Construction work at the Shanghai Disney Park is going ahead as the park gets set to open in mid June but surrounding streets are quiet and empty. Photo: Ni Dandan/GT

The life of 58-year-old Chen Meidi was substantially changed in 2009. That year the municipal government announced that the Disney Resort would be located in the Chuansha region in Pudong New Area, exactly where her countryside home was.

Suddenly her hometown, Qigan village, became a very busy place and the woman and her fellow villagers were surrounded by reporters and cameramen. More than six years have passed and the old village has disappeared. Now there are castles on the old village skyline. But despite the roar and buzz of excavating and building throughout the vast construction site here, Chen's life has almost returned to the quiet tranquility she used to enjoy.

Although she had to move out of her home she didn't have to move far from where she and her family had lived for generations. She now lives not that far away from her old home in a house facing the Disney Resort across a major road.

A few days ago she learned that the huge park would be opened on June 16 - the opening had been postponed a couple of times before. When this, the sixth Disneyland in the world, opens, thousands of visitors are expected to crowd here for the opening day.

Workers lay bricks for a sidewalk in the Disney Park. Photo: Ni Dandan/GT

Joy and disappointment

For Chen, however, there will be joy and disappointment. While her hometown will become an international attraction, she is now a farmer without farmland and will have to get used to leading an urban life.

Next year, Chen will pick up the keys to a new two-bedroom apartment in Chuansha town, a compensation deal that the local government offered to the more than 5,000 rural families who had to move out to make way for the Disney project.

"It will be a bit hard to adapt to a new life in a very limited space. More importantly, we won't be able to support ourselves by growing our own food," she told the Global Times.

It was a windy afternoon when the Global Times arrived at the Disney Resort site last week. Despite the noise of the planes taking off and landing at neighboring Pudong International Airport, it was an extremely quiet area. It's hard to imagine that in just a few months the broad but empty streets here will be packed with visitors and vehicles.

From a distance, the outline of the park has become quite obvious. A few construction workers were laying bricks on a sidewalk. According to one of the workers, Mr Zhang, this will become the main shopping area for the park.

He didn't seem that excited about the big opening but grumbled that he and his workmates would have to work day and night and throughout the Spring Festival period to ensure that everything would be ready.

"The upcoming cold spell will make it even more difficult to do the work," Zhang said. And just a few days later, Shanghai did see the mercury drop to -7.2 C, the coldest winter day recorded for 36 years.

It has taken workers almost five years to get the park to the state it is in today. As well as the Disney Resort at the northeastern corner of the park there will be an ecological garden designed as a support project for the resort and that is already taking shape. On the southeastern edge of the resort is a shopping mall that is still under construction.

On a bridge in between the ecological garden and the Disney Resort, an old lady, hopped off her moped and strolled around, enjoying the sunset. Grandma Miao, 78, said it had almost become part of her daily routine to come here and see how things were progressing.

"I'm proud because this is my hometown," she told the Global Times with a distinct local accent. Miao was among the first group of villagers who moved to their new apartments in Chuansha town in 2012. Having been a farmer all her life, the woman said she was satisfied that the upheaval the project had caused had at least rewarded her with a life pension.

"Given my age, I can only grow vegetables to support my family. I can't make a living farming any more. But after we were relocated in 2011, the government gave us a pension - 1,600 yuan ($243) a month. That was a nice gesture for most of us, who couldn't have earned that much on our farms."

Miao has a big family and they were spread over five apartments for the relocation. But although she now lives in a modern apartment and modern township, she still misses the old village. If it's not raining she rides her moped down here to the construction site most days. "It's quite close, just a 20-minute ride here. Sometimes I came with some of my old neighbors," she said. "We never dreamed that out little village would become such an important place one day. I'm really looking forward to the opening."

A digital map at the Pentagonal Mart tells how close it is to the Disney Park. Photo: Ni Dandan/GT

Changing lifestyles

It will soon become a place of glamour and show business magic but just facing the park across a road there's another old village, Xueqiao village. It's hard to tell how the grand Disney project has changed lifestyles here.

Villagers hang washing out to dry, chat to neighbors. Dogs sleep in the sun on the narrow streets. The fish ponds are now filled with bricks and debris. Signs advertising properties for rent are stuck on walls.

How does this village, the closest to the Disney Resort, apparently almost ignore the big event and the opportunities next door?

Chen Meidi told the Global Times that the locals here believe they too would be relocated in a couple of years when the resort expanded "The people here will certainly be talking about opening hostels here. Everyone knows the park itself can't provide enough accommodation for all the visitors."

But 3 kilometers away locals in Chenqiao village are already seeing their lives being changed. Most of the younger people here had already left their homes to go to work or study in the city and there were many empty homes. The Disney project has given many a chance to get into the hospitality business.

According to Chuansha town authorities, more than 1,500 rural households here have signed rental contracts for homestays for tourists. It is estimated that around 3,000 rooms will be set aside to accommodate 5,000 tourists daily.

One of the villagers, Chen Lijuan, explained that when her son enrolled at a Jiangsu college in 2013, she found herself living in her two-story house with her husband but with two empty rooms. She didn't expect that one day she could pocket extra money from her property.

"The government has offered us 3,000 yuan a month for each room that they rent from us. They will be in charge of the renovation of the rooms to make them fit for homestay visitors. But later we will also be trained to manage this business," she told the Global Times. She is very happy because the 6,000 yuan she will be making every month from the rent is more than she earns at the factory where she works.

It is estimated that in the first year of the Disney Park's operations in Shanghai, it will welcome around 15 million visitors. After that the visitor flow will probably be between 25 million and 30 million a year. However, the two hotels inside the park and other star-rated hotels or even hostels within 5 kilometers of the park can only offer 12,000 rooms.

For many near the park life goes on as normal. Photo: Ni Dandan/GT

Rates set to double

That's one reason the Chuansha town authorities are developing the homestay business. It has been reported that there are plans to renovate now empty farmland buildings to five-star hotel standards but four-star hotel room prices will be set. At present, four-star hotels around the Disney Resort charge around 600 yuan a night but insiders say the rates will double after the park opens. For the two hotels inside the park, it is expected that rooms will cost more than 2,000 yuan a night.

While properties in the rural areas around the Disney Park have become popular, the Disney project has also stimulated property prices in the township of Chuansha. According to a Centaline Group office in the area, residential apartments in Chuansha fetched an average 11,153 yuan per square meter when it was announced in 2009 that Disney was coming to town. By 2015, the cost per square meter was 29,264 yuan.

Xi Chunhua, a Chuansha resident, thinks the property price rise could be the most obvious change for the area. "We are excited that the Disney project has improved the overall infrastructure for of this area. We will benefit directly from these renovations. And the fact that the resort and other tourist sites will be close to our home is also exciting," she told the Global Times.

"But for sure, the property prices have gone beyond reason. For some of the locals, who want to improve their lives, moving from an old small apartment to a bigger one becomes much more expensive or impossible," Xi added.

Xi lives and works in Chuansha as a primary school teacher. But for Liu Ting, another Chuansha local who commutes on Line 2 every day to work in Jing'an district, the Disney Resort traffic is a concern.

"I'd love to know how the metro system is planning to handle thousands more people heading this way every day. This extended section of Line 2 is already very crowded no matter if it's peak hours or not," she told the Global Times.

One of the empty and bare spaces inside the Pentagonal Mart Photo: Ni Dandan/GT

Milking benefits

Even 10 kilometers or more away from the Disney Resort, some businesses are trying to milk some benefits from the project. A pentagon-shaped building came into the spotlight earlier last week. The gigantic 500,000-square-meter structure that was completed in 2009 has been left empty for six years. But as the opening date of Disney Park approaches, the management company could have found a golden opportunity to revive its massive 30 billion yuan investment.

Officially known as the Pentagonal Mart, the venue sits two bus stops away from the closest metro station in Huinan town on Line 16. On the map, this mart is 17 kilometers from Disney Park.

When the Global Times visited last week, there was no sign of life. Inside any of the vast spaces there were no signs for any businesses and the entire site was undecorated.

However the Global Times eventually found a supermarket selling exclusively imported goods - the only business that has opened in this vast edifice. Very few customers were seen inside.

At the property sales center consultant Li Xiaokang said this could be a great investment opportunity if someone wanted to benefit from the Disney project.

According to Li, the inner section of the pentagon complex will be turned into hotels to accommodate Disney visitors. "We have signed contracts with the Disney project that we will handle the visitors who want to stay for a night but cannot get accommodation in the park."

Another colleague of his said that 1,500 hotel rooms would be built to four- and five-star hotel standards but room rates would range from under 300 yuan to about 1,000 yuan.

With government support and contracts signed with some major partners like the United Nations Shanghai Procurement and Logistics Center, the mart is now aiming high .

Newspaper headline: How Mickey Mouse makes money