People throng the plaza near the entrance to Universal Studios Beijing on Sept. 4, 2021. - AP
BEIJING (Bloomberg): As President Xi Jinping’s government looks to tame China’s celebrities, the popularity of a new Universal Studios theme park in Beijing shows Hollywood’s enduring soft power among the nation’s 1.4 billion people.
Tickets for the grand opening on Monday (Sept 20), priced at 638 yuan (US$99), sold out within 30 minutes of going online last week -- as did rooms costing as much as 20,000 yuan at the resort’s two hotels, according to state-run media.
