Universal Studios Will Build a $2 Billion theme Park and Resort in Beijing, Opening in 2018 !

The Hollywood Reporter reveal that Universal Studios will build a $2 Billion Hollywood-Themed Resort in Beijing, scheduled to open in 2018! This third Universal Studios in Asia - after the ones in Osaka and Singapore -  will be located in a suburb of China's capital city.

Excerpts from the Hollywood Reporter: "Universal Studios is planning to open a Hollywood movie theme park, Universal Studios Beijing, in the suburbs of the Chinese capital in collaboration with a local state tourism company.
The news was released on the website Sina's property pages, and spread quickly online, with much excited chatter on China's Twitter, Weibo.
The facility will cover a 51-acre site and the total budget will be 12 billion yuan ($1.95 billion). Construction is due to start in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to the local media report.
A report in Shanghai Securities News, cited by the Shanghai Landscape Architecture Design Institute website, said officials from the National Development and Reform Commission had filed an application to begin construction, and the demolition of existing buildings was ongoing, with the aim of opening the park in January 2018.
The Universal Creative division of Universal Parks and Resorts has also been advertising for Mandarin Chinese-speaking staff.
When contacted by The Hollywood Reporter, Universal declined to comment on the various reports.

The Chinese partners, Beijing Tourism Group, which is part of the capital's municipal government, will provide the land and an unspecified part of the investment, while Universal Studios will be responsible for branding, intellectual property, technology and management of the park, Sina reported.
In a separate report, the Global Times daily reported that municipal authorities are planning to build a monorail in Beijing, with the terminus in the new Universal Studios in the southeastern suburb of Tongzhou."

As THR reports there is currently many theme parks projects in China, starting of course by the $4.4 billion Disneyland Shanghai project due to open at the end of 2015, 
"DreamWorks Animation's China unit, Oriental DreamWorks, is also developing a $3.1 billion cultural and "entertainment destination" in Shanghai, The Chinese real estate group, Dalian Wanda, is building a theme park project called Wuxi Wanda City, while Chinese production company Huayi Brothers has been building a resort on the holiday island of Hainan, which takes the films of top director Feng Xiaogang as the theme."

Now, the question is: is the choice of Beijing a good one. In terms of population there is no doubt that there is millions of people in and out Beijing but if you've followed the news recently Beijing has a pollution smog problem which is even more serious than in Shanghaî. As a matter of fact the pollution problem is so big now in China that yesterday the government has declared "the war against pollution". Good news, but considering that most of this deadly smog is coming from cars, factories and coal plants i'll be interested to learn how they will do it. But they have to do it, and to do it quickly as last year an estimated 1.2 Million people are supposed to have died because of the pollution.

Anyway, a new Universal Studios is always welcome, even in Beijing, all you need to remember is to don't forget your pollution mask the day you'll go there!

Picture: copyright Universal Studios