At the beginning of the summer vacation, Shanghai, a major economic town in China, stepped up efforts to boost consumption and launched a three-month international consumption season. Shanghai Legoland officially opened on Saturday (July 5), opening the prelude to the Shanghai Tourism Festival summer tourism season.

Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng, LEGO Group President and CEO Niels B. Christiansen, and Merlin Entertainment Group CEO Fiona Eastwood putts together on Saturday, announcing that China’s first Legoland, the world’s largest opening, was officially opened to the public.

At 10 a.m., the park welcomed its first batch of tourists. A reporter from Lianhe Zaobao saw at the scene that parent-child families and student teams are the main customer groups, and there are also many teenagers who come together. Even at the high temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, many “Lego fans” are still enthusiastic and are competing to experience various theme projects.

A 10-year-old boy experienced six of the eight major themes before noon. He sweated and told reporters: “Hurry up and play with the remaining two after dinner.”

The construction of Shanghai Legoland can be traced back to 10 years ago. When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the UK in 2015, the operator of the LEGO Park Merlin Entertainment Group announced that it had reached a cooperation with Chinese institutions to start developing the park in Shanghai. In 2021, the project will start construction in Fengjing Town, Jinshan District, Shanghai.

Gong Zheng visited the “Creative World” exhibition area in the park accompanied by Ni Zhiwei and Eastwood on Saturday. Tens of millions of Lego blocks are used to replicate Shanghai landmarks such as the Bund, Lujiazui and Yuyuan, and also display the iconic landscapes of Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou.

The day before (July 4), when Chen Jining, Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, met with Ni Zhiwei and Eastwood, described Legoland as a “new business card” for China-Europe cultural exchanges and cooperation, reiterating that Shanghai will unswervingly deepen high-level opening up to the outside world.

Shanghai just launched the “Shanghai Summer” international consumption season on Friday, and from early July to mid-October, it launched intensive cultural, artistic, sports events and other activities to boost Shanghai’s consumption.

Opened before summer vacationLegoland Shanghaiwhich is also a part of driving holiday consumption. In his speech, Ni Zhiwei said that the opening of the park demonstrates the park’s firm commitment to the Chinese market. He believes that the project will inject new impetus into Shanghai’s economic vitality and help expand domestic demand by promoting the development of the cultural and tourism industry.

The potential of the Chinese theme park market is highly favored by the industry. 21st Century Business Herald quoted American research institution Research and Market as saying that in the next five years, the Chinese theme park market is expected to develop at an average annual compound growth rate of 7.2%, and by 2027, the market size is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan (S$8.9 billion).

Currently, in Shanghai alone, there are more than a dozen theme parks such as LEGO, Disney and Happy Valley, and it is still increasing. The “Harry Potter Studio Tour (Shanghai)” jointly organized by Shanghai Jinjiang Park and Warner Bros. is expected to open in 2027, becoming the third similar project in the world after London and Tokyo; Asia’s first and largest Peppa Pig outdoor theme park in the world has officially announced its settlement in Chongming, Shanghai, and is expected to be completed in 2027; Shanghai Disneyland’s Spider-Man theme park will officially start construction in May this year.

A spokesperson for Merlin Entertainment said in response to the Lianhe Zaobao inquiry that despite its competitors in China, the LEGO Park has unique characteristics: presenting the LEGO brand vividly on a grand scale, providing attractive, dynamic and local related content.

The spokesperson said: “Our vision is to build resorts in key locations. Through the LEGO Park Shanghai Resort, we have filled the market gap and become the first international IP parent-child theme park in the Yangtze River Delta region.”