The resort features Russian architecture, a movie cineplex and a grand piano-shaped indoor ski resort that allows 3,000 people to ski or snowboard on six runs, all in an area covering 1.6 square kilometers. Up to 30,000 people will be hired to work at the resort when it's completed, Wang said.
“This is a brand-new community that includes not only a theme park, but also a school, a hospital, housing, and hotels,” said Andrew Kam, vice president of Wanda Cultural Industry Group, whom Wang hired from Hong Kong Disneyland. “ There is nothing like this before.”
Skiing is gaining popularity in China, as the country prepares to host the 2022 winter Olympics in Zhangjiakou near Beijing.
Several ski resorts already exist in northeastern China. Yabuli, about 180 kilometers from Harbin, already has a ski resort that hosted the Winter Asian Games as early as 1996. Wanda operates a ski resort at Changbaishan in nearby Jilin province.
Wang has pumped nearly 40 billion yuan (US$6 billion) into the Harbin resort, since opening a similar-size Wanda City in Nanchang city in southeastern China’s Jiangxi province in May last year.
Tickets to Wanda’s Harbin resort start from 68 yuan for a 2-hour tour of a snow castle for an adult, and as much as 488 yuan for unlimited use of the ski slope.
By comparison, an adult ticket at Shanghai Disneyland costs start from 370 yuan during the low season and goes up to 499 yuan during the peak season.
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