The park ran into trouble last year after the financial shipwreck of its parent company, D'Long International Strategic Investment, which since August has been under the trusteeship of China Huarong Asset Management.

Minsk World had guaranteed 476.9 million yuan (HK$449.6 million) of loans to its parent, mostly from China Construction Bank, Shenzhen Development Bank and Citic Industrial Bank, according to Xinhua.

Shenzhen municipal intermediate court Monday set up a liquidation group to take over the theme park established by D'Long International Strategic Investment in December 1998.

The investment arm of D'Long Group owned 89.9 percent of Minsk World after injecting 249.2 million yuan into the park.

Since it opened in September 2000, the park has attracted more than five million visitors and generated 450 million yuan in revenue. It was said to be profitable.

D'Long Group, once one of the mainland's largest private companies, is controlled by brothers Tang Wanli and Tang Wanxin, whose fortune was estimated in 2003 by China Money magazine at US$250 million (HK$1.95 billion).

Another brother, Tang Wanping, owned 10.1 percent of Minsk World. Based in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, D'Long had assets in financial services and tourism, among other things.