Shanghai Disneyland – Impact On-Site: Resettlement!
Since the Chinese government and The Walt Disney Company announced that the Shanghai Disneyland project has received green light to move ahead the topic has virtually disappeared. Certainly it is mentioned together with other future projects of TWDC and is also thrown into discussions concerning the performance of Hong Kong Disneyland. But lacking any new detailed revelations about the actual design of the new theme park or visible construction on-site the various blogs and websites covering Disney had nothing to report about. After all the first-phase is only expected to finish construction in five to six years. However, thanks to China Daily (“China’s Global Newspaper”) we now have a first progress report about what is happening at the future site of the resort!
As had been rumored before the 4 square-km (1.5 square-mile) site of the first phase of the resort is not only covered by open fields but also home to thousands of locals. In fact the part of the Pudon New Area that will be turned into the future resort seems to be currently occupied at least partially by the town Zhaohang. According to the report a total of more than 2,000 households and 297 enterprises will have to move to allow the construction to start.
Any resettlement is having high risks of turning into a political nightmare – and thus for TWDC and the future resort a marketing debacle. Depending on the terms of the resettlement and the friendly persuasion or pressure that might be put on the locals to resettle. Especially in a country as China TWDC certainly should monitor any resettlement considering the amount of negative press that the resettlement efforts in connection with other Chinese projects such as the Three Gorges Dam or the venues for the past Olympic Games had garnered.
The resettlement process is currently in progress. Plans call for the settlement that started on January 5th to be finished by the End of June according to Yu Yong (according to China Daily: head of the town Shaxin in Pudong New Area; according to China.Wire on SinoDaily: head of the area known as Chuansha Town), when construction is expected to start. He also claimed that by Monday, January 25th, already 75 percent of the households and 40 percents of the enterprises had signed “moving contracts”. This seems an impressive result even for China, which had to handle various large scale resettlements for other high profile projects such as the Three Gorges Dam. According to China Daily Yu Young “attributed the smooth progress of the resettlement arrangements to reasonable compensations, welcome designs of residential buildings for resettlement and help of lawyers“. The “help of lawyers”?
No specifics of the resettlement policies and offers have surfaced at this point. A report in China Daily in November 2009 only revealed only that according to back then current regulations farmers that would be resettled and loose their plot of land as one of their compensations would be transferred rom the rural pension system to the “small-town social insurance system”, a compulsory social insurance system for residents of Shanghai’s suburban areas.
Press coverage since the resettlement project started has been limited to media that has its main focus on China and hasn’t moved into the regular main stream media in Europe or the US. Also it seems the coverage so far have been pretty neutral / objective. No reports about locals resisting the resettlement have surface so far – and it can only be hoped that the project will be spared any such occurances. Whether the resettlement will be smooth certainly will depend on the compensations for the locals … an area that TWDC should be able to influence (and hopefully does monitor).
China.Wire on SinoDaily provided further information from the Shanghai Daily which reported that the mayor of Shanghai, Han Zheng, announced plans to negotiate with district officials to allocate some of the land surrounding the future resort for budget homes, that according to the newspaper could sell for up to 50 percent less than market price. The Shanghai Daily cites him stating at the municipal goverment’s annual meeting: “I must stress that we don’t expect housing prices around the Disneyland project to be too high“. No word, though, whether these houses would be offered to the resettled locals. Considering that they are signing resettlement contracts right now and the budget homes are only discussed (if at all) this does not seem likely at this point.
According to earlier reports the announcement that the Shanghai Disneyland project would be located at the Chuansha town of Pudong New Area already had resulted in Chuansha’s home prices to increase. However, the increase factor is not known. China Daily only mentions that the price per square meter has increased fro 3,000 yuan per square-meter three years ago to now 12,000 yuan, which is not providing any meaningful data as the project was only offcially confirmed for the location in 2009, to be specific the authorities for the first time confirmed the location only in November 2009.
“Past experience has showed that the government must build residential buildings for the resettled residents, given the high price of commercial properties in Shanghai. The prices are so high that those villagers cannot afford to buy one” Gui Shixun, professor at the Population Research Institute, East China Normal University based in Shanghai, said according to the report of China Daily in November 2009. The report also cites Gu Xiaoming, professor from the tourism department at Fudan University, saying: “From a long-term perspective, getting the residents in and training them to be staff of the Disneyland will benefit them more than merely giving them a sum of money as a compensation“.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:41 pm
[...] future Disneyland Shanghai (construction for the latter could start as early as this summer, as current plans call for the resettlement of the locals living on the future site of the resort to be finished by June). For those interested in more [...]