A New Chapter in China - Summary

[HeartlineCoaster]

I returned the following morning, bright and early, to have one more stab at the apple. Enquiries had of course been inconclusive, 'the rides change every day' they said. Sure enough upon arrival the sign had changed.
Tilt Coaster yes, Beyond the Clouds no.
Such dilemma, do I pay full price for the extra cred, knowing full well that I'm destined to return again one day?

Yes. It will probably be closed then too. Gotta take what you can get.

Day 11 - Suzhou Amusement Land

Powered straight to the tilt before it could garner any form of queue and was treated to a single train of wait. The train itself is a definite improvement on the old model, was hoping the rest of it was too, as the duelling Hefei one had dealt some vicious punches in the latter half of the layout. Surely something this vesty, open and spacious can't do the same.

It's a very slow and suspenseful climb to the top, followed by an even slower and slightly less suspensful tilt sequence. The lack of fanfare or vigour kinda ruins the moment a bit, even the locals don't seem to get as phased by it as they should be, you're just sort of stuck there, hanging, likely wondering if it's broken. One thing Battle of Jungle King did do better there was have an MC doing trick countdowns.

Once the drop is initiated, you plummet below ground level for extra effect before being thrust into a mostly continuous set of inversions and tightly banked turns, some of which are rather dizzying and intense. Crucially it rides well, full respect there.

The low roll at the end that looks suspiciously like the older model, and still not quite right somehow, delivers a very strange set of forces, none of which were bad. It's nothing special, other than being very different from what's out there (read: cloned). I wouldn't go out of my way for it, but would happily ride it again.

Turns out the flying theatre did exist, right next door to the robot arm dark ride. It was already hideously overpopular by this point, shoulda done it the night before. My attention had also already faded by this point, always looking to the horizon, so couldn't be bothered.

Did the dark ride again instead because it was walk on.

Rawr.

It was time to jump in another car.

Wuxi Sunac Land

Once again the Sunac property was free to enter, pay per ride if you wish, but all inclusive is the way to go. Interestingly here it all changed at 4pm, from which point you couldn't just bowl up and stroll in. Not sure on the logic, maybe a cheaper deal? Still seems the better model in these kinda locations.

Main Street USA was very un-USA, to its credit.

You can't help but notice the main event from pretty much anywhere inside or outside the park. It's huge. The situation was nervous as always, having not seen it actually run at any point since being dropped off. Thankfully this was just thanks to not having enough riders to fill a train, and of course being run at a snails pace.

Loved it though, size makes all the difference here. It's not often you get face-ripping intensity on this model yet it happens through sheer speed alone in the opening section.

In constrast to the HB one the day before, I also loved that they mix up the elements a lot more here. It's far less inversion heavy, beginning most notably with this giant twisted hill into the more 'interactive' section.

As you pass over the signature rockwork, a second speed type hill thrusts you out and over the water with an excellent moment of new found momentum. It compliments the whole wing thing rather well.

After the large and graceful overbank, there's a surprise piece of dynamicism as well, with a little S-bend twist as you head into the rock itself. A snappy little transition you wouldn't otherwise expect from such a big boy.

All of this is excellent, though it runs foul of falling a little flat at the mid course. It's rather late game and leads to the type of slow, hangtime filled roll, again through the rock once more, that most people seem to hate.

I'm on the fence, to me it's not the forces themselves that bother me, though they are undoubtedly uncomfortable, it's whether the ride has earned it.
Has the 200ft monster been trying to kick your ass up until this point? Then go right ahead.
Have you been sunglasses on and not caring up until this point? Then it's too late, don't bother.

The former, this one's the former.

Flying Theatres? Did someone say China has flying theatres? In true form, while the world class, unique rollercoaster attraction couldn't even fill a train with guests, the flying theatre held an hour of queue for almost the entire day. As such, we'll come back later.

I was curious to see how trains could pull off stunts, but sadly the timing never lined up.

This was a surprise, I walked in rather blind. I think it's a cred. Maybe a dark ride? No, cred.

Well kinda both. Turns out Zamperla make Multi-Dimension coasters now, who knew? Well, you should, because @gavin showed us the other day.

Queue was pretty nifty.

The coaster portions were clunky as anything, at about 2Mph, and so there was very little dynamic going on with either that or the story. The thunderbolt rode better.

You stop several times in scenes of some steel mill, with various mishaps taking place, causing you to change direction of course.

I actually found the drop track itself rather brilliantly executed. It was the smoothest part of the ride and it hit me with a great deal of surprise and force. A diamond in the rough.

Blue Fire, but red. I like them, but there's far too many at this point. Walk-on and a lighting package though.

Their monstrosity of a water cred was far too popular, because water.
Who wants to ride an actually decent ride when you can have water? It too was skipped, for now.

Because I really wanted to ride this. Since the whole lockdown, joining the database, researching dark rides thing, Final Sea Battle has been a bit of a bucket list attraction for me. Was never sure why, because I'm also spoiler averse, but it sounds cool, right?

Right. Better disguising of the show building than Universal at the very least.

This was also busy, deservedly at least. More likely because it was hot outside and aircon is almost as good and as hard to come by as water, rather than as any testament to the quality of of the ride.

Thankfully not 120 minutes busy.

I actually read the plate this time, that's a genuine Jinma, their DGC-12A model no less.

What does that mean? 4D dark ride. Spiderman/Transformers on a boat.

It delivered. They can make a damn good product when they put their minds to it. For once it didn't feel like one of these Chinese ride systems where there should be more in the tank, it should have more to give. The range of motions were perfectly suited to the action and the action was pretty great, if a little over the top.

As seafaring citizens you end up in this massive sea battle, obviously, but being the minions that you are just kinda get flung around from pillar to post witnessing, and not helping. It's got a bit of everything, pirate style cannon battles, big impressive physical setpieces, big fantasy blokes punching things, a giant sea monster.

Spoiler

There's a fake out ending during which I was reciting the 'your bravery has saved the planet' spiel that always rounds these things off and then you get jump scared and attacked once more before the actual speech round the corner

It's not gamechanging as an attraction itself, with a lot of the same old beats that become a bit cliche in this style of attraction by now, but I always enjoy seeing them under a new skin at the very least. I'm more just pleased that other manufacturers and companies are able to pull off something this damn good. Need a bit of healthy competition and Wanda/Sunac is poised to be that, they're just so sporadic in their choice of investment.

The day was turning out pretty relaxing all things considered, yeah there was still stuff to do but it was all open until late so we left the park and went to the big mall outside for a bite to eat and a break to soak up the vibe.

After another treat on Falcon, it was time to suck up the wait for the water coaster, because some stupid people with a stupid hobby decided it was worth counting. Tactics hadn't worked here as even though the sun was going down, it remained as long of a wait.

They gave away free ponchos for the one in Guangzhou, so I was kinda holding out for the same, only to eventually end up as the only person aboard without one. Oh dear.

It's very sparsely themed to the whole duck, duck, goose thing, and the 'coaster' section comes underneath the big lift hill, after rounding a corner. It does the whole Supersplash turntable, backwards drop and up, turntable faff, but in an straight line, very low to the ground and even more slow and pointless. I did inwardly chuckle at the visible confusion of others trying to work out what and why it was doing this.

After more barren drifting, tons of insects were swarming the big lift, making it even more tense and unpleasant. Then the drop. Then the wet. Then the wet again. It did the horrible two stage soaking like Tidal Wave. Would never have put up with that otherwise, but cred.

You know what's a good way to dry off though? Big wing coaster. It was starting to get dark now and this was due to close an hour earlier than the one thing left so I just lapped it a few times until they shut shop.

The lightning package kicked in and I got some night rides on it, so that was pretty magical again, looking out over the city before the chaos and reminding me what the hobby is all about. Sunac is doing me well on that front.

Tactics worked, the theatre was down to a single load of waiting for the night and the reward was another above average, but still sightseeing experience (Jiangsu being this region). It had a pleasant preshow and I will say again the quality of these ones Sunac are getting are pretty good for what they are. The market is just so saturated with them now.

They had a night time show running to cap things off, so decided to check that out.

It told an old Chinese legend through the mediums of dance, puppetry, water projection, fountains and lights. A little more subdued than your average 'spectacular' but rather tasteful for it. As always it's nice to have something a bit different.

They had one big water jet in the middle that was absoutely massive, I've never seen one quite like it. Must have been pushing past the height of the coaster at max blast and had this really satisfying effect of the water slowly cascading down for several seconds afterwards, each time it switched off.

Very nice place overall, really enjoyed the time here - you can usually tell that when I actually stick around.

They've got a great top two in the star coaster and dark ride, and Blue Fire, the theatre and the indoor cred are rather good support if you're not jaded like I am. One of the most well rounded Sunacs for sure. I'm really glad they seemed to have stopped the separate movie park in a mall thing now, just needs some wood.

Up next - not another wing coaster

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Still based in Suzhou for now, a lot of this was backtracking to the 'highlights' of what would have been picked up in the other direction. The final day out of here involved a train to Nanjing, followed by a Didi man, so nothing new there.

Day 12 - Happy Valley Nanjing

This is still as of writing the newest Happy Valley in the chain, though OCT have been branching out into other park concepts since 2017 to stay in line with the competition. I had just about completed the Happy Valley set before the opening here spited me, no doubt the next one in Xi'an will do that soon enough. On paper it looks competent, if a little unremarkable, with the two star coasters being clones found elsewhere, though both with a twist.

As with Beijing, they had a solid website full of all the information actually required - which rides were open (all the ones I cared about) and over what time period.

Staggered openings made it a little awkward to navigate, but it's a common stall tactic for somewhere like this that lacks a bit of staying power. Hopefully you might buy some food in between. I didn't.

So the first order of the day was the SFC. I had it in my head that it was another little B&M one, because that was becoming the done thing for Happy Valley.

It is in fact an Orkanen, thereby much better, though still a one and done because I'm now up to a solid ten and done of them.

This mine train has had a name update on RCDB thanks to me, don't say I never do anything for you.

Standard clone layout with the double lift, Jinma style with the new look Vekoma track.

I like that it shared the rockwork with the water ride. Rode well, looked good, is what it is.

Having powered through those two with barely another soul in the park, there was a bit of a lull while waiting for one of the big two to open up. It's a pretty huge walk between major attractions from this point, unshaded and already a little too hot for my liking. Similar issue I remember from Chongqing in that it's simply to exhausting to bounce about between your 'favourites' here, which no other visitor does of course, so it doesn't matter.

Walked all the way past the wing and round, path annoyingly doubling back on itself. It was testing at the very least.

And into the space themed area where Cheetah Hunt 2.0 was. I guess most of the guests had gone round the park in the other direction as this had now formed a bit of a queue. A bit of a queue for a single 16 seater train, on a clone of a model that was designed to have dual despatch and run at least 4, meant a half hour wait on some unpleasant and unshaded stairs, not moving.

Light of Revenge still has the separate offload and onload too, so you get that same genius quirk of extra waiting time simply watching it move between the two.

I ended up in the front of the Taron-style train, the one thing that was bound to make this version an improvement over the other. It's mirrored, with a banked turn to the right following the first little launch, heading round and back under itself into the first big launch. The tunnel action and roar here was as satisfying as it should be, with quite a strong pop of air up and into the crow's nest.

It meanders about for the views before plummeting back out in what felt like a significantly steep exit also with some good kick, extra appreciated in those roomy restraints. Soon after, I swear there was a bonus speed hill, though don't hold me to it. It is supposed to be reprofiled from the original after all.

After this however I'm not sure the new work did it any favours. The remaining three quarters of the ride just didn't have as much bite to it as I recall from the Cheetah. Comfort can be too much of a good thing on transitions that play things a little safe. The final launch did that short and silly 'have a little boost, but not too much' that's simply less satisfying as a late game entry and then the two big return airtime hills that I specifically remember having decent airtime into bad restraints, had no airtime into good restraints.

Hmm, I'm probably a fan of the original more than most seem to be, but this was pretty meh overall. Looks good though.

I was actually more excited for Forest Predator, though a clone of the wing coaster at Happy Valley Chongqing (which I very much enjoyed for it's intensity), it has a backwards row at the back (which I very much enjoyed on the Swarm).

The time taken to get on the other thing meant that I was no longer ahead of the curve here either, though it was mercifully still a walk-on. I wanted to go straight to the backwards row but was spited in the most ridiculous of manners.

The Chinese get very confused by being split across two sides of the train on these things, it often happens mid-group and they're not quick enough to catch on to what's happening and head that issue off at the batch point. As I've also mentioned it's quite common for them to not comprehend the purpose of air gates to line people up against specific rows (and who can blame them, when half their rides don't even use them anyway). The air gates had already been opened by the time I reached the station, and as I headed towards the rear of the train, some guy just climbed over the bloody station track of a wing coaster from the other side and stole the seat. For all their other petty and petulant rules, the staff didn't care one bit about this. Safe.

Oh well, forwards at the back it is. Oh dear, this ain't riding well. It was nothing like I remembered the dinosaur edition to be, sluggish and rattly from start to finish, with none of the grace of the past couple of days. The huge terrainy game leading into a continous sequence of acceleration and intense inversions just wasn't playing out the way it should. Why so hit and miss?

Still, backwards, I had been slightly obsessing over this for years now. Never meet your heroes.
The second round in the station was more amusing still, as something else they can't comprehend is the appearance of this train. Seeing a 'front' on both ends and not knowing the difference between a brake run and a lift hill led to audible confusion and literal slapstick triple takes from several guests while I just slithered behind and ended up exactly where I needed to be.

The result was the same, but backwards. Lack of anticipation is usually such an enhancement in these situations. I can't remember if Swarm backwards was my first in a long time, but it kicked my ass for not knowing what was coming and I loved it. Maybe having just done it already here didn't help, but bounce, rattle and roll with the way it was riding, it all happened with little to no effect on me. Pretty meh overall.

Never mind, it's dark ride time. I was sure there was a dark ride here. Big space building with a turret outside. Shooter right? The website said something about interactive.

Well it didn't appear to exist, I searched high and low on maps and buildings and the closest thing it came to was some dumb bumper cars with lasers on them. Did they oversell that? I'm still not sure.

With neither of the headliners appealing to me much and no dark ride to be seen, the lineup of Nanjing was swiftly falling apart. There was one more cred to be had, in the form of a Junior Boomerang, the joy.

They've taken a leaf out of Ferrari World's book here and offer big ugly plastic goggles to go over your glasses if you so wish, but I didn't feel the need to be able to see here. So begins a little game of how many days in a row can we ride one of these?

Some 5D extravaganza maybe had the chance to still put them on the map, but it was just a 3D/4D/5D cinema with no motion in the seats, so no.

It was playing a special theme park cut of Journey to the Centre of the Earth, many moments from throughout the entire feature length film all poorly stitched together in an attempt to give off action, excitement, dimensions.

Highlight for me was the introductory frames in which the camera zooms in on a book which tells you the title of what you're about to watch.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - 3D
The Chinese subtitles translated '3D' to '4D' literally pixels below on the same screen.
Outside it says 5D.
It's just the perfect summation of all the D nonsense that goes on in this world.
The rest of it was dubbed, pretty poorly. Meh.

Ferris Wheel time, windows were a little foggy for my liking. It's a decent enough looking park with that backdrop of river, bridge and hills. Shame I didn't gel with it.

I'm thinking it's the least remarkable of all Happy Valleys in terms of lineup at this point, they usually have at least something killer.

As such I was already looking to the horizon. It was time to jump in another car.

Wanda Theme Park (Nanjing)

These indoor only Wanda parks aren't usually all that, situated within one of their big malls, and this one was no exception.

The place was absolutely dead, deader than normal dead, and the person selling tickets could barely comprehend that they had attractions on offer, let alone how or why we could exchange money for them. There were two creds to be had, but even with a lot of pointing at maps and explanations they kept thinking the second was a mirror maze and said to just go and find out for ourselves.

We paid for the first one though, which was this. One of those Zamperla motocoaster clones that's very un-motocoaster in layout.

Except it was on horseback. One of our tickets didn't work immediately and the operator got very confused, clearly they don't get much interaction in this job. People actually want to ride this thing? Had I somehow managed to forge an obscure and detailed ticket with QR code for this attraction?
After much thought I was let on anyway. The launch is clunky and then it meanders around until the brakes, where it almost stalled.

This.

Here's the rest of the park, they usually have a similar vibe.

This was the other cred, but it was completely dark and abandoned. We went back to the desk to confirm anyway so that the ticket seller could put a name to an attraction. The operator from the other cred had come over for a chat and said it was under maintenance, of course.

Here's how to use a toilet.

Up next - war

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

After leaving Nanjing we passed through Suzhou once more to collect bags and stuff before taking another train down to Ningbo, the final basecamp of the trip.

I was here back in 2017, on my very first proper trek through China and wasn't a fan of the place or the parks. Didn't make life easy for myself back then, using public transport for everything and it took some ridiculous amount of time to get out to the Fantawild resort that calls itself Ningbo. But it's so stupidly far away, in a no mans land between a bunch of other lesser cities.

Taking a direct car this time, from the right end of the city, was still well in excess of an hour, and by far the most expensive fare to date. Why, though?

Day 13 - Glorious Orient Ningbo

New park, that's why.

There's just something about Ningbo. You can't see here because we're riding the bow wave, but this park, like it's neighbour in 2017 appears to ONLY attract a TON of tour groups of the worst theme park guests you'll encounter in China.

They're obviously on some package deal, there might even be some government cultural scheme to get the village elders out and experiencing the wider world, Fantawild love to win awards about that sort of thing. But they generally appear have very little interest in being there, spending the entire day shouting at each other about whatever, whether on rides or otherwise, and making the queues an unnecessary ordeal.

This is what you want to see though, power on ahead and find an empty ride with the staff smiling and waving. Their day is about to get a whole lot worse.

First attraction is a bit of an odd one, setting the tone for most of the park really. The playful looking exterior leads to a more sinister undertone. Basically we're going to war with the Japanese, but it's kiddified.

So you've got this small world vibe from the characters and figures, and it's pretty cartoony, but it's all guns and bombs and happy tunes.

The ride system itself is like a Buzz Lightyear, but with trains rather than an Omnimover. You get your own little two seater pod and a swivel stick to turn where you like. The first of that style I've seen from Fantawild and it's pretty good overall, if you can look past the theme.

Like that.

No more distractions though, I've got to get to this Vekoma before it becomes a living hell.

Yes, Fighter Jet is the name of the game. The Vekoma Top Gun launch coaster exclusive to Glorious Orient properties for now. There's three currently operating and two more on the way, this was the 2nd to open by a couple of months.

This is what we want to see, the final section of queue heads indoors where you get a classic Fantawild 'have a seat while we're slow and arbitrarily don't run the ride for a while'. Every attraction is treated like a show in that regard, something to be initiated rather than continuously operated. Empty though.

Which, on a single 8-seater train can get pretty bad, I imagine. Still keeping pace I jumped in the front row to find out what it's all about.

The launch sequence is rather nifty. You pull out onto the deck of the aircraft carrier and pause for a moment before being wrenched down and off the end of it. It appears Vekoma have finally fixed my little launch bugbear - it doesn't do that ugly little tap on the back of the head as it initiates, it's smooth all the way, lovely.

That first element is pretty glorious, a rolling inversion directly into an airtime filled top hat, a pretty rare and special sensation for now that I very much appreciated. Keep on innovating.

From there the layout focuses a lot on tight turns which are pretty positive-heavy, though not overly so for me on this occasion. This is still in keeping with the Fighter Jet theme of course. There's a couple of pleasant moments that break those forces, much like I found on Wrath of Zeus earlier in the year, in which a heavy head is suddenly relieved by a graceful inversion.

The mid course breaks up the flow too much for my liking, and it's likely entirely unncessary in it's current state. I'm guessing this part of the design was significantly influenced by the tiny trains and wanting to keep capacity up as high as possible but, contrary to everything else that's been going on, why would a plane slow to a crawl in mid air before resuming?

Other than that it's highly competent, if a bit short on airtime for my own liking even when it does try. Opening with such a highlight of an element does lead to the rest of it never quite living up to that. It didn't leave me begging for more, but I respect the hell out of it, kinda like a lot of these Vekomas that aren't Fønix.

Backtracking now, with crowds beginning to arrive, a slightly less tasteful +1. The Beijing Shibolai Junior Coaster Rev B is a pepped up Wacky Worm layout. Same figure 8, but with more profiling and less Wacky. I'm sure it'll take the world by storm.

These things already have taken the world by storm, and it's to our detriment. Could you fit in that?

And to finish off the coaster collection in quick succession, not too far around the corner was our second of these Junior Boomerangs on the bounce. Can we make it a third?

Custom.

Creds complete I was more excited to experience other new dark rides, this one in particular seemed to have a lot of potential.

Keeping up that wartime theme in the queue.

It's a 4D motion based car ride extravaganza, one of the latest from Fantawild. Even Nuwa is getting old now. The most striking initial feature is that it has machine guns mounted to the front.

I had this ride translated as Railway Guerilla originally, the gist of the story is that you're in this assault vehicle and you need to blow up a train before it deliveres supplies and/or people in a manner that would support the Japanese war effort rather than your own. Cheery stuff once more.

So there's a lot of positives here. It looks pretty great in a lot of places, there's a lot more physical sets, animatronic led scenes, which have been less of a thing for Fantawild for now. They're branching out and continually attempting to up their game. I like that. The use of the ride system itself, coupled with the guns and the theme, leading to moments of basically strafing and cutting down bunches of Japanese soldiers through gaps in the broken rubble of a railway station, is clever. Some of the media based action is pretty spectacular as well.

I can appreciate all that, but it's not my cup of tea, having this re-enactment of real world scenes of war in a theme park, and then literally ending with photos, videos and banners of veterans in a 'thank you for serving our country' type affair. It's likely perfect for the Chinese setup of ride something once and never again. But you're not gonna do a rollercoaster tycoon punch the air and run back round to experience it all again.

Next on the rotary was a flying theatre, unimaginatively named the same as all their others. What does this one have in store for us?

The queue is overwhelmingly filled with the history of transporation, so perhaps that's a clue.

In true Fantawild fashion, you skip past all that at speed and stand and wait in a mostly unthemed spot, a few of the tour groups were seeping into every corner of the park by now and this had a bit of a painful wait as a result.

You can see why once you get to the ride area. They batch you onto multiple floors where you get a little speech about what to do with loose items, how to buckle a seatbelt etc. before they open the doors. Once unleashed, utter chaos. Because they're always loudly talking at each other no matter the situation and of course paying no attention to the guy with the megaphone giving intstructions, there's no semblance of understanding as to what they're doing.

None of this was helped in this case by the weird fact that purpose made cubby holes between each ride vehicle were not allowed to be used. Instead they had a small plastic bucket between each, about the size of an A4 piece of paper, which quickly became an absolute mountain of stuff, spilling out into the ride area. Plastic bags of tomatoes for lunch. Cauldrons of soup. Every weather related item of clothing known to man. All piled on top of my bag at this point because I was the only one to do it properly.

One of my biggest issues with Flying Theatres has always been this. No matter what part of the world you're in there's a huge disconnect between narrative and commencement of the ride. The faff, never ending faff of having to load one of these and get it going just leaves me feeling so exhausted with life that I just want the damn thing to be over with by the time it's begun.

None of this was helped in this case by the weird fact that it's just another sightseeing extravaganza. Given the queue and theme of the park I had thought we might get something a little custom. Look at some old trains and stuff. Nope, just a poorer quality version of that which we had been experiencing at the Sunac properties, with this really annoyingly repetitive loop of music every 6 seconds or so that's trying so hard to emulate a sense of wonder.

It was ass. Donkey?

I'm conflicted with the park at this point, it all looks so good. Why am I not enjoying it?

Look at the integration of the play areas. There's so much thought put into certain things.

Ok, another dark ride. Longest wait yet, again in an unthemed cattlepen, before literally urging you to race past some theming, an elaborately decorated dinner table, and an entire preshow room which they basically never use, to get to the ride.

Things were all a little familiar here. It's another motion based car ride, though not with 3D glasses and with smaller vehicles.

The gist of the story is that you're in this assault vehicle and you need to blow up a plane before it deliveres supplies and/or people in a manner that would support the Japanese war effort rather than your own. Cheery stuff once more.

So there's a lot of positives here. It looks pretty great in a lot of places, there's a lot more physical sets, which have been less of a thing for Fantawild for now. They're branching out and continually attempting to up their game. I like that. The use of the ride system itself, coupled with being crashed into by planes, leading to moments of quite violent responsive motions, is clever. I was really picking up on the fact that every moment is impeccably timed with the on screen action vs what the vehicle is doing. Some of the media based action is pretty spectacular as well.

If there's anything to rival the Dollywood rocking chair I think it might be these things.

Now we're talking. This ended up being my favourite of the big dark rides.

Learning. Some show was going on by the time we reached it and finally had the place to ourselves again.

The Zhiyuan was a protected cruiser built for the Imperial Chinese Navy and the ride is more of a history lession than a re-enactment.

It's a magic boat ride system, I guess most like Shanghai Pirates of the Caribbean, you're moving through water but the vehicle still seems like it can do whatever the hell it wants.

One of the first scenes involves a British shipyard, which is where the ship in question was built, complete with Rule Britannia soundtrack, which was an unusual surprise.

We later find out that this bloke spent all his money on partying instead of the defense budget.

As such, when the ship goes to war, in rather spectacular fashion I might add, geysers and everything, it loses and sinks.

You then get this amazing scene passing under the detailed wreckage on the seabed and it's all emotional like 'she was such a fine vessel, gone before her time, she now lies at the bottom of the ocean, waiting, for a better future.' Not sure why but that bit got me in the feels. Well, moreso than shooting people at the very least.

It ends a little weird in that it decides to show you that better future. In what I expected more of the park to be like, with it originally being panned as China's industrial revolution, rise to civilisation, that sort of thing, not just fighting people, there's a video montage celebrating all these different scientific and technical developments.

Loved it overall though, plus that's a pretty spectacular looking entrance.

And with that, all the major attractions in the park were complete and it was decided that that experience couldn't be topped. I also had this niggling in the back of my mind the whole day. There's another park next door. A park that spited me. There's a woodie next door. A woodie that spited me.

Boooo.

Oriental Heritage Ningbo

I HATED this place so much in 2017, like one of my worst theme park experiences ever. My first time in a Fantawild and they were dead to me, what is this stupid Chinese company that can't operate a theme park (I'm now their biggest fan). The crowd issues I've already described were coupled with all outdoor attractions being closed for 'weather', in the most lamest of excuses. It felt like I put in such monumental effort, and it was super stressful, and didn't pay off.

Now that's literally every holiday in China. Gotta make the best of it.

Stress Express, it's like they know it themselves. The place was absolutely dead, new park is now king, so I had to just stand at the foot of the stairs for this waiting for them to realise people might actually want to ride the rides today.

Well I didn't want to, but I did. +1.

This was what I wanted. Sholud have been my first Jungle Trailblazer, instead it became my last. In fact I've now ridden every woodie in China, which feels pretty special.

This wasn't pretty special. It's a clone of the one in Oriental Heritage Jinan, so I had no anticipation of surprises at the very least. It's a middle of the road Jungle Trailblazer, not my favourite and not the worst, so really, really good. But oh dear, They have not looked after it.

It was riding like Thundercoaster. So rough that vision was blurred and it sucked most of the fun out of it. The layout really hauls, through what should be some epic airtime and firing you into the inversion before you know what hits you. It has the really good signature bumpy bouncy straight section of multiple pops as well, before losing a little juice at the end. I still had a good time, mostly laughing at the state of affairs and knowing what it should have been like. But perhaps those days are already behind it. Is this why they buy Vekomas now?

Oh well, not wanting to marathon that led to courtesy laps on some old friends. I checked out the timings on Jinshan Temple Showdown first, because that was a must, and then calculated what else I could squeeze in before the next 'showing'.

How does old Devil's Peak stack up to the other robo-coasters of the trip?

I actually got a working pre-show! I feel so honoured.

Anyway, I think it's my favourite. It's a little less refined than Harry Potter as a product, but I just like the atmosphere and flow of it more. You get some real creepy moments just sort of lurking and hanging there in the dark caves, ambient sounds and spooky music, not knowing how it's all gonna kick off. The screen based antics are ok, our boy Sun Wukong kicking some fantasy monster ass. Though I argue Forbidden Journey is just a highlight reel that doesn't make chronological sense, I suppose this one is a highlight reel of moments from Journey to the West, but at least there's a sensible timeline.

Outside of that, it goes real ghost train in the physical sections, again just really atmospheric and to me feels a little more considered than AHH, DEMENTORS. Great stuff.

Did I say Nuwa was getting old already? This one is. It's gone.

I actually got a working pre-show! I feel so honoured.

But no, it's gone. It's dead. The ride system was limping along like an old dog and barely, barely moving, for all of the action. Having just bore witness to technological marvels and precision on the new ones over the way, this was so tired and lifeless that I don't understand it.

I questioned myself in 2020 when riding the most recent version of Nuwa whether the range of motions in the vehicle had the ability to kick more or less ass. Because that one was kicking so much ass. Turns out I'm right, there can be a huge difference in how it behaves. But why?

I keep trying this thing and it keeps disappointing, so let's just stop now. An Indoor Drop Tower should be very me, but it's weak, the story doesn't make sense and now this one in particular at least is completely cooked. It spent at least 5 minutes after the cycle had ended moving at 0.01Mph back towards the floor, while the staff look embarassed and awkward and this stupid sound loop keeps playing over and over.

So much so that it nearly made me miss the star of the show. I sprinted back to Jinshan Temple Showdown and they ushered me in through a shortcut to catch up with the rest of the crowds making their way through the ridiculously good-looking queueline.

Ahh, I love this thing. You haven't heard anyone gush about this attraction for far too long, so here it is again. You board this massive boat in an ancient water town and are treated to a very leisurely but beautifully presented trip through the surroundings, while being spun the tale of Lady White Snake.

Details are woven into every aspect. Rather than just the screen, action, screen, action you get on all these other rides, there's separate goings on, projections of people just going about their daily business and other quirks. It just feels so alive.

The ride culminates with everyone departing the boat and standing to watch this epic showdown with live actors, water projections, fire, and a catastrophic flood to close out.

I think, think, they have different length/budget sequences of this depending on how dead the park is. And by the same principle, this affects whether or not they have actors in the ride section too, that varies for sure.

And with that, all the major attractions in the park were complete and it was decided that that experience couldn't be topped.

I dunno what to say about Glorious Orient. It's wonderfully presented and technically competent, but I didn't gel with it. It's like if the London Resort became Britannia Land and half the rides were themed to interactively gunning down Nazis. Can't knock the execution of the 'theme' park, but is that a theme you want?
I've been slightly obsessed with the place for a couple of years now, and it just wasn't at all what I expected. I suppose I'm just far too used to, and enthralled by, the fantasy aspects of the other parks. Fighter Jet and Zhiyuan are awesome though, and we'd never get those, so knock yourselves out.

Oriental Heritage is already a shell of its former shelf, so it seems you really need to hit these parks in their first two or three years of operation. They're such a candle in the wind, and I think that's part of why all of this stupid nonsense excites me so much.
Help.

We opted for the budget route back to the city, namely a slightly shorter Didi journey to the geographically nearest train station, then a train. Takes a bit longer, significantly cheaper. I said there was something about Ningbo, as the route passes through the most third world looking part of China I've ever seen. The station itself had one half completely closed off, meaning a stupid walk round to the other side and then the ticket counters were the only ones in the country on this trip that had a queue. No one uses them any more, the staff get physically upset at having to do their job when you go to them, because everyone else uses the app or that thing called the internet. But no, here there was a faffy queue, like the good old days and it ended up being a massive waste of time on top of the extended journey. Oh well, culture.

Up next - another brand new park, not that anyone cares

 

[cocoa]

These reports are great. I've only done some small forays into China from Hong Kong but I can feel the frustration and spitefulness so strongly in my heart from those times, haha (wood coaster at knight valley is easily my biggest spite to date). But on an infrastructure and themeing level these parks are truly fascinating.

Is there something about chinese crowds that we just are completely misunderstanding? I don't get how any of these parks are profitable at all.

 

[Crazycoaster]

These reports are great. I've only done some small forays into China from Hong Kong but I can feel the frustration and spitefulness so strongly in my heart from those times, haha (wood coaster at knight valley is easily my biggest spite to date). But on an infrastructure and themeing level these parks are truly fascinating.

Is there something about chinese crowds that we just are completely misunderstanding? I don't get how any of these parks are profitable at all.

 

[cocoa]

thanks bud

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Is there something about chinese crowds that we just are completely misunderstanding? I don't get how any of these parks are profitable at all.

Half of them aren't, hence a good number of them dying after 5-10 years and the coming up with many petty ways to reduce operating costs.


More Fantawilds. There's always more Fantawilds. Next up we took a train south to the city of Taizhou, then got a drive over to one of the newest parks in the chain,

Day 14 - FT WIld Land

Contrary to the previous visit, I hadn't been obsessing over this place at all. I didn't know a whole lot about it, and even kept having to remind myself what Vekoma they had. I remember looking up the rest of the ride lineup when it was announced and opened and being of the usual mindset - oh well, just more of the same, even though it was good to see that they're changing up the names and overarching themes of each park a lot more regularly for the past few projects. Oh was I in for a surprise.

Slightly odd start, we had bowled up in time for opening but as of 5 mins until park open, the friendly security weren't allowed to even let us in as far as the ticket window. From an outsider perspective, that's strange, why can't I buy my ticket now, so that I'm ready at the turnstyle when it does open? For them, we're strange, there's literally no other guest here, what's your hurry? This park seems very underappreciated, but that's perfect for me.

By the time we were ticket in hand, the place had already won me over. They were playing instrumental versions of a few of my favourite kpop tracks in and around the main street area. For me? Aww.

Being so new there's a very fresh vibe going down this part, and it looks like no other Fantawild does, so that's always a bonus. First attraction appeared off the main square before the park becomes the usual circular loop. This looks familiar.

Finding Merlion is a simple simulator in front of a screen setup. It first debuted at Fantawild Asian Legend, one of the other unique parks in the chain that themed all of their rides to countries in the ASEAN region. The titular Merlion is one of the national symbols and landmarks of Singapore, and Xiong'er (Bramble) the bear from the Boonie Bear franchise takes you on a fun frolick through the city in order to try and spot the famous statue.

It was actually improved upon over its counterpart by having a fun little preshow video in the queue that set up a bit more of a 'why', along with not having an arduous safety instruction video prior to commencement. Other than that it's alright, nothing to write home about.

Just a haunted walkthrough.

Moving around the park in a counter-clockwise direction, there's a fair bit of deadspace in terms of exciting attractions. A big pink swinging ship and an equally garish splash battle plus some other minor kiddy stuff.

The highlight being that they've got the actual jumping fountains from Rollercoaster Tycoon.

Then things get a little more exciting as you pass these ominous looking statues into a much more pleasantly decorated land.

This quickly became one of my favourite themed areas ever, helped by the fact that it's not just another facade, you can just get up in and around it.

Fantawild were already great at the Chinese vibe but never before did they chuck in an animatronic dragon or this lovely little scene. The rides here don't hurt either.

Confession, I never knew this ride in particular existed. In forever researching the latest and greatest from Fantawild, a lot of speculation can only be based around that which has already been seen before. Oh they've got another one of those, that one looks familiar, etc. I don't remember 'Realm of Warriors' ever catching my attention from the website, but it's another newest gen 4D motion based car ride, so a new Nuwa. Exciting.

It has a preshow that was being used straight out of the gate. The gist of the story is that big old demon king is out causing havoc and we need to help the bloke with the wings get the magic scroll to Gandalf so that we can kick the bad guys ass. Familiar concept, sure, but at least it plays out rather differently.

The opening sequence is rather interesting, immediately bumping into the face of the bad guy, who creates a bit of a tornado and has you twirling around in the darkness for a good while. There's the briefest of glimpses towards the use of more big scary physical sets on this ride type as you get a flash of a giant ravenous plant, though sadly this is never delivered upon again in this particular attraction.

Soon after you get attacked by fiery dragons, both red and blue, in a similar sequence to what they've done before. The winged bloke saves you. Then you get attacked by radioactive skeletons in a rather more scary manner. The winged bloke saves you. Then you get attacked by a big bloke. The winged bloke saves you. All in different manners at the very least.

One of the greatest strengths of the ride for me was the sense of scale in the media from this point onwards. You're suddenly thrust out into this massive battle scene where it's clear this is all part of some much greater cause, rather than being isolated in your own little ride sequence. Death, destruction everywhere, it all looks pretty epic before you lose the scroll to sexy ninetales lady. Oh no.

Magic happens and it's Gandalf who saves you this time. She's quickly dispatched of and he now has the scroll, turning him from grey to white. He summons a chariot of horses and rushes off to join the battle, with us following in tow. Again here you're flying through this massive scene of a city in ruins, all dark and stormy, broken buildings being chucked everywhere as the boss level version of the big bad is now out and causing chaos.

In a good show of teamwork between us and the wizard, he is eventually defeated and we're thanked for our bravery, we saved the planet once again. The template seems hard to avoid, but I thought it was pretty great overall. I need to do some further digging as to whether this exists elsewhere now, but in my head canon at least I like to think that this, and the land it's located in, are a Taizhou exclusive. After the masterplan of phases Fantawild once had, they are starting to give each location more of a unique identity now it seems and I'd love to see that continue through the attractions too.

The star coaster has that too, for now at least. Also located in this same area is the only operating Vekoma 'Renegade', or 'the one with the stall', through a seemlessly themed entrance you wouldn't know led to a coaster at first glance. I was still nervous up to this point about whether the thing would be running or not, but fear not, Fantawild have got my back.

It had a simpler queue than the Fighter Jet, one that holds you in the first themed building, waiting for an arbitrary amount of time, before the batcher gets the call to smile, bow and let you through.

The walk winds you amongst the layout rather nicely on route to the station, which is soon framed above your head with not one, but two fly-throughs of track. They love doing that now.

Vests!

An eerily silent lift hill glides you up to the top of a sharply twisted left turn of a drop. It's ok, not the most hard hitting of starts as it swiftly delivers you into 'the stall'.

The twist in and out of it has a good bit of throw, before you sharply bank the other way and get thrust out of the station roof over that first airtime hill. It's good, not great.

Curves and rolls and hills define most of the rest of the experience. It's very much channeling a milder Lech, though for me at least I wouldn't say thats a bad thing.

Happy, twisty, bouncy, smooth, I guess it's most comparable to the Oriental Heritage Vekoma Celestial Gauntlet, or 'lift hill Polish Formula'. I like it, quite a lot, but it's not the knock your socks off headliner I need it to be. Just very rerideable and enjoyable and I believe I'm now back up to date with every modern thrill layout from Vekoma, so that's something.

Yes, I was having very amorous North West feelings about the place.

Just a restaurant.

After much walking we stumbled across the next significant attraction. I recognise the name, but that's about it.

Queue was nice.

Well this was just lovely. They've come a long way from orientally-themed small world style attractions and gone full-on with this boat based adventure.

It begins with a very peaceful and atmospheric journey through the dense, misty undergrowth before meeting up with our pal Bramble the bear again. Not sure why this park is so biased against the other guy, Briar, but that's the way it is. After introducing the story it goes full Pooh's Hunny Hunt with special effects and the whole scene disappears in rather spectacular fashion. Magic, wonder, dark ride.

The whole thing is filled with other fantastic moments and details. The narrative was a little confusing, but I didn't care. There's a panda that gives the were-rabbit a run for his money, some scene through a seedy film district and the conclusion of the story appears to be meeting up with Neova, a strange white deer thing with purple antlers that I've seen around many parks over the years. Fun detail to spot here as they unite and fly about the place, projected on the wall, is that they swoop both in front of and behind physical tree mouldings that form part of that wall. That takes precision and effort and I bet nobody picks up on it.

Loved it. Got me emotional this one, this is exactly why I do this.

Should have a POV for you at some point.

Butterflies.

Oh no, it's that name again. The annoying tune from that last Flying Theatre is already haunting my head once more.

Already looking different on the inside at the very least. The whole queueline was Boonie Bear to the max, setting up what appeared to be a much more fun experience. Don't let me down.

It was bliss, utter bliss, having the entire ride system to ourselves. We strolled up the ramps, got in our seats with a staff-guest ratio of 1:1 and the film was initiated within mere seconds.

And it was a great film. Don't hold me to it, but it's most likely this film was first created for the Fantawild Dinosaur Kingdom park in Zigong as it was, well, dinosaur based. You follow some friendly fellow on the back of a pterosaur around some rather spectacular sights and smells and it was all round just a pleasant and wondrous experience. Exactly what these should be like.

The dinosaur theme makes more sense in the opposite direction apparently. This seemingly hosts a dinosaur version of one of their big epic 'bubble ballet' shows, though sadly it was too quiet on this day for them to put it on.

The next cred is themed like a much more colourful version of a high speed railway station, which was pretty neat.

Yes that makes 3 days, 3 of these.

This one was the best though, because that.

Didn't do the water ride as they're usually a bit dull and often times unnecessarily wet here, though it looked rather lush.

Final cred is the good old Puppy Coaster, with a puppy of an operator to suit. She was super shy and had no clue what she was doing, but that only added to the experience.

Bullseye is another of their Buzz Lightyear style shooting dark rides, that we only just learnt existed, this time without the war and bombs. I believe you're freeing animals from the circus and biological testing facitilies and the like and it's good fun.

I liked in particular that they spice it up a bit by setting a score to beat at the entrance, and then if you do, you win a badge. I did.
Only real downside to gameplay is that there's no variation in scoring, every target yields the same rewards so there's no secrets or special techniques to be discovered.

Should have a POV for you at some point.

The final 'land' contains this 3D cinema, which I'm thinking is the same idea as the rather old now 'Conch Bay', from some of their earliest parks.

I've never been bothered to try one of those before, but I assume they've amped it up since back in the day.

It certainly doesn't look like much from a Fantawild Adventure park.

This guy pops out when things get a little rowdy. Good stuff.

Did the wheel for some views, quite rare for a Fantawild to have one of these and it was appreciated.

There's too many attractions called 'Myth' in China, this turned out to be one of their magic projection shows and was put on once for the day.

It told the tale of many different Chinese legends and characters in some more and less convincing manners. It had dancers and performers (enough to outnumber the guests present) and they use that pit and mirror technique to essentially have a screen both in front of and behind the stage for different media and the occasional illusion of things disappearing and reappearing. I'd say it was more engaging than the Oriental Heritage equivalent, though less visually stunning.

Spent the remainder of the evening reliving my most favourite moments from around the park, namely 'the area' and the boat ride, as well as an extended photo session with the Vekoma, though it never moved without me on it.

Until the minute we walked away.

There it goes.

This was by far and away my favourite park visit of the trip, just the perfect day spent discovering a new and completely empty Fantawild. It's only been as of my very last visit to one that I properly fell in love with them, but now I've been kept away for 3 long years and it was so good to get that kind of experience once again. The purest essence of why I theme park in China. While stocks last.

Up next - the purest essence of why not to theme park in China.

 

[gavin]

Yeah, from those pictures, that's very much a "Conch Bay", including the crab that pops up. No idea if the film is the same obviously. To be fair, it's one of the few old-school Fantawild attractions that didn't really need amping up too much.

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Time to end on a low then. With one short day left there was nothing major on the cards, just a trip to a nearby city with something of minor intrigue. A morning train took us out to Shaoxing, rather close to where we had flown into that really nice airport. The neighbouring city was also all about the fact that they had hosted the Asian Games and thus looked rather fresh and clean. Let's hope the park is too.

Driver dropped us off at this entrance, which turned out to be the wrong one and a right pain in the ass.

Day 15 - Oriental Neverland

Oriental Neverland consists of 3 parks - a water park we don't care about, the Mountain Kingdom park which is an indoor affair with a cred, and Coldplay Kingdom the more major outdoor park with several creds, including the one(s) I was most interested to try. The entrance we had ended up at was this massive building which contained both the water park and Mountain Kingdom. At the ticket desk it was confirmed that things wouldn't be simple. They had no information regarding the big outdoor park here, nor could they sell tickets for it, nor could you access it through the indoor park (I had no idea about the geography at the time).
Walk, 10 minutes, that way.

10 minutes later little progress had been made. A painfully long walk around the outside of the building had led to a wrong turn at a hotel and then a monorail station. The station was elevated, with a woman sweeping leaves from it and glaring, but could not be accessed.

We continued on foot for a further 10 minutes, entering this strange assortment of buildings and the 'second entrance to coolplay kingdom'.

The Oriental Garnd Hotel

There might even be a 4th park, full of this stuff.

Also a dog.

There was a ticket desk out here.
Question 1 - is Twin Dragon open? Yes, but it might rain later, and then it will close.
Question 2 - can we buy a ticket for both parks? Yes.
Simple enough, and exactly what I needed.

Powered in over a rickety bridge and past some swans towards the both ugly but also quite good looking track of Twin Dragon.

It's a weird mismatch of track styles, and the framing of the synchronised loops is pretty poor with all of the mess around it, but this end sequence looks great in comparison.

I entered the queueline only to be accosted by a man.
It was closed.
But the ticket desk said it was open.
Don't make me tap the sign. (A maintenance sign outside, of course)
Well someone's lying then, fine, but do you know when it will open?
A shrug, can't say.

What else have they got here then?

Some rubbish.

This green on green mine train with an elephant on the front was a thing.

A bit like a jet coaster is probably the nicest thing I can say about it. Some interaction too.

And so is this the only threaded Sky Loop in the world? I always dread these things, the Chinese ones even more so because the last suspended me upside down for what felt like forever until something in my head exploded. This wasn't helped by being forced into the front row, but at least on this occasion I could take my row of choice - 5. Near the back for a faster pull through, non-wheel seat. They can ride pretty jank too.

Surprisingly this was tolerable. Smoother than, say, the genuine article in Finland. No more excessively upside down than normal. Grin and bear it, +1.

No signs of life over at the star attraction, jumped on the ferris wheel. Dirty, dirty windows but some cool amenities like USB charging on it. That's new.

There's the scale of the stupid walk.

Is it a cred? I asked myself, looking down at the closed water ride. If you look closely it definitely has one of those questionable up and down coaster looking pieces of track in there.

On closer inspection, what do you think?

They have a flying theatre here, but it only runs like twice a day and we had missed the slot of course. Very helpful.

And so there was nothing for it but to camp outside the main attraction and see if anything happened. Made them feel as uncomfortable as possible by sitting on a bench directly outside the entrance, munching away on some snacks and staring.

All that transpired in this time was the staff member sneaking off to smoke in the guest toilets, and a Chinese couple coming up to the ride to ask the exact same question we had - when? There was no helpful answer, so they declared themselves: 'we've done everything in this **** park, let's get the **** out of here'. Even the locals know.

Soon after we said the same. Jumped on the monorail and back over to the other park just as it began to rain, so that was that for the day anyway. The staff at the monorail corroborated that 'it always seems to be under maintenance' and I bet the staff on the coaster were rubbing their hands together and going home thinking that's a job well done.

There's the entrance we actually wanted.

Mountain Kingdom

Over at Mountain Kingdom it was desperately quiet. They've got this massively elaborate entrance hall which bears no resemblance to what's going on inside.

The face on this tree sums up my feelings about the place.

All the stuff on the left side has this vibe to it.

And here's the cred. Dragon Valley, Dragon Through the Valley, Through the Dragon Valley, Dragon Going Through Valley etc.

I always wanted to be in Griffondor.

This was annoyingly hard to find, arrows were pointing up and into the rockwork, where we got lost, and I just wanted to ride the cred and get out of this damn place.

Eventually we found it in a basement, it was running on stupid timeslots but somehow we had managed to luck out.

In the station we weren't so much greeted as forewarned with a terrible list of ways in which this was an experience not to be trifled with. As with the first coaster of the trip, on the very last we were asked to verify our age by means of a passport. For a family coaster. I still don't know whether to feel insulted or not by this, but was leaning towards yes in the current mood.

Don't do this, don't do that, put your stuff over here, glasses off, hold on tight, very intense, you're not ready for this, it spins very fast, the full works.

The car did three quarters of one rotation throughout the entire lap and was the most boring Mack Spinner in the world. What a joke.

For a laugh, or I don't even know why, maybe the stupid time, effort and money it had taken to get to the ride and the fact no one else was around, maybe some goon points? I asked if we could have another lap. Maybe the spin was very luck based.

No. We were not allowed to reride this attraction today. The reason?
One time, one person had a nosebleed.
And you're saying this to a man in a Kärnan shirt.

This was definitely the most frustrated I've ever felt in this hobby, even though I got the damn cred. Just every little thing about these parks was wrong, in the most stupid of ways. I'm not a confrontational person at all but very nearly kicked off, instead reminding myself that there's just no point.

You could explain that every other park in the world would just clean up should a paying guest ride something and then happen to leak some fluids over your ride. It's extremely unlikely, but it comes with the territory.

You could tell tales about a man who came halfway around the world to visit parks like this, who had ridden over a thousand different rollercoasters and how a plethora of them were infinitely more intense than this ride, and never had any of them come close to causing a nosebleed.

You could say that the stupid Sky Loop didn't have this policy, in the same resort, but when did logic ever count for anything?

You could equally go to their guest services centre and say the same. You could say that you were lied to by staff about the opening of their star attraction before having your money stolen and experiencing one of the worst days at a theme park ever.

All you would get is a smile and a nod and them's the rules. There's nothing I can do about it.


Anyway, the right hand side of this park is also full of rubbish.

A dome theater with about two time slots a day that we had of course missed.

A 4d cinema with about two time slots a day that we had of course missed.

And then we left. This was an expensive day out by Chinese standards. Everything about the place is perfectly set up to not have you experience everything, to deny completionism, perhaps in an attempt to make you visit multiple times and get more money out of you, or more likely in a desperate attempt to save themselves some running costs. But the customer experience is so awful as a result that why would anyone want to visit, let alone return? And clearly they don't. Just another poxy place that's doomed to fail out here.

But, sadly, you know I'll be back.

Taxi, train, metro, bags, metro, airport. Scooted on out of Ningbo and that was that.

Up next - summary

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Stop procrastinating.

Summary

New creds - 44
New dark rides - 33
New parks - 15
New Jinmas – 8
Best new coaster – Wooden Dragons Roller Coaster
Best coaster – Flying Aces
Best new dark ride – Forest Drifting
Best dark ride – Jinshan Temple Showdown
Best new park – FT Wild Land
Best park - FT Wild Land
Planes - 8
Trains - 14
Automobiles - 36
Spites – 11/55 (20%)

Interesting, more than half of the spites happened in a single day, though that's a pretty bad percentage and par for the course out there. It felt like it was worse, but likely only on the magnitude of what they were...

Anyway...

God damn Flying Aces set the bar too high, clearly, though there were some cracking rides along the way, both coasters and dark rides. Was particularly gratifying to knock off every woodie in the country, China has such an insane lineup of those, and loved getting back to some Fantawilds, they'll definitely be turning into the focus/highlights of future visits with the number of 'big draw' coasters dwindling.

2 more years of visa, let's see what happens!