Wanda in 'patriotic tourism' venture
China's Wanda group has signed a deal to build a sprawling complex for patriotic tourists to visit a site to which the Communist Party’s traces its revolutionary roots in the northwestern Shaanxi Province.
At a ceremony in Beijing, China Wanda Group and the Yan’an city government agreed to start work on a 12 billion yuan (US$1.74 billion) “red tourism” project next year, the company said in a statement.
It was unclear from the announcement what portion of the money would be invested by Wanda.
Work on the site will begin next year and it should be open to the public by 2021, in time to take part in celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding.
The complex will include sections dedicated to revolutionary spirit, military entertainment, intangible cultural heritage and the early days of the party, as well as five squares themed on different stages of Yan’an’s history.
The troops led by the Chinese Communist Party based themselves in Yan’an from 1935, before winning the Chinese civil war and establishing the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
The city, known as the cradle of the Communist revolution in party mythology, is a popular site for patriotic tourists.