Shanghai Disneyland Castle Vanishes in Smog

By Josh Young | Published: January 5, 2017

Does anyone else remember a special that aired on NBC called “Disney’s Magic in the Magic Kingdom,” which debuted in 1988? It was hosted by George Burns and Harry Anderson and featured magicians like The Pendragons and Lance Burton.

The finale featured the biggest names in magic at the time, Siegfried and Roy.

Their illusion promised to make Sleeping Beauty Castle vanish and indeed after a flurry of smoke….

…. Sleeping Beauty Castle had vanished!

Who would have thought that nearly 30 years later, Storybook Castle in Shanghai Disneyland would also appear to vanish under entirely different circumstances?

The photo above was taken on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017 on Mickey Avenue facing Storybook Castle. Shanghai’s air quality was so bad that day it made visibility extremely limited that day creating somewhat apocalyptic views of Shanghai Disneyland.

To put this into perspective, the smog that day was around 225 on the air quality index. That scale ranges from 0 to 500. Let that sink in for a moment. This is not as bad as it will get. Keep in mind, for those of you reading this in the West, Chinese residents are used to their air quality being poor. This is nothing new for them. Seeing it in a Disney park puts things into perspective a bit. Your thoughts?

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Images Copyright: WeChat