Beijing chocolate theme park set to open

BEIJING, January 19, 2010 (AFP) - Tourists in Beijing are already enjoying the snowy winter wonderland inside the city's Bird's Nest stadium, but next week they will be able to enjoy another kind of wonderland -- one made of chocolate.

Workers were putting the final touches on a chocolate theme park on the Olympic Green near the stadium, featuring life-size replicas of the Terracotta Warriors and a section of the Great Wall, ahead of its January 29th opening.

"Even though chocolate in China is not as popular as it is in Western countries, we hope to promote the chocolate culture and market in China," Zheng Yaoting, general manager of the firm running the park, told the Global Times.

The 20,000-square-metre (215,000 square-foot) "chocolate wonderland" will feature five temperature-controlled indoor areas and two outdoor sites where chocolate items will be on display, the newspaper reported Tuesday.

Children will also be able to learn how to make chocolate and taste their creations with their parents, organisers said.

Previous reports said major sweets makers from Europe would participate in the project, hoping to break into a potentially lucrative market, but no names were revealed.

Organisers say they hope to attract one million visitors to the park before it closes in April, when the weather will begin to get too warm. It will reopen next January, with all-new displays.