Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Walt Disney Co.’s newest castle may rise from the Shanghai fields where retired farmer Jin Xinmei and her husband grow Chinese cabbage, potatoes and strawberries to supplement their $103 monthly pension.

Jin, 72, said the local government already told her that she and her husband will have to relocate from their native Qigan Village in the Pudong district so Disney can build its newest theme park. Jin wasn’t told how much the government will pay for her 30-square-meter (323-square-foot) house and its backyard vegetable patch, she said.

“My husband and I are very worried,” Jin said. “We don’t want to move because our meager income is not enough for us to live in the city, where everything costs more.”

Disney, the world’s largest media company, won government approval to build its first theme park in mainland China, its fourth outside the U.S. The Magic Kingdom-style park will be built in three phases covering 11 square kilometers (2,718 acres), according to Shanghai Securities News, and force about 5,000 families in Chuansha county to relocate, villagers said.

The park will cost about 25 billion yuan ($3.66 billion) to build and is scheduled to open in 2014, the state-run newspaper said yesterday.

‘Crazy’ Market

“We understand that the local government is offering resettlement packages to local residents,” Disney spokeswoman Alannah Hall-Smith said in an e-mail. “The local government is also offering other forms of assistance to local residents, and Disney and our Chinese partners will strive to support these local efforts.”

The proposed park already is pushing up property prices in the district, which is about 27 kilometers (17 miles) east of Shanghai’s Lujiazui financial center.

A Nov. 4 auction of a 56,570-square-meter plot in Chuansha country attracted 17 bidders and sold to a Fujian province developer for 1.19 billion yuan, compared with the minimum asking price of 326.8 million yuan, the state-owned Xinhua News Agency said.

The average price for new apartments in Chuansha jumped to 16,000 yuan per square meter from 13,000 yuan a month ago, said Yang Jun, an agent at Centaline Property Agency Ltd.

“The market just went crazy,” he said. “We expect the prices to jump to at least 20,000 yuan in a few months. A Disneyland -- that’s the best you could ask for as a neighbor.”

Olympic Relocations

Residential prices in 70 Chinese cities climbed 2.8 percent in September, the fastest pace in a year, as record lending and 4 trillion yuan in stimulus spending spur a recovery in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. New home prices in Shanghai averaged 16,780 yuan per square meter in October, according to Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co.

China has a history of relocating people -- with compensation and without -- for redevelopment and construction projects.

Beijing’s government said last year it used market-based valuations to pay an average of 700,000 yuan compensation to each household relocated for the building of venues for the 2008 Olympic Games. The local government moved 6,037 households, with about 14,901 residents, between 2001 and 2004.

Many of Beijing’s centuries-old narrow lanes, or hutongs, were demolished before the Games, and their residents were sent to far-flung suburbs or new towns around the city.

‘We Have to Move’

Farmers in Hubei province relocated because of the Three Gorges Dam project received 6,000 yuan in compensation per household, the state-run Global Times reported Sept. 30. The dam, set to become the world’s biggest hydroelectric power station when fully operational by 2012, forced the relocation of 1.27 million people by June 30, the government said.

Ge Gengdi, 65, of Zhaohang village in Pudong, operates a small neighborhood store with her husband and makes about 350 yuan of profit a day. She has lived in the village for 39 years, and her family of eight shares a 300-square-meter house.

“The government’s agenda is always on top of farmers’, and I know we should support it instead of grudging,” Ge said, standing amid shelves of soap, bottled water and cooking oil. “Happy or not happy isn’t important anymore. The decision is made and we have to move.”

An official at the Chuansha county planning department, who declined to provide her name, said Nov. 4 that relocation will start soon. Shanghai government spokesman Chen Qiwei declined to comment yesterday.

The resettlement involves 4 million square meters of land, the state-run China Daily said Nov. 4.

‘Ruined’ Life

Qigan, at the center of Chuansha, covers 3 square kilometers and has 2,555 people, according to the local government. Zhaohang covers 5.3 square kilometers and has 3,820 people.

Ge said she lost 2 mu or about 0.33 acre, to the government for redevelopment last year. The government didn’t specify what the land would be used for, she said.

“All I care now is how much compensation we will end up getting after layers and layers of government officials get their share,” the retired farmer said.

Chen Xiwen, director of the State Council’s Office of Central Rural Work Leading Group, said in February that China’s government must protect the economic interests of farmers or face increasing protests as millions of jobless workers return to the countryside from cities.

Premier Wen Jiabao has made boosting incomes among farmers a priority, promoting rural loans and raising public works spending to double their earnings by 2020. The average per capita income in the countryside was 4,716 yuan in 2008, about a third of that for city dwellers, according to government statistics.

Jin said she and her husband grow vegetables and fruit to save money. Her fellow villagers say they will get 32 square meters of living space each in their new homes.

“There are no factories in this place so there’s no pollution,” Jin said. “But it’s all ruined now: the peace, the air, and our life.”

For Related News and Information: Disney in China: DIS US <EQUITY> TCNI CHINA <GO> Revenue breakdown for Disney: DIS US <EQUITY> FA PGEO <GO> Disney relative value graph: DIS US <EQUITY> RVG <GO> Graph of China’s GDP growth: CNGDPYOY <Index> GP <GO> Graph of Shanghai GDP Growth: CNQYSHG <Index> GP <GO> Shanghai’s per-capita GDP: CNGCSHG <Index> HP <GO> Top consumer news: TOP CONS <GO>

Last Updated: November 6, 2009 07:07 EST