Disney's Great Leap into China

Unfazed by piracy and bureaucracy, Mickey & Co. are betting they can win the hearts of 1.3 billion people. The first step: a new theme park in Hong Kong

Main Street U.S.A at the new Hong Kong Disneyland looks exactly like the one most Americans remember from their childhood, but it won't taste the same. The classic Disney thoroughfare of quaint buildings and gas streetlights has been lovingly re-created from the original theme park Walt Disney built in Anaheim, Calif., which opened 50 years ago this week. But Walt's vision of idyllic small-town America now has a surprisingly un-Midwestern twist. Inside one Victorian building is Main Street's first Chinese restaurant, the Plaza Inn, crafted as a stylish tea shop from early 20th century Shanghai. The interior has traditional landscapes of...

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