China's theme parks on the ride of their lives

Shanghai Party Chief Han Zheng said in an earlier interview that the Shanghai resort will help upgrade the modern service industry in the city and help the entire Yangtze River Delta region become a cluster of globally competitive cities.

Auxiliary projects surrounding the resort are also under construction. Two major roads outside the theme park have been completed and another three supporting roads are being built. A large transportation hub will be set up at the west entrance of the theme park. A metro line that will take tourists to the resort was completed in September 2014.

With the roads built, the once quiet and remote Chuansha county, where the resort is being built, has seen tremendous changes in the past few years－most notably, in terms of property prices.

According to housing information provider Anjuke, the average housing price soared from 5,000 yuan per sq m in 2010 to 30,000 yuan in 2014. Land prices in Chuansha surged 500 times within the past decade.

Zhu Taiyong, a sales manager at the neighboring community East Suburban Peninsula Villa, said that all the villas have been sold and only some 250 sq m apartments remain available. The price of a 400 sq m villa has doubled to 20 million yuan since 2010.

However, it is obvious that hardly anyone is living in this area at present.

For one thing, it takes about 45 minutes to drive from the project to downtown Shanghai, assuming there is no traffic. The drive to the Disney Resort is just 15 minutes, but that is hardly a reason to live there.