Meet the New Disney Stars: Breaking News : Shanghaî Disneyland Special Event on April 8th ?

Apparently, an important announcement about Shanghaî Disneyland will happen on April 8th! This time, my friends, it seems to be the right one, the big final official announcement we're all waiting for! More details below from the very serious New York Times:

Disney Said to Have Cleared Hurdle for Shanghai Park

It appears that the Walt Disney Company has cleared the final hurdle in its decades-long bid to build a theme park on the Chinese mainland.

Invitations were sent late Friday to reporters for “a special event” to be held at a hotel in Shanghai on April 8. The invitation, sent jointly by Disney and a development company called the Shanghai Shendi Group, does not say more than that. A Disney spokeswoman declined to give more information.

A consultant working on the project said the company and Chinese officials would formally announce the beginning of construction on Shanghai Disneyland, which is expected to cost $3.7 billion to build and expected to open by 2016.
Disney wants to make Shanghai Disneyland into a megaresort on a par with Walt Disney World in Florida. But the initial phase will be more modest: a “Magic Kingdom-style” park with a castle surrounded by themed areas, like Tomorrow Land, two hotels, a shopping district and a lake.

The park will include replicas of well-known Disney rides, including Space Mountain and It’s a Small World, along with and new attractions based on Chinese history.
“It will be the Disney that people know but with a very strong Chinese cultural presence,” “said the consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with Disney."

Text: copyright Brook Barnes