Universal Beijing Resort starts formal operation

BEIJING - The Universal Beijing Resort, currently the largest in scale worldwide, opened to the public on Monday, which coincided with this year's Mid-Autumn Festival holiday from Sept 19 to 21.

"I'm so excited to see Optimus Prime. It brought back my childhood," said Wu Siyuan, one of the first batch of tourists on the opening day.

The resort, covering 4 square km, includes the highly anticipated Universal Studios Beijing theme park, the Universal CityWalk, and two hotels. It promises to give tourists an immersive visiting experience, with seven themed lands covering 37 recreational facilities and landmark attractions, as well as 24 entertainment shows.

Located in Beijing's Tongzhou district, where the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center is seated, the resort is the fifth Universal Studios theme park globally, the third in Asia, and the first in China.

As a major foreign-investment project in the service industry in Beijing, the resort shows China's further progress in broadening the opening-up of the services sector. It is expected to boost the establishment of Beijing as an international consumption hub and strengthen the confidence of China's culture and tourism industry amid the COVID-19 epidemic.