Article
Disneyland strikes gold
Many of China's gold medal-winning athletes will visit Hong Kong Disneyland on Sunday in what is seen as a public relations coup for the Lantau theme park.
Photo: AP
Mickey Mouse will rub ears with diving queen Guo Jingjing, gymnastics champion Yang Wei and other top mainland athletes on Sunday in a public relations coup for Hong Kong Disneyland.
Weightlifting, shooting, archery, table tennis and badminton stars would also visit the theme park, a Disney spokesman said.
The star-studded visit means far fewer big names for Ocean Park, since the athletes do not have time to visit both theme parks.
Ocean Park chairman Allan Zeman played down the apparent case of one-upmanship. The marine-themed park was still waiting for the government to confirm which athletes would visit, a spokesman said.
"I think they'll be divided fairly. They're all stars," Mr Zeman said.
"Both parks are owned by the government, which does not want to make the same mistake as it did with the Shenzhen visitor scheme."
Last month, Hong Kong Disneyland was selected ahead of other local attractions for a pilot scheme to bring in tourists from among Shenzhen's estimated 12 million migrant workers. The initiative drew accusations of administrative interference.
Observers did not believe Beijing was dictating which sports stars would visit which theme park and was letting the athletes decide for themselves. But many top names have visited the city and Ocean Park before and may have opted to go to Disneyland this time.
Sunday's visit to Disneyland, during which the athletes would meet a group of young cancer patients, is set to be on the last day of a three-day trip by the mainland sporting stars Many athletes would return to Beijing afterwards but the rest would go on to Macau.
On Saturday, select athletes will meet more than 900 Hong Kong University of Science and Technology students, who will be asked to wear special T-shirts and sing patriotic songs during the occasion.