DIS Walt Disney Co

By James T. Areddy 

SHANGHAI -- Chinese law enforcement often relies on in-your-face muscle-flexing, but Shanghai appears to be giving unusual leeway to Walt Disney Co. to police its new theme park there nearly as inconspicuously as in other Magic Kingdoms.

Shanghai Disneyland Resort promises to offer a study in the cultural blend of U.S.-branded entertainment and Chinese sensibilities -- Disney's dog Pluto outfitted as a character in the Chinese zodiac, for instance. But a key question as Disney tweaks its magic for the Middle Kingdom is how divergent philosophies on crowd control get applied in a park that 330 million can reach in less than three hours.

Disneyland officially won't open until June 16 but outsize crowds already are flocking by cars and subway to new restaurants and a lakeside promenade in a tourist zone surrounding the theme park that offers a free taste of the experience -- 90,000 on one recent day.

Shanghai events have drawn some of the largest crowds in the world, and despite massive numbers of officers and widespread electronic surveillance local authorities have a mixed response record.

In 2010, Shanghai took a page from the heavily policed Beijing Olympics two years earlier and stationed a battalion of officers, paramilitary and army at the city's giant World's Fair expo, which drew nearly half a million visitors daily for six months with minimal incidents. But a year and a half ago, three dozen people died in a New Year's Eve stampede after police failed to divert an estimated 200,000 revelers from crushing into the city's No. 1 tourist spot, the historic riverfront Bund.

The Burbank, Calif.-based company's agreement gives it broad scope to manage risks in Shanghai much like it does at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and its parks in other countries. Disney won't say much about the arrangements but its plans indicate that uniformed police generally won't be seen inside the park gates.

With three parks outside the U.S. in Hong Kong, Paris and Tokyo, Disney faces localized risks, from earthquakes to terrorism. Violent crime remains rare in China, and the primary concern for Shanghai Disneyland -- reflected in the park's design -- is preventing crowds from getting unwieldy.

A Disney spokesman said the resort's management company is responsible for security inside the park. Shanghai's government echoed that, adding that security would be supervised by a "comprehensive law enforcement team." The area's top policeman, Li Guirong, sidestepped a question about jurisdiction at a recent press conference, saying only, "The standard for our public-security management is very high."

In Shanghai, some of Disney's "security cast members" -- as the company refers to guards -- wear yellow ties, white police style hats and cartoonish badges emblazoned with a castle logo. "Protecting the magic is the main goal," according to the job description for security cast members on one Disney website in the U.S., which shows guards dressed casually in leisurewear such as straw hats and golf shirts.

A black Shanghai police surveillance van regularly parked near Shanghai Disneyland's front gate is a reminder that ultimately Chinese law enforcement hasn't been outranked by Disney security.

In all, the purpose-built tourist zone including Shanghai Disneyland covers an area about twice the size of New York's Central Park. Near the theme park, local authorities operate a new multibay firehouse and a large police compound. Paramilitary police may appear in the area, though so far uniformed officers have been seen mostly on traffic duty and sniffer-dog patrols.

Wang Hongwei, a professor of national security at Beijing's Renmin University, says there is likely to be strong coordination. He called the park "an important target for the government to keep an eye on from a public security perspective."

Disney spent years working to make Chinese authorities comfortable about its apolitical entertainment and security competence. It toured Chinese police officials through each of its five parks -- which draw more than 120 million annually -- to demonstrate how it manages attendance.

Martin Lewison, a theme park expert at Farmingdale State College in New York, predicts crowd management will feature "measures that the Chinese middle class will find appropriate" because security around Disneylands usually has local characteristics, such as police on horseback outside the Paris park.

China's unapologetic policing isn't Disney's style. It famously strives for subtle security like hidden cameras that won't distract from the fun. Where Shanghai has X-ray machines in every one of its subway stations, Disney theme parks only added them in the past year or so.

In Shanghai, crowd control starts with regulating expectations. Ticketing is handled through online reservations for specific days. Controls weren't so tight in 2005. At Hong Kong Disneyland, a sold-out day around China's National Day holiday prompted chaos, with angry visitors who couldn't get in lifting their children over the fence into the park.

Many will travel to Shanghai Disneyland by a subway line designed to shuttle 20,000 per hour. Electronic road signs and social media messages are intended to alert visitors to congestion. In the park itself, a design with Chinese crowds in mind provides for extra-wide sidewalks, metal-barricade channels, shaded seating and overflow zones.

One area Disney doesn't directly control: the subway station near the front gate, where on a recent day visitors queued at a narrow entrance waiting to pass bags into X-ray machines.

The new park's architecture is its own security measure. Instead of entering along an American-style "Main Street" as in other Disneylands, Shanghai visitors will get channeled from "Mickey Avenue" into a jumbo-size oval with a garden maze designed to slow the scramble toward the biggest castle Disney has built anywhere.

Yang Jie in Beijing contributed to this article.

Write to James T. Areddy at james.areddy@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 09, 2016 05:44 ET (09:44 GMT)

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