This is something that's been eating away at me for several months now. I'll give you the low-down on my situation:
I'm from the UK and in January of this year I moved to Shanghai to teach English. By fate, I have ended up in the city where they are building the next Shanghai Disneyland. And the fact that I am here and every day they are building more and more of it and it's coming together at greater and greater speed is so exciting and yet at the same time very frustrating. I don't just want to be there on opening day to experience the final product, I want to be there now.
I have watched every Disneyland/Disney World construction video and am fascinated by how the parks come together from ground-breaking to opening day. I am chomping at the bit to see it all as it is right now, and to spend time in the place before it becomes overrun by tourists (Hong Kong Disneyland has gloriously low crowds for most of the year, but I cannot hope for the same for Mainland China's park).
I am a writer - I received a Bachelor's and Master's degree in English Literature, and like to exercise my skills by writing everyday. I am learning Chinese, though am still at a basic level, I know nothing of engineering, horticulture, management, consultancy, business, marketing, recruitment and all the other roles that Disney regularly seeks to employ. But I can write, and I can write about Disney. I wrote my Master's dissertation on William Shakespeare, I have every book, CD, DVD, calendar and even a signed photo of Michael Jackson, yet it is Disney that I know more about than anything in the world. Writing and Disney are my two skills, if you can call them that, and being in Shanghai, those three things must be able to serve some joint purpose?
I messaged the Disney Parks blog before I left home and recieved a generic response that if I want to become a Disney Parks blog writer I should start my own blog and start practing writing. I am not necessarily touting for a job on the Disney Parks blog team (although any offers would be quickly accepted without hesitation!) but that was the obvious starting point. Once the park opens, I will contact unofficial Disney sites to offer my journalistic services, if they'll be needed, but for now I do not think any of them are in the position to get me into the construction site. I've been browsing Linkedin and contacting a few imagineers but with no response - why should they respond? They probably have no authority over these things!
So I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas how I can get involved, who to contact and how to possibly get inside without jumping the construction walls and getting arrested by security?? I WILL DO ANYTHING.
I'm from the UK and in January of this year I moved to Shanghai to teach English. By fate, I have ended up in the city where they are building the next Shanghai Disneyland. And the fact that I am here and every day they are building more and more of it and it's coming together at greater and greater speed is so exciting and yet at the same time very frustrating. I don't just want to be there on opening day to experience the final product, I want to be there now.
I have watched every Disneyland/Disney World construction video and am fascinated by how the parks come together from ground-breaking to opening day. I am chomping at the bit to see it all as it is right now, and to spend time in the place before it becomes overrun by tourists (Hong Kong Disneyland has gloriously low crowds for most of the year, but I cannot hope for the same for Mainland China's park).
I am a writer - I received a Bachelor's and Master's degree in English Literature, and like to exercise my skills by writing everyday. I am learning Chinese, though am still at a basic level, I know nothing of engineering, horticulture, management, consultancy, business, marketing, recruitment and all the other roles that Disney regularly seeks to employ. But I can write, and I can write about Disney. I wrote my Master's dissertation on William Shakespeare, I have every book, CD, DVD, calendar and even a signed photo of Michael Jackson, yet it is Disney that I know more about than anything in the world. Writing and Disney are my two skills, if you can call them that, and being in Shanghai, those three things must be able to serve some joint purpose?
I messaged the Disney Parks blog before I left home and recieved a generic response that if I want to become a Disney Parks blog writer I should start my own blog and start practing writing. I am not necessarily touting for a job on the Disney Parks blog team (although any offers would be quickly accepted without hesitation!) but that was the obvious starting point. Once the park opens, I will contact unofficial Disney sites to offer my journalistic services, if they'll be needed, but for now I do not think any of them are in the position to get me into the construction site. I've been browsing Linkedin and contacting a few imagineers but with no response - why should they respond? They probably have no authority over these things!
So I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas how I can get involved, who to contact and how to possibly get inside without jumping the construction walls and getting arrested by security?? I WILL DO ANYTHING.
