Wanda to open Hefei theme park to duel Disney

Billionaire Wang Jianlin is preparing to open his second Wanda City as he escalates his efforts to fend off Walt Disney Co in China.

Hefei Wanda City, about 500 kilometers west of the $5.5 billion Shanghai Disney Resort, will open to the public on Saturday. Besides theme park facilities, the 35 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) development will include hotels, a movie theater, a shopping mall and residential apartments across 1.6 square kilometers, according to Wanda.

Wang is seeking to spearhead the nation's burgeoning leisure industry by developing 15 Wanda City projects across the country by the end of the decade. Including others, a total of 59 new theme parks will open in China by 2020, serving an estimated 220 million park-goers and rivaling the US in terms of scale, according to estimates from industry consultancy Aecom.