Shanghai Disneyland has been closed since March 21 due to the continuing lockdown in Shanghai, which is now entering its eighth week. Now, photos have surfaced on Twitter depicting the state of the park’s landscaping and character topiaries as crews have been unable to perform upkeep around Shanghai Disneyland.
These images come courtesy of Twitter user @rcdclub, who shared them publicly.
The somewhat shocking and almost apocalyptic photos show the state of two character topiary sets in the Gardens of Imagination. The first shows Donald and Daisy, whose forms are much less defined than they were two months ago. Around the topiaries, the flowers which used to accent the pair are now gone and almost entirely overgrown with weeds and grass peeking in.
This is how the topiaries appeared when the parks were still open earlier this year. As you can see, the tulips which used to flank the pair behind are now entirely gone.
The same fate seems to have met Chip and Dale, who are both even more overgrown with weeds and even small bushes where baby trees used to be. Weeds and grass are now where flowers used to be.
Seeing these really goes to show how much work Disney’s landscaping teams puts in to keep things guest-ready 365 days per year. Without the proper maintenance, these planters are quickly overtaken by nature.
Shanghai’s lockdown is currently set to begin relaxing in early June with the goal of being fully reopened by the end of June, per the South China Morning Post. The country is famously holding onto and doubling down on its “dynamic zero-COVID” strategy to prevent any and all transmission of the coronavirus through extensive and constant testing as well as aggressive lockdowns. China remains in stark contrast to the rest of the world, which is largely adopting a “living with the virus” approach.
No reopening date is in sight at present for the newest park in the Disney family. Shanghai Disney Resort is the only to remain closed at present.
For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Disney never should have agreed to do business in a Communist country. This was inevitable. I’m not sure Disney will ever break even on the billions it spent building that park.
Every Disney park is a long game, they don’t build these for an immediate turnaround. That said, do a little research and you’ll find that the majority of the investment in Shanghai Disneyland was made by Chinese companies and not Disney. The management company that operates Shanghai Disneyland is majority owned by Disney and paid by the Chinese companies, so Disney made out pretty well in the deal.
Spot on. Seeing these images really goes to show how much damage the CCP has on business and life in general. The damage to Disney and the Chinese people is irreversible.
How stupid for Disney to open 2 failed parks when they could have opened 1 amazing one in India. I hope the whole Disney company fails
Seems like if the person that took the pictures can be out and about in the park that they could let a couple of landscapers come in a clean things up a bit. That’s a job where they could wear masks and easily stay very distanced from each other.