Largest Disney store ever slated for Shanghai

The Walt Disney Company said it would enter China in 2015 with a new retail location planned for Shanghai that measures 10,800-sq.-ft. on a 53,000-sq.-ft. site in the heart of the city’s financial district.

Disney currently operates 340 worldwide locations but until this week’s announcement in Shanghai had steered clear of opening stores inmainland China.

"We are enormously proud to be building Disney's largest store in the world in China," said Mr. Stanley Cheung, EVP and managing director of The Walt Disney Company, Greater China. "Disney has combined the retail concept with storytelling, fun and innovation and will provide families with a uniquely immersive entertainment destination featuring our best-loved stories and characters," he added.

The interior of the store will be designed using Disney's award-winning innovative store format that features cutting-edge technologies and displays so families and kids will be able to interact with characters and stories from across Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars.

"China's flagship Disney Store will feature the largest and most diverse collection of Disney products by local and international designers," Cheung said.

The plaza area surrounding the store also will feature Disney-themed landscaping, a first for any Disney Store property in the world, and will have the capacity to host outdoor events providing a destination hub for family entertainment. It will also be an important site where fans can track the progress of Shanghai Disney Resort which is targeted to open at the end of 2015, according to the company. The area surrounding the store commands intense foot traffic of more than 40 million visitors a year and is a destination for many shoppers, visitors and tourists to Shanghai.

Disney’s first property in China, Hong Kong Disneyland, opened in September 2005.