Thanks. I would have thought that this was already in this thread but to my surprise it was not.
Concerning your comment regarding the eight hour work day, I was assuming that the reporter meant that people were to be limited to 8 hour shifts, with three shifts throughout each day, as opposed to having them work longer hours with only 2 shifts per day.
Regarding the number of visitors, I agree with you that there is no way they get only 7 million visitors in year one. The corporate culture for the parks right now is maximizing the number of guests in each park to drive up revenue. I don't see that being any different in Shanghai. Quite the opposite, as I would expect the most highly populated country in the world to achieve some of the highest number of visitors in any Disney park worldwide.
I don't know how much larger the Shanghai park is compared to WDW's MK, but considering Disney stuffed what, about 18 million people last year into the MK in Orlando, that Shanghai would be able to exceed that number IF they wanted to. The only way that they would hold the number back closer to 12 million or less, would be if it were being done strategically. And this is when I start to analyze this in terms of the Disney BRAND. If TWDC doesn't want the image of their BRAND tarnished immediately by overcrowding their new shiny toy they built in China, maybe the crowd levels could be held back at first so that the guest experience was more enjoyable. I always have this vision that major cities in China are incredibly crowded and that if the crowd levels in Shanghai Disneyland were controlled (at first), this could help create the illusion that the park allows for a less stressful, less overcrowded experience - something that I would think the Chinese people would appreciate.
Now obviously, in time the number of park visitors would increase to crank up the revenue. After all, you have to pay for the 5.5 billion you spent to build it. So initially, they might control the number of people allowed in on a daily basis. But overall, I agree more with the point you made. To me, If Iger wants this to be a big part of legacy to the company (aside from the other BRANDS he acquired), then it wouldn't surprise me at all of this park gets stuffed to the gills with visitors.
Time will tell. In the meantime, I intend to keep one eye open for anything else that interests me concerning this subject.