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Pastimes : Things That Annoy Me -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carole Olkowski who wrote (3204)	8/3/1999 4:44:00 PM
From: Wigglesworth	Respond to of 4023

Tough customers!!! By SETH FAISON of the NYT IADING, China -- On a recent afternoon, only a few customers could be found wandering around the American Dream, a sprawling theme park on the outskirts of Shanghai. Most of the rides were closed. The paint was peeling on the pillars supporting a worn-looking "Palladium" theater. Two attendants slept on the counter of a ticket booth. The hot-dog concession was open, but out of food. The day's take at the gate: 12 people. Pretty paltry for a park that cost $50 million to build a few years back, when bright forecasts predicted 30,000 visitors a day. Like countless other virtually empty theme parks in China, the American Dream symbolizes the disastrous miscalculations made by both Chinese and foreign investors who were persuaded by Chinese officials that a huge, child-loving populace would fuel a lively theme-park business. Instead, projects have been swamped by excessive competition, poor market projections, high costs and relentless interference from local officials. The dismal outcome highlights a glaring fallacy in the rationale of innumerable foreign investors who come to China, misty-eyed about the potential demand in China's enormous market but blind to all the competing supply. "If we can just sell one item to every Chinese ..." has been a mantra of naive Western business executives for over 100 years.