The biggest Walt Disney Co. store in the world isn’t at the company’s landmark Disneyland theme park in Anaheim or its sprawling Disney World resort in Florida: It’s in Shanghai’s financial district. The 9,257-square-foot retail bonanza, which opened Wednesday in Shanghai’s Lujiazui district, is the first store opened by the Burbank entertainment and media company in China. The store houses a 19-foot-tall replica of Disney’s Magic Kingdom Castle, a Marvel area with hand-sculpted statues of Iron Man and other comic book characters, and it connects to an outdoor plaza with Mickey Mouse-shaped landscaping. The store opened ahead of the new $5 billion Shanghai Disney resort, which is scheduled to open next year, and represents the company’s ongoing push to cash in on China’s growing consumer class. “Disney Store plays a critical role in how millions around the world experience our brand,” said Paul Candland, Walt Disney Company’s president of the Asia-Pacific region, in a statement.
