Today, September 12, Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) celebrates its anniversary. Introducing the Disney name into this vast country was a challenge, and the creators of HKDL went to great lengths to incorporate China’s culture into the new park.
Hong Kong’s “eternal carnival”
At the time, Disney President and CEO Bob Iger said, “You can’t take anything for granted. You can’t expect that just because it is called Disneyland that people know exactly what it is and they are going to show up willingly. You have got to stimulate that a little bit.” While the park features several similar landmarks to its American predecessor, such as Main Street, U.S.A., Space Mountain, and Sleeping Beauty Castle, great care was taken to incorporate elements of the traditional Asian culture. A feng shui master assisted in the positioning of buildings and objects to create harmony and balance. Out of respect to the Chinese culture, the number four is absent from the hotels and parks, since the word for four sounds like the word for death in Chinese. The grand ballroom is exactly 888 square meters, because eight is a lucky number in China. With everything in place, Hong Kong Disneyland opened on this day in 2005, complete with musicians clanging cymbals, Chinese lion dancers on tall poles, and fireworks bursting in the air. Vice President Zeng Qinghong of China declared the park Hong Kong’s “eternal carnival.”
