Kaifeng Millennium City Park Inc., the operator of a theme park based on a famous Chinese painting dating back to the Northern Song dynasty, has submitted an initial public offering (IPO) application in Hong Kong, following similar moves by other mainland China non-tech plays recently.

The company’s Millennium City Park in Kaifeng, Henan province, offers a physical, life-size recreation of Along the River During the Qingming (Ching Ming) Festival, it said in the prospectus it filed to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday.

The masterwork, created by Northern Song dynasty court artist Zhang Zeduan around 1110, captures the booming commercial vitality, canal traffic and daily urban folk life of the ancient capital of Bianjing – which is now Kaifeng. The original artwork is kept in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Competition among theme parks in mainland China is intensifying. Besides government-linked theme parks based on local history and culture, such as Millennium City Park, toymaker Pop Mart has said it plans to expand its theme park in Beijing next year, while Shanghai Disneyland is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month.

A report by the Institute for Theme Park Studies in China said there were 90 “super-large and large” domestic theme parks in 2024, five more than in 2023, but visitor numbers were down 1.76 per cent year on year and revenue was 3.74 per cent lower.

Kaifeng Millennium City Park saw its operating revenue growth slow last year, rising 0.6 per cent to 746 million yuan (US$110.4 million), while net profit was down 23.7 per cent at 212 million yuan.