The new Castle of Magical Dreams at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.
Credit: © Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

What if you could combine all your favorite characters and cultures featured in Disney films into one amazing attraction? Hong Kong Disneyland has done just that.

This year, the new-and-improved Castle of Magical Dreams was revealed at Hong Kong Disneyland. Built atop the park’s existing Sleeping Beauty Castle, the Castle of Magical Dreams incorporates a variety of female characters and their storylines into one diversity-celebrating architectural feat.

The Castle of Magical Dreams has more than a dozen towers, each representing a female character from a Disney film. Each character has her own tower, complete with elements from her story. Tiana from The Princess and the Frog (2009), for example, is represented by a tower with a water-lily motif. The tower representing Mulan (1998) features a cherry blossom pattern. At the top of each tower also sits a finial (ornament) chosen to represent each character. For example, Belle’s tower, from Beauty and the Beast (1991), is adorned with an enchanted rose. Together, the unique towers celebrate the diversity of Disney’s female characters.

The designers did not forget about the characters’ beloved sidekicks. Inside the castle, visitors will find 13 columns topped with such friends as Pua and HeiHei, from Moana (2016), and Merida’s triplet brothers from Brave (2012).

Many of the female characters in Disney films must overcome obstacles. Disneyland’s engineers had to tackle obstacles of their own. The Castle of Magical Dreams is made up of 15 massive parts. Each portion was built and painted off-site. The parts were then shipped to Hong Kong Disneyland and put together using a crane.

Because of the ongoing pandemic (global outbreak) of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, many people cannot travel. So, while you wait to visit Hong Kong Disneyland’s Castle of Magical Dreams, try drawing a castle of your own! You can take your favorite parts from movies—Disney or otherwise—to create a unique structure. Who knows, one day you may design a creation for a Disney park.

September 25, 2019

Since June 2019, massive protests have taken place in Hong Kong, a special administrative unit of China. The city and region of Hong Kong—located on a peninsula and group of islands—enjoy a high degree of autonomy (self-rule). Hong Kong maintains a free-enterprise economy within China’s Communist economic system. The “one country, two systems” relationship is not always a happy one, however, and the people of Hong Kong often resent being subjected to mainland China’s different rules.

Protesters face off with police in Hong Kong on June 12, 2019. Credit: © Dale De La Rey, Getty Images

In June 2019, the largest protests in Hong Kong’s history were triggered by a proposed bill that would have allowed people Hong Kong accused of crimes in to be extradited (handed over) to stand trial in mainland Chinese courts. (Hong Kong also has a separate legal system from the rest of China.) More than a million people participated in the protests. The protesters believed the extradition bill endangered their rights. Hong Kong police clashed with the protesters, who also called for democratic reforms, and many people were arrested or injured. Protesters then added investigations into police brutality to their demands.

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Hong Kong region.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

On June 15, the Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (Hong Kong’s governor) suspended the proposed extradition bill, but massive protests continued the next day as more than 2 million people took to the streets. (Hong Kong’s entire population is 7.4 million.) The unrest continued into July as protesters stormed the Hong Kong parliament, ransacking offices and clashing with police. In reaction, pro-Communist government gangs attacked some pro-democracy protesters. Many people were hurt in the confrontations, and hundreds of people were arrested.

The Hong Kong metropolitan area lies on both sides of Victoria Harbour. It includes the northern coast of Hong Kong Island, foreground, and the southern tip of the Kowloon Peninsula, background. Credit: © Leung Chopan, Shutterstock

Amid rising tensions in August, protesters began crowding into police stations as well as into busy Hong Kong International Airport, which was forced to close for several days. Fears of Chinese military intervention—with flashes back to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989—rose as the army paraded in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong. Those fears went unrealized, however, and although standoffs between protesters and police continued, violent episodes were relatively rare considering the massive numbers of people involved.

In early September, Chief Executive Lam formally withdrew the extradition bill that ignited the protests. But unrest lingers as the people of Hong Kong continue to push for greater democratic freedoms, universal suffrage (the right to vote), and solutions to housing and land shortages in the densely populated metropolis.

The United Kingdom controlled Hong Kong from 1842 until 1997, when it returned to Chinese control. The “one country, two systems” relationship was created to safeguard the democratic freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kong citizens under British rule. The Chinese government has eroded some of these freedoms, however, and pro-democracy protests have occurred—with much less intensity—in Hong Kong for the last several years.

October 1, 2014

Student protesters in Hong Kong vowed today to continue their massive pro-democracy demonstrations until Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung resigns. They accuse Leung of being a puppet of the central Chinese government in Beijing. Demonstrators have clogged the streets of the city’s central business district for days, demanding that Beijing stop vetting candidates for Hong Kong’s next chief executive. Last weekend, Hong Kong police, under Leung’s direction, used batons and fire volleys of tear gas in an attempt to disperse the huge crowds.

In September, the Chinese government announced that although it would allow the people of Hong Kong to elect their next leader, the candidates would be restricted to those approved by a committee consisting of people appointed by the government. The last British governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, has accused the Chinese government of breaching commitments it made before taking over sovereignty from the United Kingdom in 1997: “They said these matters [the election of leaders] were within the autonomy of the Hong Kong government, and they are now reneging on that.”

Highly prosperous Hong Kong is one of the world’s greatest seaports. (© Gareth Brown, Corbis)

Under the 1997 agreement, Hong Kong was to be governed under a “one country, two systems” arrangement that gave it some autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland. However the central government in Beijing has over time tightened its control over the special administrative region. Today, the president of China, Xi Jinping, stated that he would “steadfastly safeguard” Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability: “We must never waver in our faith and must never separate ourselves from the people.” China experts interpret Xi’s comments as meaning “we have no intention of giving in to the demonstrators.”

Additional World Book articles:

• China 1997 (a Back in Time article)
• Hong Kong 1997: Capitalism Comes to China (a special report)