A Small City in Central China: How Did It Become the Nation’s Top County for Theme Parks?

Have you ever been moved to tears by a story you didn’t know, suddenly reminded of the fields of your hometown or the silhouettes of your ancestors? Zhongmu County’s “Only Henan ・ Drama Fantasy City” has that kind of magic. Without international IPs or flashy special effects, it relies on just 21 theaters and over 600 minutes of storytelling to bring countless Chinese visitors from all corners of the country to tears. In the famine story of Li Family Village, some see the resilience of grandparents facing extreme hardships; in the wheat-field theater, others recall hometowns they can never return to.This county tucked beside Zhengzhou, in 2024, attracted about 36 million visitors across its eight theme parks, earning the title of “China’s Number-One County for Theme Parks” and confirming its reputation as the “Orlando of the county level.” Unlike standardized operations of international IPs and theme parks in the Yangtze River Delta, the “Eastern Disneys” represented by Zhongmu are rewriting the rules of cultural tourism with wilder, more precise, and cost-effective immersive experiences.The Theme Park Dream in a Small County: Development Wisdom Despite Resource Gaps.When it comes to theme park economics, Orlando in the United States is unavoidable. Originally a small town in central Florida focused on citrus farming, its fate changed in the 1970s when Disney World and Universal Studios opened.

Special tax zone policies further accelerated its transformation, turning a once-unknown town into a global theme park capital. Today, Orlando boasts over ten large-scale theme parks and water parks, welcoming more than 70 million visitors annually—a quintessential “City of Parks.”Although both started small, Zhongmu’s foundation is far thinner. In 2023, the per capita disposable income of Zhongmu’s urban residents was only about 32,000 yuan, below the national average. From the outset, the county focused on quality-demand groups. Along Zhengkai Avenue, its eight theme parks form a precisely segmented ecosystem: Fantawild, one of the first to settle, attracts families and young adults aged 18–35 with night-themed events and thrilling rides, incorporating Henan elements like “Flying over the Yellow River.” Dream Kingdom and the water park serve as prime summer destinations for families and young visitors. Only Henan ・ Drama Fantasy City centers on immersive theater, exploring Yellow River civilization and agricultural heritage. Main productions such as Train Station resonate emotionally, attracting numerous out-of-province visitors and becoming a cultural hallmark of Zhongmu tourism.Zhengzhou Haichang Ocean Park fills a gap for large-scale aquariums in central China, featuring four major whale and dolphin species as a unique advantage.

With marine science education, animal interactions, and collaborations with IPs like Ultraman, it creates a parent-child loop of fun, education, and experiential learning, becoming a must-visit for families. Jianye Film Town and Zhengzhou Green Expo Park focus on immersive film scenes and urban leisure experiences, complementing the customer base of other parks.Beyond the eight parks, Shanshan Outlets serves as a hub converting traffic into spending. Through ticket-based consumption deductions, it creates a complete cycle of attracting, retaining, and monetizing visitors, giving rise to 14 “national-first” stores. This compact, high-quality cluster model suits a resource-limited county better than Orlando’s sprawling approach—without large-scale land or high-end consumption, complementary visitor segmentation and spending capture achieve 1+1>2 results.Local Content and Continuous Iteration: The Core of Park Appeal.From Zhongmu to Deqing, Songtsam to Wuzhen, the counties that have recently thrived in cultural tourism share a common trait: content is king. They no longer rely on one-time check-ins at natural landscapes but retain visitors through continual content innovation and emotional engagement.The market is also evolving: visitors are increasingly value-conscious, no longer paying just for IP labels, but for the match between experience and cost. Zhongmu’s model captures both trends.

Cultural revival shows that the most compelling content often emerges locally. International IPs are appealing but costly—Hong Kong Disneyland took 19 years to turn its first profit, and Chengdu Lego Land stalled for nearly a year due to investor withdrawal. Moreover, counties cannot meet the high-end infrastructure requirements of international IPs.Zhongmu’s pivot is strategic: when “project partner requirements cannot match county conditions,” even long-discussed Lego Land deals were abandoned, prioritizing deep local resource development. In summer 2025, Hanshi Xiaodiaogua went viral with its “Melon Wave Fantasy” event, integrating harvest, pet interaction, and melon-field music concerts, becoming a top choice for families. This local resonance spreads widely on social media, continuously bringing in new visitors.Content refresh is key to retention and repeat visits. Zhongmu’s cluster effect allows visitors to experience multiple parks in one trip, reducing commuting costs. Based on this advantage, Only Henan ・ Drama Fantasy City consistently adds new shows, Fantawild updates 20% of visuals and content annually, and Film Town refreshes themed events quarterly, ensuring young visitors return. Night-time visitors now exceed 30%, directly reflecting the effect of repeat visits.Shanshan Outlets’ ongoing intangible cultural heritage performances, camping markets, and Film Town’s local food and crafts turn consumption into an extended cultural experience. Rooted in Central China, these cultural contents are continuously activated and renewed, distinguishing Zhongmu’s park cluster from Shanghai Disneyland.

Even the termination of Lego Land does not feel regrettable.Replicable Insights for County-Level Cultural Tourism.Zhongmu’s story is inspiring, but replicability is a challenge. Its success stems from timing and geographical advantage: located between Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, with dense highways, high-speed rail, and airports, it accesses over ten million people in Zhengzhou’s metropolitan area and a one-hundred-million-level consumer market across central China. It also has abundant low-cost, developable land and policy support under Henan’s Zhengkai integration strategy, providing both policy and practical space for park cluster development. Combined with rich Yellow River civilization, agricultural heritage, and theatrical storytelling, Zhongmu’s cultural-experience integration has solid foundations and a large consumer base.Its story demonstrates dynamic evolution and systemic coordination. Contrastingly, Dayong Ancient City invested 2.4 billion yuan but lost 1 billion, reflecting a common local tourism pitfall—building first, attracting visitors later. Zhongmu’s logic is pragmatic: upgrade facilities in response to visitors, rather than waiting for a “perfect” infrastructure before opening. International hotel collaborations and themed lodgings now enhance the park experience.Visitor growth naturally points to further evolution: transportation upgrades like Zhengkai intercity routes, T1 line improvements; content expansion with Haichang Ocean Park Phase II, Fantawild Phase IV, and development of Guan Du Battle and Pan An culture; and operational integration via park mini-programs enabling cross-park consumption and itinerary planning.

The county’s goal is clear—40 million visitors and 20 billion yuan in revenue by 2026. The purpose of county-level tourism planning is not flashy urban design but smooth, lasting visitor experiences that transform parks from standalone attractions into interconnected destinations.Beyond breaking the “tourism = scenic spot” boundary, Zhongmu integrates theme parks into local industry. Collaborations with Henan Museum bring artifacts into theater scenarios; Dingge Film Base converts hundreds of shooting locations into social media hotspots, empowering both film production and tourism consumption. Theme parks now drive secondary industries—manufacturing toys and amusement equipment locally, making Zhongmu not just the top county for parks but also a hub for the park industry.This approach is simple but precise: focus on one high-value content node and expand systemically. Local tourism sustainability relies on self-sufficient ecosystems. As lights line Zhengkai Avenue, Zhongmu’s parks remain bustling. Its rise is not a miracle or a downscaled copy of Orlando or Shanghai, but a pragmatic path leveraging national visitors, local resources, and compact layout.In 2024, Zhongmu’s GDP surpassed 50 billion yuan for the first time, with growth above the national average. Tourism revenue reached 18.07 billion yuan, up 19.3%, and retail sales totaled 21.17 billion yuan, up 8.3%—cementing its image as a strong cultural-tourism county. Though the tourism sector is no longer a guaranteed “blue ocean,” Zhongmu’s model retains unique value in China today: county-level tourism does not need top-tier IPs or massive scale. The key is positioning: match resources to visitors, cultural depth to experiences, and agriculture to scene extension; start with one high-value project, then gradually expand and integrate.