Jounrey to the mysterious and beautiful lands of the far east
In 2019, Disney, for whatever reason, decided to demolish Adventureland at Disneyland to make way for a new land. The imagineers settled on Imperial China as the theme and visited many places for inspiration. While most were in China, one place, recommended by a imagineer, was very far away from Beijing in a German town called Brühl. It was an amusement park called Phantasialand and it had an amazing China themed area called China Town. Due to the kindness of the imagineers and their fascination with the land, Phantasialand agreed to help out, lending ride soundtracks from their Geister Rikscha dark ride and their Feng Ju Palace madhouse. They also lent plans for Feng Ju Palace and Geister Rikscha to the imagineers. The imagineers did their own takes on the China Town rides but added three new attractions, a dark ride, a water ride, and an animatronic show. Geister Rikscha’s focus on Chinese myths and the Chinese afterlife, along with the music, were brought over as a dark ride based on the Terracotta Army and Feng Ju Palace became Wu Xing Palace, based on the Chinese elements. Disney, however, wouldn’t be copying China Town for most of the buildings, instead basing them in real places in China. The one building that was directly copied from Phantasialand was Feng Ju Palace’s facade, which became Wu Xing Palace’s. The Middle Kingdom opened on August 6, 2023 to a flood of positive reviews from the media.