Splendid China - Kissimmee, Florida - Pro Demolition | Demolition Experts
"Splendid China was opened in 1993 and cost $100,000,000 to build. It was a sister park to Splendid China in Shenzhen, China. Covering 75 acres it was a miniature park with over 60 replicas, with each piece handcrafted to maintain authenticity. The replicas were modeled at a one tenth scale, the replica of the Great Wall used roughly 7 million 1 inch bricks and stretched half a mile. The Leshan Buddha replica was 4 stories tall.Once the Florida Splendid China opened it featured shows using a rotating cast of 60 acrobats, dancers, and actors from the People’s Republic of china. A couple incidents involving the staff of the park hiding and seeking political asylum in the Untied States from returning to China caused the reduction in employees from overseas.Greatly criticized and shamed (the Representative Assembly of the 1996 Florida Teaching Professionals-NEA State Conference banned personal and school trips to the park) for being owned by the People’s Republic of China and for the use of minority exhibits. These particular exhibits were the Potola Palace, the Id Gah Mosque, the Tomb of Abakh Hoja, the Mongolian Yurt exhibit, and the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan. Splendid China’s history involves protests against the park for being owned by Chinese Travel Service and believed to be involved in Chinese Communist Propaganda. Though none of this ever came out as true, many were anti this little establishment, that could have had a big future. By 1999, the Far East Economic Review reported that Splendid China was losing roughly 9 million dollars a year. Finally, the park closed in 2003. It went through the hands of a few owners and in 2009 went up for sale for a price of 30 million dollars."
