Wanda makes its mark on domestic cultural industry

Dalian Wanda Group, one of China's top property developers, opened a movie park in Wuhan City, capital of Hubei province in central China, on Dec 21, 2014.

The chime-shaped park, which was designed by acclaimed architect Mark Fisher, is the world’s first indoor movie theme park and is considered to be another landmark of Chinese culture in China.

Wang Jianlin, founder and president of Dalian Wanda, said his group will compete with Disneyland and announced his ambition for the leadership of the domestic cultural industry.

Wang Jianlin speaks at a news conference for the opening of a Wanda movie park in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei province, Dec 20, 2014. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The new theme park covers six experience areas, which use all kinds of sci-fi movie production expertise and technologies for movies, all combined to provide people with virtual trips in both outer space and inside the province.

Visitors will find themselves in different plots, such as a motor racing competition, an adventure trip to space, and a fight with monsters in "A Journey to the West". They can also experience natural disasters, including a tornado, tsunami and earthquake, in the hi-tech movie theme park.

"We made innovations in storytelling with high technologies, and we did not need to tell these stories with Chinese elements with the help of a foreign company. It’s our own innovative way of narrating a Chinese story," senior vice president of Wuhan Wanda Group Hu Zhanghong said at a recent news conference.