April 26, 2005 The New Paper (Singapore)

# One of its main ballrooms is 888 sq m
# Disney also picks lucky day for opening

IN Chinese, 4 is bad luck as it is pronounced like the Chinese word for death, so you won't find any fourth-floor buttons in the lifts at the Art Deco Hollywood Hotel, or other hotels in Hong Kong Disneyland.

Cash registers are close to corners or along walls, where their placement is believed to increase prosperity.

Walt Disney executives are going the extra mile to reflect Asian culture at the new theme park.

They have even engaged the services of a feng shui master.

After consulting him, they decided to shift the angle of the park's front gate by 12 degrees.

The company also put a bend in the walkway from the train station to the gate, to make sure the flow of positive energy, or chi, does not slip past the entrance and out to the China Sea, reported The New York Times.

It is also including ritual incense burning as each building is finished, and it has picked what it was told is a lucky day, 12 Sep, for the opening.

The financial stakes are high - China is expected to become one of the world's largest tourism destinations in the next 15 years, according to the World Tourism Organisation.

That bodes well for Disney, as Hong Kong itself is already in the top 15.

'It used to be Disney was exported on its own terms,' said Professor Robert Thompson, who studies popular culture at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.

'Now, instead of being the Ugly Americans, which some foreigners used to find charming, we have to take off our shoes or belch after a meal.'

Plans for Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney's 11th theme park and a replica of the original Disneyland, began in 1999 on Lantau Island, a 30-minute train ride from central Hong Kong.

Disney invested US$316 million ($520m) for a 43 per cent equity stake in Hong Kong Disneyland. The rest is owned by Hong Kong's government, which contributed US$419m.

One of the park's main ballrooms measures 888 sq m because the number 8 represents fortune, said Mr Wing Chao, master planner for architecture and design for Walt Disney Imagineering.

And in the park's upscale restaurant, Crystal Lotus, there is a virtual koi pond where virtual fish dart away from guests when they walk on a glass screen.

The pond is one of five feng shui elements in the restaurant, including wood, earth, metal and fire, which glows on a screen behind bottles in the bar.

HOPING TO AVOID SAME MISTAKE

After losses at Euro Disney in the last three years, it is easy to understand why Disney would take such pains.

The French government recently helped bail out Euro Disney, the parent company of Disneyland Paris, offering loan concessions and investments to save it from bankruptcy.

Though its finances have been restructured, Euro Disney is still about US$2b in debt.

By contrast, Hong Kong Disneyland is being built in two smaller phases and is carrying half as much debt as its Disneyland Paris.

Because of the diverse cultures in Asia, said Mr Jay Rasulo, president of Disney's theme parks and resorts, Disney had to be flexible.

Three languages will be spoken in the park: English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

While all the talk of feng shui may seem like overkill to those with Western sensibilities, Mr Rasulo said that as a practice, it was just common sense.

He said Mr Chao came to his office recently and suggested he put a mirror on the wall behind his computer.

'Now if my secretary wants to get my attention, I can see her in the mirror,' he said with a laugh. 'So it actually is an incredibly practical thing.'