The Chinese city of Shanghai is bidding to be the site of China's first Disney theme park, even though Hongkong has already signed a letter of intent with the Disney corporation.

The mayor of Shanghai, Xu Kuangdi, said Shanghai had many advantages, including vast areas of spare land, whereas Hongkong had a lot of mountains and was already very built-up. Mr Xu said he did not believe Disney had made a final decision and had invited one of Shanghai's vice mayors to the United States for talks. He denied the two cities were in competition, but rather like two forwards in a football team - whoever scored, it would be a victory for China.