China's Dalian Wanda eyes competition with Disneyland

Wang Jianlin, Chairman of Wanda, speaks at a news conference for the opening a Wanda movie park in Wuhan, Hubei province, December 20, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

WUHAN - Chinese real estate tycoon Wang Jianlin said on Saturday that his Dalian Wanda Group will compete with Disneyland and probably open theme parks in the United States in the future.

Wang, founder and president of the group, one of China's top property developers, revealed his ambition at the opening ceremony of a movie park in Wuhan City, capital of Hubei Province in central China.

Although real estate contributed the bulk of Wanda's revenue, Wang told Xinhua that the group is seeking more growth engines as rapid expansion in China's property sector is coming to an end.

Wang said Wanda will unveil a transformation plan in January and turn to businesses in culture, tourism, finance and e-commerce for further growth.

In a move toward the transformation, Wanda launched the "cultural tourism city" program to construct building complexes for tourism, entertainment, shopping, dining and other purposes in a number of Chinese cities.

"Our cultural tourism cities will try to rival Disneyland parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai in terms of visitors and revenue. If we do well, Wanda will probably build theme parks in the US," said Wang.

Wanda is confident in promoting Chinese culture to the world, according to the 60-year-old businessman.

The group is actively exploring overseas markets with investment in the US, Australia, Britain and Spain.

Wanda aims to raise its business revenue to 600 billion yuan ($97 billion) by 2020, with 30 percent hopefully coming from overseas businesses.