Following the successful opening of Puy du Fou España in Toledo, Puy du Fou is speeding up its international expansion in China and has created a brand new artistic concept for an immersive show, due to open in the centre of Shanghai in 2022.
While stepping up its research into the creation of a new Puy du Fou park in China, Puy du Fou is also launching an innovative show concept: Saga. Saga Shanghai has been designed specifically to be set up in the world’s major city centres. Unlike the rural Puy du Fou parks which accompany their visitors on a two or three day journey through time, Saga promises a two hour total escape, more suited to the pace of city life.
Inspired by Chinese history and legends, this ultra-immersive creation by the Puy du Fou artistic team will take visitors back to Shanghai in the 1930’s. Uniquely, visitors seal their own dramatic destiny as they progress through the experience and select their own adventures. Spectacular backdrops represent different locations and periods, allowing the story to evolve and offering visitors a total of over 26 possible adventures.
For this project, the Everbright Convention & Exhibition Centre near the Xujiahui district, will be completely transformed into the world’s largest immersive experience, covering more than 40,000 m2 with its show, themed restaurant and bars.
For this ambitious project, Puy du Fou has joined forces with two major Chinese partners: CYTS (the tourism subsidiary of the Everbright Group) and Shanghai Xuhui Urban Renewal Investment Development Group (the investment company of the Xuhui district in the city of Shanghai). The signing of this agreement between these two partners and Puy du Fou has made the creation of Saga Shanghai possible, with a total investment of €76 M, or nearly 600,000,000 RMB.
Geoffroy Ladet and Anne Zhao, respectively CEO and vice president of Puy du Fou Asia; Qiu Wen He, VP and general manager of the CYTS Company, a subsidiary of the Everbright group, and Mr Zhou, director of Chengxin, an investment company for the Xuhui district in the city of Shanghai, met on Wednesday 19 May in Shanghai to finalise the ambitious project. The official signing took place at the French Consulate, in the presence of the French Ambassador to China, Laurent Bill, and the French Consul in Shanghai, Benoît Guidé.
Nicolas de Villiers, President of Puy du Fou, who was unable to be there in person due to the current health restrictions, declared enthusiastically: “We are proud that our new ‘SAGA’ concept is coming to Shanghai, China as a world first, thanks to our Chinese partners. This is our first creation in this country, which calls for other projects on which we are actively working with our French and Chinese teams. This new ultra-immersive concept in the heart of the city illustrates our ambition: to innovate and offer new thrills to the world. Our plans are for Saga to go global and discussions are already under way with several big cities worldwide.”