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Show Thursday, September 29, 1994 THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, - Page E3 : Theme parks, Western entertainment take hold in China By MICHAEL ZIELENZ1GER J Knight-Ridd- Newspapers er - Tourists JCI'AN, China crowd this ancient capita to climb soaring city walls of stone, exam-in- a the mysterious army of terra coka soldiers placed in an emper-orl- s tomb 2,000 years ago and winder through magnificent old pagodas. But promoter Wang Xinlu dismisses those attractions as tedious. 'The ruins and the museums that's all dead stuff. Only the ar- chaeologists are interested," Wfcng said. "We need something the common people can understand. We need stuff that's alive and fun. Otherwise, at night, it's jus"t too boring around here." Thus adjacent to one of the oldest archaeological sites in all of China, where a rudimentary civilization flourished nearly 3,000 year ago, Wang and some Hong Kong confederates have constructed thir own profit-seeki- alternat- ng ives: Banpo Matriarchal Clan Viltheme lage, a Flintstones-styl- e water- with ersatz park, complete falls, bowling with boulders, archhuts for ery ranges and cave-lik- e dining and disco. So it goes across a newly commercialized China. From water parks in Guangzhou and hockey rinks in Chongqing, to swim resorts in Shanghai and laser-ta- g centers in Beijing, the average hardworking Chinese and their children are now looking for ways to fritter away their wages having a good time. And their tastes are decidedly Western. The nation's booming economy and the historically high savings rate of Chinese families are leading to a surge in the construction of theme parks, amusement centers and resort communities, even in areas far from the prosperous coast. This "Disneyfication" of the world's biggest nation is moving ahead aggressively even though the nation's per capita income is estimated at only about S400 per year. "So many of these centers are springing up, I can't keep track of them all," said Wang Songda, di hard-earn- ed rector of the Overseas Chinese Affairs office of Sichuan province, where so called "holiday centers" pavilions featuring Tudor-roofe- d are and blue medieval turrets suddenly sprouting. Most include amusement park rides, meeting halls, restaurants serving Western-styl- e food and laser disc karaoke bars where locals can belt out popular tunes after having a few brews. "We latched onto theme parks as a concept about two years. The demand is just extraordinary," said John Hardyment, Canadian owner of Taipai-base- d Bayshore Pacific Group, which is building a giant theme park in Guangzhou, die former Canton. "All of our feasibility studies and focus groups show Chinese want Western experiences, and they want to have fun." "We Westerners came into Chinese restaurants! What we want is Disneyland!'" What's driving the explosive growth of theme parks in China is the rising income levels across the nation, the reduction of the work week to 44 hours (every other Saturday is a day off) and the dearth of opportunities to spend money, Hardyment and others said. In addition, the crowding and chaos that characterizes most Chinese cities gives wealthy locals the desire to flee at least for a few days, according to Global Village Development. The Beijing-base- d company is circulating a prospectus to raise $270 million e lakefor construction of a side resort near Shanghai complete with equestrian center and "Future World" theme park, where "patrons can experience the unexper465-acr- ienced." "With Shanghai's dense of 2.5 million," the prospectus says, "many residents want a ally sensitive, and establish Chinese restaurants," Hardyment bare-breast- 1 fifth-large- The climax st nation. On a hot afternoon, as the sun blazed high in the hazy sky, a knot two." 'We have 10,000 good ed high-fideli- ty place to get away for a day or explained. "But my entire Chinese staff told me I was crazy. They said, popu- lation and a (migrant) population China thinking we had to be cultur- po Matriarchal Clan Village, where visitors enter through the abdomen of a statuesque, female made of clay, is an evening "fertility rite" outdoor stage show, where barefoot teens wearing loincloths beat sticks into the ground amid howls of caveman gibberish. "We think it's a great way to bring in more visitors," said Wang Buxian, who shepherds tourist groups through the new theme park, which seems to celebrate female dominance in primeval Chinese culture. Officials estimate that about ,000 tourists a month pay the $7.50 entrance fee to visit the clay huts, the bars and the nighttime festivities. It isn't just in tourist centers like Xi'an where new attractions are being created. Consider the summer's honest attraction in Wuhan, an industrial nerve center of some 5 million on the Yangtze River that is China's and city one of the warmest places in the of an outing at Ban of young people stood patiently in groups in Jiefang Park, waiting to enter a giant aluminum building" that had the architectural grace of a massive meat locker. ; -- After paying the $2 entrance fee, hefty by Chinese standards, the piled themselves into rented winter overcoats, pushed their way into the frigid warehouse and found themselves in a darkened room where the temperature is maintained at minus-- 0 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve a glistening array of giant ice sculptures. teen-age- rs 1 Once inside, the visitors cavort- icy slide., snapped flash photos in front of shimmering ice Buddhas. strolled under an grape arbor,, and climbed the step of an icy Great Wal! in which fluorescent-- , ;, lights were embedded. ed on a crystalline ice-carv- ed Next up as a tourism gimmick? 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