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ParkWord June 2014
I was fortunate enough to visit Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China just a few weeks ago to compile this month’s cover story (see page 30). If the group’s original Chimelong Paradise in Guangzhou is an amusement park then Ocean Kingdom, about two hours away in Zhuhai, is a theme park and brings the family-owned operator up to the next level. With its ‘iconic’ rides and structures, such as that featured on the front page, and five Guinness World records, Chimelong founder Su Zhigang (“Mr Su”) was obviously keen to make a statement. Designed by PGAV Adventures, the marine park features a classic loop layout with six themed zones clustered around a central lagoon, whereas the park in Guangzhou has a few dead ends. Nevertheless Chimelong Paradise remains one of Asia’s most visited parks, with 3.2 million guests last year. Not a bad effort for what we are reminded was Mr Su’s first foray into the amusement industry in 2006. And Chimelong Water Park is now the busiest in the world, with 2.7 million visitors in 2013.
Mr Su’s bank manager seems happy anyway: “Getting the funding for Ocean Kingdom was not easy, but it was not really very difficult either,” confesses Tony Sze, Chimelong Group senior counsellor, and a stalwart of the company.
The resort in Zhuhai cost around RMB 20 billion ($3.2bn/€2.3bn) to build and the target is to attract between 4 and 5 million annual guests. That could well propel Ocean Kingdom into the list of the world’s top 25 theme parks, and give Chimelong two of the top 20 parks in Asia. More parks are planned including a night safari, hilltop amusement park and massive waterpark. Clearly a little luck will be needed along the way, but Mr Su is not taking any chances at the accompanying 5-star Chimelong Hengqin Bay Hotel which features 1,888 guest rooms – eight having special significance as a lucky number in China. As I arrived outside the hotel with Sean Li from Chimelong’s international affairs department last month I asked him if it really was the largest hotel in mainland China, as I had read in another magazine. “Actually it’s the country’s largest ocean ecological theme hotel,” he corrected me. I suppose you can’t argue with that.
Owen Ralph – Editor
Editor: Owen Ralph (+44 161 438 2934)
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Contributor this issue: David Willrich, Ricki Chavez-Munoz, Miguel Lameiro
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ISSN 1462-4796
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JUNE 2014 Member of:
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