Shanghai Disneyland Sees Price Increase

It now seems that, after almost 20 years of negotiation, Disney has finally won approval to build its new park in Shanghai. This new approval just happened last week. The entertainment group will spend about £2.4 billion to £3 billion on building a 3,000 acre park. This is great news for Shanghai since Disneyland is a huge attraction for many Europeans.

However, before the construction can begin, thousands of local residents have to be relocated. Some canny farmers have already launched a plan to cash in on Disney having to buy the land for their new theme park. The goal of many people right now is to start building on the land that Disney needs to buy. That is because the areas that are built on fetch far more compensation than the ones that are just open fields. Thus, it now seems like the cost for Disney to build their new park just keeps going up.

In Zhaohang village, huge newly built white sheds have been constructed along the road side. These sheds stand about every 20 feet along the main road. Then just south of the village, a new pavilion has been hastily thrown up and a fake mountain has been erected. Some cheap bricks have also been thrown up to partition off the land.

The villages, which have recently been interviewed, said that they expect to receive about ten times more compensation now that they have “built” on the land. A lawyer has claimed that this is causing a lot of problems. It is hard to tell whether these new buildings have a genuine agricultural use or have just been placed up to win more money. After the interview it would seem that these little white sheds went up simply to win more money.