凱蒂貓・迪士尼主題公園、陸續進入中国

A few weeks ago the Asahi News on-line reported the following:

ハローキティ・ディズニー…テーマパーク、続々中国へ

安吉＝金順姫、北京＝斎藤徳彦

2014年11月28日23時24分

　サンリオの人気キャラクターをテーマにした「ハローキティパーク」の落成式が２８日、中国・浙江省の安吉県で開かれた。経済力が高まる中国では、ディズニーランドやユニバーサル・スタジオなどの外資系のテーマパーク建設計画が次々と打ち上げられている。

　ハローキティパークは上海から車で約３時間、浙江省の省都・杭州から約１時間の場所にある。面積は東京ドーム２個分ほどの約９・５万平方メートルあり、まず来年１月に一部が開業する。

　レストランやホテルを備え、ミュージカルやパレードはサンリオが監修する。ホームページによると、入場料は平日が大人２６０元（約５千円）、子どもは２００元だという。

　サンリオの本格的な屋外型テーマパークは海外で初めて。中国の不動産開発会社がサンリオとライセンス契約を結び、投資額は１５億元（約２８８億円）強になる。

(試譯文)

On the 28^th (November) an inauguration ceremony of the "Hello Kitty Park", which was using the popular Sanrio character as the theme, was held at Anji prefecture of Zhejiang Province in China. In China with its financial power rising, theme park construction projects of Disneyland and the Universal Studios etc. that had foreign capital affiliation were started one after another.

 The location of this Hello Kitty Park was about 3 hours by car from Shanghai, and about one hour from Hangzhou, the capital of the Zhejiang Province. In terms of area it was twice the size of the Tokyo Dome, occupying about 95,000 square meters. Part of it would be open first in January next year (2015).

 A restaurant and a hotel would be available; Sanrio would supervise the musical and the parade. According to the home page, it was said that the weekday entrance fee for an adult was 260 yuan (about 5000 yen) and would be 200 yuan for a child.

 For Sanrio this was the first time to have a full-fledged outdoor type theme park overseas. A Chinese real estate developer signed a licensing agreement with Sanrio; the investment would be a little over 1,500 million yuan (about 28,800 million yen).

It seems that foreign cultural symbol still has a place in the entertainment market in China.