US-based Walt Disney has signed the formal agreement with Shanghai Shendi Group Corporation — a company backed by the Shanghai municipal government — to jointly develop a Disneyland theme park in the country's financial hub.

The signing of the agreement comes a week after Shanghai closed its six-month long World Expo and marks the start of the construction on the theme park.

Shanghai's Disneyland is expected to cover an area of about 4 square kilometers and cost about 25 billion yuan. The project won approval from China's state council in 2009 and the opening date is now slated for 2014.

The Shanghai Disney theme park will be Disney's fourth outside the US, after Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.