The creators of Disney World's newest attraction traveled through the Himalayas for weeks at a time, gathering local stories, studying the plants and wildlife and buying ornamental touches for their village from the Kathmandu Valley.
After five trips to China and Nepal, their world started to come alive in the form of Serka Zong, a mythical Nepalese mountain village in the heart of Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida.
Serka Zong is part of the Animal Kingdom's newest attraction, Expedition Everest, which officially opens tomorrow, according to Joe Rohde, the creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering who helped bring the village to life.
PHOTO: AFP
Visitors walk through Serka Zong, with its real museum and make-believe Internet cafe and supply store, on their way to a roller coaster ride through the mountain and an encounter with a creature known as the Yeti, the mountain's legendary protector.
The attraction is much like a village in Nepal, green and beautiful, with buildings decorated with the same wood carvings one would see in the Himalayas. Nearly 2,000 pieces of wood used in the buildings were made by Newari woodcarvers in the Kathmandu Valley. And some 8,000 items -- including furniture and wall decorations -- were bought in the Himalayas.
In addition to gathering information to create Expedition Everest, Disney also paid for a real-life trip for scientists from Conservation International (CI), a US-based nonprofit group commited to protecting biodiversity.
The CI team traveled to China and Nepal to study native plants, insects and animals and to help locals develop ways to better protect their environment. (AFP)
迪士尼世界最新熱門景點的創作家花了數週時間一次遊遍喜馬拉雅山，收集當地故事，研究植物與野生動物，並從加德滿都谷地為他們的遊樂村添購當地風味的裝飾品。
五度考察中國與尼泊爾後，迪士尼世界開始活了起來，化身為尼泊爾神話中的山地村落「瑟卡宗」，就位於佛羅里達州迪士尼世界動物王國主題樂園的心臟地帶。
協助讓這座村落真實重現的華特迪士尼幻想工程創意總監喬伊．洛德表示，瑟卡宗是動物王國最新熱門景點「探索埃佛勒斯峰」的一部分，將於明天正式開幕。
遊客可以步行暢遊設有真實博物館、虛擬網咖與補給商店的瑟卡宗，沿途搭乘翻山越嶺的雲霄飛車，並與傳說中守護喜馬拉雅山的雪人相見歡。
這個景點像極了蒼翠絕美的尼泊爾村落，各式建築裝飾著與喜馬拉雅山裡同樣的木雕作品。將近有兩千件建築物所採用的木製品是由加德滿都谷地的尼瓦爾族木雕師打造的，也約有八千件家具與牆面飾品等成品是由喜馬拉雅山空運過來的。
除了蒐集資訊來打造「探索埃佛勒斯峰」之外，迪士尼也雇請國際保育組織的科學家展開一段真實旅程。這個美國的非營利組織致力於保護生物多樣性。
國際保育組織小組曾到中國與尼泊爾研究當地原生的動植物與昆蟲，並協助當地民眾發展更能保護環境的方法。
（法新社／翻譯：賴美君）
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