Hello Kitty fans in China rejoice! Rocket News 24 is reporting that the newest Hello Kitty theme park is opening on New Year’s Day , 2015.
The new Hello Kitty park is located near Shanghai and is about a three hour car ride from Shanghai Pudong International Airport. This will be the largest Hello Kitty park in all of Asia, even larger than Japan’s Sanrio Puroland.
According to Rocket News, the park’s website, which is all in Chinese, says the grounds will be divided into six zones. Each zone will feature over 10 visitor attractions, such as rides and shows. Each of the zones will be “hosted” by a famous Sanrio character: Hello Kitty, My Melody, Keroppi, Badtz-Maru, and Monkichi will host five of the zones. The sixth zone is the “Friendship Plaza,” where several of the characters are expected to be featured together.
But the sparkling new Hello Kitty park is just part of the attraction. Shanghiist says that there will also be a luxury resort hotel . The hotel will be filled with pink furniture, chandeliers, and lots of bows. For those who are interested, there will also be a Hello Kitty themed mahjong room.
The park and hotel are a joint venture between Japan’s Sanrio corporation and China’s Zhejiang New Insight Leisure Tourism Development Co. The park was designed by the Hettema Group, which is based in California. Shanghaiist says that the total cost of the project is estimated to be about 215 million U.S. dollars. It was originally planned to open in connection with Hello Kitty’s fortieth birthday, which is this month, but delays pushed the scheduled opening back to the new year. The Daily Mail reports that the park is expected to host upwards of one million visitors each year.
Tickets for the Hello Kitty park will cost adults the equivalent of $42.35 for weekday visits and $52.13 if you go on a weekend. Children can see all of their favorite Hello Kitty characters for $32.58 on weekdays and $42.35 on weekends.
The opening of the new Hello Kitty park caps a year filled with news about the popular character. As reported in the Inquisitr, it was revealed in the summer that the Hello Kitty character is actually not a cat , but a little girl, although Sanrio later said that that description wasn’t quite accurate. Also in 2014, the Taiwanese airline EVA Air introduced a Hello Kitty plane, so that fans of the character can travel while surrounded by Hello Kitty.
[Image via The Hettema Group]