China’s Theme Parks Look West

Travel Blog • Julia Ross • 11.28.07 | 12:49 PM ET

Call it Interlaken East. Just outside China’s coastal boomtown, Shenzhen—a city better known for shark’s fin soup than grilled bratwurst—a meticulously duplicated Swiss Alpine amusement park is attracting middle class Chinese looking for a vicarious European vacation. In a story on the rising popularity of Western-themed amusement parks in China, Time magazine reports that the Shenzhen project, called OCT East, spared no effort in recreating a Swiss village (the real Interlaken is pictured): “Last summer, an Alpine songfest brought yodelers. A wooden Christian chapel sits above a Swiss clock made from flowers. You can tour the whole property aboard an antique railroad that circles it, or view it from the highest summit—some 50 feet high—before plunging down the slope on the gondola-cum-roller coaster.”

OCT East is the latest in a line of Chinese theme parks eagerly competing for a piece of the country’s $600 billion (and growing) tourism market. While some parks, including Hong Kong’s Disneyland, have struggled to fill capacity while charging relatively high entrance fees, a segment of upwardly mobile Chinese sees the venues as a way to connect with foreign cultures.

And if Chinese and U.S. tourism authorities reach an agreement on Chinese group travel to the United States—one is expected soon—Disneyland (the one in Los Angeles) may not know what hit it. Time for Mickey to pick up some Mandarin.

Photo by myhsu via Flickr, (Creative Commons).