursday, hoping to win over China’s growing middle class with the ultimate American cultural export.

    Thousands of people streamed through the Magic Kingdom’s doors, opened 30 minutes early, with some sprinting through the rain-drenched park in hope of being the first to ride attractions.

    Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang and Disney chief executive Bob Iger attended the official ribbon-cutting ceremony. They read out letters of support from President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama.

    Speaking as a light rain fell, Wang quipped: “I would like to call this a rain of U.S. dollars or of renminbi.” Wang described the park as an example of Sino-U.S. “practical cooperation” and “people-to-people exchanges.”

    “This is one of the proudest and most exciting moments in the history of the Walt Disney Co.,” said Iger, speaking after the kids choir sang “When You Wish Upon a Star.” Later, actors dressed as Sleeping Beauty, Donald Duck and other Disney characters danced on stage.

    The festive sentiment was tempered by grim news from the U.S. state of Florida that an alligator killed a 2-year-old boy at Disney’s flagship Walt Disney World. The boy drowned after the animal dragged him into the water at a lagoon in the park Tuesday.

    Walt Disney World said it had shut down all of its Florida resort beaches and marinas out of precaution after the incident.

    The Shanghai resort is the U.S. entertainment giant’s sixth in the world and the first on the Chinese mainland — there is already one in Hong Kong.

    Workers broke ground on the US$5.5 billion project in 2011 and the Shanghai Disney Resort now sprawls over 3.9 square kilometers on the city’s outskirts, with a fairytale castle soaring over the horizon. The park’s opening follows a decade of negotiations, five years of construction and weeks of having over 1 million visitors try out its rides, shops, restaurants and two hotels.

    Ahead of the opening, Iger said the park was “authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese.”

    Disney says the park’s Wandering Moon Teahouse, modeled on a building in eastern China, is the only Chinese-style structure in any of its parks.

    Disney estimates there are 330 million people living within a three-hour journey of Shanghai who are potential visitors.

    Disney has set the entrance fee at 499 yuan (US$76) during peak periods and 370 yuan for other times.(SD-Agencies)

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