Move over, Dubai: Shanghai has just announced its own plans for the “world’s largest” theme park. In fact, China’s most construction-happy city is going one better than the proposed park at the Mall of the World by proposing a giant polar theme park. Take that, you other cities with your slightly smaller polar theme parks.
According to a report in Shanghai Daily, the park will house over 500 species of polar animals, including sharks, polar bears, dolphins and penguins. That’s hardly any species at all, however, compared to the 20,000 different types of fish. Lucky visitors will watch killer whales perform tricks in four performance areas, while, Shanghai Daily notes, other species will simply “do their thing”.
There will also be hotels, shops, 13 pavilions and four cinemas, spread over about half a square kilometre to the east of the city. One of the pavilions appears to be in the shape of a giant fish. Oh, and there’s a Ferris wheel:
Construction will begin by the end of this year, but there’s no completion date in the diary as yet.
The city’s environmental agency is now investigating the park’s environmental impact as a final check before plans go ahead. Polar animals in 35°C summer temperatures? Trained killer whales? Everything is going to be fine.
