China Daily reports that a study by the Horizon Group, a Chinese strategic research and consultancy organisation, reveals China has invested about 150bn yuan (US$22bn) into 2,500 theme parks across the country.

Of these sites, the study claims that 70 per cent are now in the red and only about ten per cent have repaid their initial investment. Chinese media has also reported that Guanghzhou's Grand World Scenic Park has closed recently, signifying - according to Guangzhou Daily - the end of the country's first generation theme parks era. The paper predicts that the struggling parks will be replaced by other, so-called second generation parks.

As examples it cites plans for a Disney theme park in Shanghai and Zhejiang's plan to rebuild Yuanmingyuan, the old Summer Palace in Beijing.