Believe it: Ripley's is returning to China

Twelve million people visit Ripley's attractions every year.
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Nearly a century after Robert Ripley first visited and fell in love with things Chinese, the company that inherited his "Believe It or Not" legacy is headed back for business.
Ripley's Entertainment Inc. is among many international amusement park and attractions companies that are searching for opportunities to profit from the increasing ability and willingness of the 1.3 billion Chinese to spend for entertainment and travel.
"We have had a strong interest in China for a long time," said Bob Masterson, president of Ripley Entertainment, in Shanghai to attend a regional industry show.
The company hopes to more than replicate its successful "Believe It or Not" attraction that prospered for years atop Hong Kong's Victoria Peak before it was forced to close down because of renovations.
Chinese love weird
The Hong Kong experience taught Orlando, Fla.-based Ripley's that China has a healthy appetite for the oddities that are its main business, he said.
No arts and crafts stuff -- the Chinese want weird.
"The stranger the better," he said. "They really want something that's strange and bizarre."
That might include a model of the Chinese man Ripley's says had a hole bored in his skull to carry a candle in. Or a stuffed elephant head with two trunks. Or even a solid jade rickshaw he brought back from China during his travels in the 1920s and 30s.
Masterson said that the company, owned by Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison, has been researching the Chinese market for years and hopes to have an attraction open in China by this time next year.
The southwestern city of Kunming and northeastern cities of Tianjin, near Beijing, are likely candidates, he said.
"We want the domestic tourists," he said. "We see the biggest revenues not in Shanghai or Beijing but in places like Kunming. If they have domestic tourists, we're interested."
How this came about
Masterson says his experience waiting 45 minutes in a line at Kunming's Wal-Mart store convinced him of the city's potential for attractions.
"It was roast chicken," he said. "And I guarantee you everybody in that line cooked chicken better than they [Wal-Mart] did. But people were prepared to pay a premium for not doing something."
Masterson said the company may open attractions in the gambling enclave of Macau, now in the midst of an economic revival powered by foreign casino operators such as the Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage.
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