Disneyland China

Don't take my word for it, read James' article on Japan Probe, or articles in The Standard (Hong Kong), Associated Content (USA) or Wikipedia.

Amazingly, not only have most of the Disney characters been cloned, along with buildings from Disneyland such as Epcot's Spaceship Earth, but also other cute Japanese characters like Hello Kitty and Doraemon.

Common theme-park rides have also been adapted to a Disney-esque style, but even these are not originals. As shown on RCDB, these coasters look like pure clones of classic designs from Intamin/Schwarzkopf/Büro Stengel/Pinfari, but are mostly made by local Beijing Shibaolai Amusement Equipment.

The Shenzhou Coaster, for example, is almost a complete (but mirrored) rip-off of a Vekoma SLC, of which my fellow Walibi fans would recognise as the Vampire.

In general, China has an unfortunate ability to take ideas from the Western world, and through escaping international copyright law it is able to produce cheap, low quality, and ultimately disposable versions of successful products, in high quantities. China: with your new-found lack of originality, you're contributing to today's Disposable Society by destroying profitability of high-quality products.

I'll be interested to see if the park survives Disney's lawyers until next year's Summer Olympics, also in Beijing. Visiting the place must be like visiting an alternate reality where everything has been copied, but not quite right — some sort of Bizarro world.