pic: insidethemagic.net

The ever-expanding entertainment empire of Disney grows into Asia today with the opening of the long-in-development Shanghai Disneyland. The amusement park and resort has been dubbed ” “the most technologically advanced Disney park yet.” by Disney CEO Bob Iger. This park should be everything it’s billed to be for it’s gigantic 5.5 billion dollar price tag. The park located near one of China’s largest cities has been in the works since 2001 and is Disney’s third park venture into Asia after Disneyland Hong Kong and Disneyland Tokyo. The motto of the park has been “Authentically Disney, Distinctly Chinese” and it really seems true as none of the ‘magic’ is lost in translation but it still wholly Chinese in it’s grand scale and language.

The park has been open to invite-only guests for a month now so the more than 10,000 employees (or ‘cast members’) could prepare for the wave of guests once the public gets past through it’s gates. This allowed for a lot of video footage of the park to come out, which you can see below. That TRON light cycle ride looks like the stuff of dreams, and Disney has been able to make really cool stuff from people’s dreams for their entire existence.

Shanghai Disneyland is laid out similar to Magical Kingdom and has it’s own version of several long-running attractions from the Orlando area park but with massive expansions, additions, and alterations. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is now expanded into it’s own ‘land’ called Tresaure Cove. Rides and attractions featuring characters from Toy Story, Peter Pan, and other popular films in the Dis catalog.

Here is a point-of-view look at the impressive TRON light cycle ride which is one of the launch rides at Disneyland Shanghai. If you want more, simply scroll through the #shanghaidisneyland Twitter posts here from opening day.