Ripley to challenge China to 'Believe It or Not!'

SHANGHAI, July 13 (Reuters) Nearly a century after legendary US showman Robert rpt Robert Ripley first came to China, the firm bearing his name plans to open one of its trademark ''Believe It or Not'' museums of the bizarre in Asia's most populous nation.

Ripley visited China many times in the early 20th century, his fascination with the country stemming partly from his belief that he had been Chinese in a previous life, Ripley Entertainment president Bob Masterson said.

''Ripley loved everything about China,'' said Masterson of a man whose name became synonymous for Americans with everything from odd-shaped vegetables to strange arts and crafts and weird quirks of timing.

''He had a huge collection of Chinese art and a Chinese junk. He dressed in a traditional Chinese robe. And the love of his life was a Chinese woman,'' Masterson told Reuters.

Ripley's taste for the bizarre is shared by the country where Masterson aims to open his latest museum within a year.

Unlike other markets such as the United States, where people prefer more mundane fare such as strange arts and crafts, Ripley's Chinese brethren go for the truly bizarre, Masterson said.

He cited the firm's previous experience with a Hong Kong museum.

''The strange and bizarre were more popular there than anything: multi-headed animals, shrunken heads from the Amazon,'' he said.

''Anything on the extreme side of nature -- they enjoy that immensely.'' One of the most unbelievable things about the planned China museum, which the company hopes to build in a second-tier tourist city, would be the price it envisages charging for admission.

Masterson says he believes Chinese may be willing to pay 80 yuan (10 dollars) per ticket to see the bizarre, a princely sum in a country where many still earn less than 0 a month.

REUTERS YA RK0838