Yes! Chinese billionaire Huang Qiaoling’s company Songcheng has been given permission to develop an $600 to $800 million theme park on the Gold Coast. The developer already operates 30 theme parks in China but this ‘Australian Legends World’ will be its first international venture.

Parks developed in China are known to be technologically advanced, which leads to think the Aussie version will be ‘an incredibly sophisticated theme park’ as expected by Malcolm Burt from Queensland University of Technology.
The park will be close to the city, about 10Km from Gold Coast’s CBD in Nerang. The plan includes an animal exhibits, an adventure park, an indoor ski field and a 3500-seat theatre. It also integrates resorts and homes, with multiple towers up to 25 storeys to be constructed, as well as bars, restaurants and a wedding centre.
Andrew Bell, the CEO of Ray White Surfers Paradise, said “This is really significant, it’s one of the biggest deals that’s been done for some time”.

Songcheng Australian managing director said, “we are offering a totally different product to what else is out there, there is nothing like this here”.

The construction could begin mid-2018 and is to be completed by 2020. This will create thousands of local jobs for the Gold Coast community, and operators are expecting 12 million visitors annually.

Visitors who thought they already visited all theme parks on the Coast will have to come back for this one, which will be a mix of Chinese and Australian culture.

Australian Legends World will be a direct competitor of the already established theme parks Dreamworld, Sea World, Movie Worls and Wet’n’Wild, but the Mayor Mr Tate thinks “More competition means that they have to update their parks to keep up with it. Back in the day, we were the number one choice for theme parks, and we’ve got to keep doing that to stay up the top”.
“The way we look at it on the Gold Coast, we like to broaden our economy and we want to broaden our tourism economy”.

No doubt the Gold Coast Economy has great days ahead!

Sources:
https://www.northernstar.com.au/news/australian-legends-world-theme-park-also-house-250/3194888/
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/chinese-developer-to-bring-dollar800m-aussie-legends-world-to-the-gold-coast/ar-AAoxmcH
http://www.973fm.com.au/newsroom/a-600-million-theme-park-resort-is-coming-to-the-gold-coast
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/the-australian-legendary-kingdom-theme-park-could-open-on-the-gold-coast/news-story/26b10b45f723c7921b5412449409f7f4