1、中文 2098 字 Theme park dreams are built on sand BYLINE: David Eimer Theme park dreams are built on sand BYLINE: David Eimer SECTION: NEWS； Observer； South China Morning Post January 24, 2009 Saturday Netizens on the mainland have been up in arms over the plan by Maanshan to rebrand itself as Chinas Ci
2、ty of Bathing. Maanshans officials decided in December that they could turn the city, in Anhui province , into a tourist destination by touting the delights of its many bathhouses - as if Maanshan was one of the English spa towns founded by the Romans, instead of the steel manufacturing hub it actua
3、lly is. Unfortunately for Maanshan, most netizens associate bathhouses with prostitution, not with ancient Rome, and the plan collapsed in the wake of their protests. But its no surprise that Maanshans officials wanted to attract tourists to the city, given that almost every conurbation on the mainl
4、and thats bigger than a village now seems to think its economic future can be secured through tourism. At least Maanshan already had its tourist infrastructure - the bathhouses - in place. Many of the towns and cities that are pinning their hopes on becoming the next Lijiang or Pingyao believe that
5、getting people to visit requires them to build a theme park, no matter how bizarre the subject or how expensive it is. If dinosaur fossils have been found nearby, as in Lufeng , in Yunnan province , then a dinosaur theme park is in order. Bruce Lees ancestors were from Shunde , in Guangdong, so of c
6、ourse the city is building a Bruce Lee theme park. There are now well over 2,000 theme parks on the mainland, nearly all built in the last decade and most funded, either wholly or partially, by public money. Now, officials have confirmed the long-standing rumours that Shanghai will be the site of th
7、e next Disneyland. Not to be outdone, tiny Baise in Guangxi province announced soon after that it will build a theme park to mark the 80th anniversary of the Baise rebellion, during which Deng Xiaoping earned his spurs as a revolutionary leader. Baise officials were staying silent on the total cost
8、of their theme park, although Beijing has already pledged 20 million yuan ($22HK.7 million) to the project, but the Shanghai Disneyland will cost an eye-popping $3US.5 billion. Despite that, the news that Mickey Mouse will be taking up permanent residence in the mainlands second city has been hailed
9、 by locals, officials and economists. Everyone, it seems, is convinced that Disneyland will be the panacea for the ills of the economic slowdown. But, just as the Hong Kong Disneyland has had far less of an impact on the citys economy than anticipated, Shanghai may find that their theme park will no
10、t bring in the extra tourists needed to justify its cost. As for Baises revolution-themed attraction, it seems set to join such white elephants as Nanjings cartoon and animation park and Beijings Egyptian theme park. Even the mainlands world-famous tourist destinations are struggling. Last year, Xia
11、n attracted almost 20 per cent fewer domestic and foreign visitors than officials expected. And, five months after the Olympics, Beijings Bird Nest National Stadium is seeing a dwindling number of people prepared to pay 50 yuan to get their photo taken on the running track. The craze for theme parks
12、 is symptomatic of the way the central government believes that economic growth can be sustained by massive public investment. Just as Beijing is preparing to spend its way out of the current recession by pumping 4 trillion yuan into infrastructure, so local officials like those in Baise see a theme
13、 park as a way to solve the problems of an area where most people earn less than 3,000 yuan a year. Such short-term fixes are no substitute for jobs that wont come to an end when the railways lines have been laid, or which dont depend on tourism. The funds would be better spent on improving public a
14、ccess to education. Creating prosperity, or the chance of it, requires something more substantial than a theme park ride. What is a theme park?Amusement park or theme park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a la
15、rge group of people. An amusement park is more elaborate than a simple city park or playground, usually providing attractions meant to cater to adults, teenagers, and small children. A theme park is a type of amusement park which has been built around one or more themes, such as an American West the
16、me, or Atlantis. Today, the terms amusement parks and theme parks are often used interchangeably. Amusement parks evolved in Europe from fairs and pleasure gardens which were created for people s recreation. The oldest amusement park of the world (opened 1583) is Bakken, at Klampenborg, north of Cop
17、enhagen, Denmark. In the United States, worlds fairs and expositions were another influence on development of the amusement park industry. Most amusement parks have a fixed location, as compared to traveling funfairs and carnivals. These temporary types of amusement parks, are usually present for a
18、few days or weeks per year, such as funfairs in the United Kingdom, and carnivals (temporarily set up in a vacant lot or parking lots) and fairs (temporarily operated in a fair ground) in the United States. The temporary nature of these fairs helps to convey the feeling that people are in a differen
19、t place or time. Often a theme park will have various lands (sections) of the park devoted to telling a particular story. Non-theme amusement park rides will usually have little in terms of theming or additional design elements while in a theme park all the rides go all with the theme of the park, f
20、or example Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. Modern amusement parks now run differently than those of years past. Amusement parks are usually owned by a large corporate conglomerate which allows capital investment unknown by the traditional family-owned parks. Starting with Disneyland in the 1950s
21、, the park experience became part of a larger package, reflected in a television show, movies, lunch boxes, action figures and finally park rides and costumed characters that make up the theme. These parks offer a world with no violence or social problems. The thrills of the theme parks are often ob
22、scured from the outside by high fences or barriers re-enforcing the feeling of escape, they are kept clean and new thrill rides are frequently added to keep people coming back. In addition to this experience, the theme park is either based on a central theme or, divided into several distinctly themed areas, lands or spaces. Large resorts, such as Walt Disney World in Florida (United
