Disneyland executives and members of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government joined together in the ground-breaking ceremony yesterday on Lantau Island for the multi-billion dollar entertainment theme park.

"This theme park will be reasonable and affordable for the community that lives in the region, no matter local, or up north," Disney Chairman Michael Eisner pledged.

The entrance fee for the park, scheduled to open in late 2005, will be around HK$250 (US$32), lower than the widely expected HK$300 (US$38), Eisner said.

The ceremony marked the beginning of the construction of the 126-hectare Phase I, China's first Disney theme park.

It will be situated on Penny's Bay on the north of Lantau against the backdrop of the South China Sea.

The theme park will include two hotels and a retail, dining and entertainment complex.

"Over the next period of time during construction, we'd determine all sorts of different kinds of pricing for residents and non-residents," Eisner said.

He said the mainland would like to have a Disneyland either in Beijing or Shanghai and the company is still at the early stage of negotiations with central government officials.

However, he reiterated that the company would not open another theme park in China before 2010.

At the ceremony, Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa said he did not worry about a second Disneyland on the mainland.

Speaking after the ceremony, Tung said that the World Tourism Organization had made a forecast that by 2020, the mainland would be the largest tourist destination and Hong Kong would become the fifth largest in the world with 56 million visitors a year.

"The growth (in tourism) is going to be spectacular," he said.

"China is a big country with a huge population. Its economic development is progressing very well. Wealth is being created. So there should be two theme parks."

(China Daily January 13, 2003)