SHANGHAI — The Shanghai Disneyland theme park reopened to visitors with controlled capacity on May 11, after the COVID-19 epidemic in China became more subdued.

This is the first Disneyland theme park in the world that has reopened since the outbreak of the COVID-19.

The Shanghai Disney Resort announced its temporary closure in late January in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. It reopened the Disneytown, Wishing Star Park and Shanghai Disneyland Hotel in early March.

Reopening with vitality and confidence

Despite epidemic containment measures such as temperature and health QR code checks, tourists were thrilled to be back after the park's closure of more than three months.

"We are eager to visit Shanghai Disneyland and we will ensure good personal protection according to the park's requirements," said Chen Maoyang, waiting in line early on the morning of May 11 to enter the park with her 6-year-old daughter.

As the youngest Disney park, the quickly expanding Shanghai Disneyland showed its popularity among tourists with this reopening, as tickets for May 11 sold out within a day of becoming available.

Joe Schott, president and general manager of Shanghai Disney Resort, showed great confidence in the resilience of Disney business.

"We are extraordinarily confident in our business and the fact that our guests have deep-seated emotions for our product, and we are very fortunate to have fans that are very fond of the product and talk about it routinely," Schott said.

He said the Shanghai Disney team was encouraged by positive feedback from tourists, who sent messages such as "my happiness comes back" and "I can't wait to travel to Shanghai Disneyland" to social media accounts of the resort, after it announced its reopening.

Shanghai Disney Resort made full use of the past three months to train employees, support them emotionally and professionally and get them fully prepared for the theme park's reopening, according to the resort.

It laid out a carefully controlled operational plan to maintain health and safety, taking a slew of containment measures including capacity controls, advanced reservations and temperature screenings. Some indoor attractions are closed during the initial advanced reservation phase.

Following the epidemic, people need to restore joy and happiness in their lives and that is where Disney's strength is, Schott said.

According to the operator of the resort, the highly anticipated "Zootopia"-themed land, the park's eighth themed land and the first-ever "Zootopia"-themed land around the world, was under construction.

"We're really excited about the progress that we have on 'Zootopia' in the last few months," Schott said.