Thousands Flood Shanghai Disney, and It Won't Open for Weeks

  • Park begins trial operations for limited number of guests
  • Estimated 30,000 people visited Chinese resort on Sunday

Disney Seeks 10,000 Workers to Create Magic in Shanghai

Still a month away from its official opening, Walt Disney Co.’s latest theme park resort in Shanghai is already a popular destination attracting thousands of Chinese.

A Disney store -- the biggest park-operated retail shop in Asia -- and restaurants in a public, commercial strip of the Shanghai Disney Resort opened on Saturday to long lines. Locals flocked to the area to stroll around its artificial lake and snap pictures with a fountain sculpture of Mickey Mouse on a steamboat. Disney also began trial operations for the park -- its sixth worldwide and first in mainland China -- over the weekend.