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China (The Changsha Circular) - Part 14: Cred & Summary

Amazing reports. The photos are top notch and it's always a pleasure to read your thoughts (and hints of sarcasm) on Chinese/exotic stuff.

Also:

I started using Didi on this trip, and that was pretty life changing. You can say up front on a map in the app exactly where you want to be picked up, exactly where you want to go. It’ll tell you how much it’ll cost and then find you someone for it. There will always be someone miraculously 2 minutes away. They’re incentivised to give a good impression and get good ratings. They have better cars, they don’t smoke in your face continuously and they don’t try to rip you off.

Gotta be very useful for my next Chinese trip. Once the scary virus crisis ends..
 
Once the scary virus crisis ends..
Hey, spoilers!



Like Shanghai, I always underestimate how stupidly huge this city is. What I thought was a decently located hotel between the south railway station (the only practically usable station out of 4 in the city - ridiculously overcrowded, a total pain in the arse and miles from anywhere) turned out to be a 2 hour journey from the park I was here for.
And that was without the random traffic jam that cost another half an hour within spitting distance of the park (should have got out and walked).

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The only entertainment on route was this. I love the idea of someone 'beating' the glass.

So turned up frustrated and late to

Day 9 - Guangzhou Sunac Land

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Bit more garish than the others. For some reason, like it was fated, we asked whether all the rollercoasters were open today - hadn't really been bothering this trip because it's a waste of breath. The answer - yes.

Let's start with the ticketing system here. China is obsessed with making payments via apps with QR codes these days and it's frustrating to behold. Everywhere you go there will be someone stuck at the front of a queue for a convenience store counter, standing in front of the ticket gate for a metro or holding up the awfully slow queues for high speed rail tickets in the way of everyone else, head down fumbling with their phone because for any number of reasons they're struggling to make it work. If it doesn't work when they scan it, they never have any backup method to pay so just begin a shouting match with the staff who obviously can't do anything about it.

The park has decided to roll with this system and operates a pay per ride as an alternative to getting an unlimited ticket at the entrance gate. This confuses everyone because they all turn up to the front of a queue to then have a shouting match with the member of staff who is supposed to be batching for the ride about their eligibility to ride something.
I thought it was free, no use the app.
Why can't my children go on, no use the app.
That's going to cost me 4x X, I don't wanna pay that much. Use the app for your children and then push past everyone else to get out of the queue then. Every time.

If you get an unlimited ticket they do a Fuji Q and use facial recognition on screens to let you into each ride, but the initial setup of this isn't upon entrance to the park, it's upon batching of your first ride, only adding to the faff each time someone comes to start using it and doesn't understand (or it doesn't work).

So a queue of 5 people can easily turn into a 10 minute ordeal. And this is what greeted us at the first ride.

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Which was this thing.
I wasn't a fan of Arthur to be honest. It was a cool idea, but poorly executed.
Compared to this it's a masterpiece.
If you're in the back of the 3 car train, you miss all the screen based scenes and just catch the characters as they're literally walking off screen to the next one. Every single time. Like it's a joke.

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The outdoor section looks crap.

There's a Gavin picture showing the ride has the ability to produce tons of fog. This is already broken.

And their equivalent of the really majestic part of these where you go swooping out over a big public area, triumphant music playing?
It goes over this.

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A frog hopper.

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Here we are then. All the lateness from earlier didn't matter of course because they didn't open this until 3 hours after the park. Sat down to wait.

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Watched them test both sides seperately. We're in.

Got to the station behind 2 kids and their parents. 10 minute ordeal with ticketing.
The green side was open and ready to roll.
Got to the airgates. Another 10 minutes of waiting for who knows what.
Sat down in the ride. Another 10 minutes of waiting before they do the restraints.

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Bored. Nerd shot.

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It was really good overall. Definitely some interesting sensations in there.
The launch is surprisingly un-punchy but the amount of time spent upside down in the loop feels off the charts.

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It has some great forceful turns, the inversions are cool. A couple of attempted airtime moments that it's nice to see, but don't quite pay off.
And it leaves you feeling a bit short at the end. Like it's yellow soaring brother.
The potential for something truly special but doesn't quite pull it off.

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Coaster-wise this was my main draw of the whole trip really. I held off from this area until it was open. It looks so badass. So I was a little disappointed already.
I wasn't expecting a duelling ride by any stretch of the imagination, but have faith in Wanda/Sunac - I'll get both sides separately.
It's already been reported that they alternate between the two when it's quiet. Had a quick chat with the staff at the entrance about that, see if they knew roughly when.
Didn't understand the concept of that at all.
'It's the green one now and you get what you get when you get there'
Most of them don't know what they're talking about, I'll come back later.

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This show was round the corner. It was mildly entertaining, if a bit more child-orientated. (The whole park seemed to be really. Spent most of my time sharing the rides, even the big coaster, with 10 year olds).

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It had a couple of decent magic tricks, a bit of dance, slapstick. And it's namesake dog in a crude costume alternating between walking on two legs and all fours in amusing fashion.

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This one seems to be trying a bit too hard. That's not just translation. It's self-aware.

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Didn't know what this was, but I think it appeared on RCDB as a water coaster-ish thing a couple of months after the rest of the park opened.
The ride sign does actually say 'the dual combination of drifting and roller coaster'.

Thought I'd judge it for myself. Got a free thin poncho, which was cool. Got stuck behind 2 people at the front of the queue for 5 minutes...

Anyway, it has an extensive indoor section. Drifts around some jungle stuff, enters a stormy cave with both wind and rain effect in your face and while that's happening to you, up an elevator lift.
Does the backwards coaster section of your Atlantica Supersplashes.
Drifts around some crystals and a volcano.

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Big drop. It looks very Tidal Wave and does the same thing where the water hits your legs a good 5 seconds after touchdown. My poncho had ridden up in the wind so I got stupidly wet knees and nothing more. S'alright.

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Storm Surge! Sums up the park really.
It had been about 3 hours since the dragon opened, so headed over for another look to see if they were thinking about swapping over yet.
Still green. The maintenance card gets played. Right.

It was billed to be open for 7 hours in total that day, so we'll give them a while longer.

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Parade happened. I would have felt a little sad for them like Xishuangbanna in the fact that it's all fenced off for them to perform, dance and wave on both sides of their path but it was quiet enough for one side to be completely empty and often they would stand still waving to nothingness.

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Jumped on the wheel to watch intently.

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Don't know what this was. Closed.

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Another flying theatre. Fast becoming the Jungle Mouse of the dark ride world.
Takes you round Guangdong province and basically it ain't as good as Yunnan province.

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The day starts to ebb away.

So went to guests services for a chat. Usual rubbish in that there is no actual answer, just a long string of meaningless excuses including:
'Maintenance'
'They only open the red one if they get enough footfall'
'The green one is more thrilling, so you don't need the red one'

Being in this silly hobby, those last words hurt. I know it doesn't affect anyone else in the world but even though they're different ride experiences and they are here actually acknowledging them as such, they treat it as a single attraction and if you've done one track, you've done Duelling Dragons, what's your problem?

I think I was 10x more wound up by it all by having the knowledge that they used to do the sensible thing and run both alternately on a quiet day, but only 6 months into the operation of the park they've already decided themselves that it's a wasted effort.
Shoulda gone in blind.

Anyway, the footfall excuse caught my attention foolishly . There were a couple of spare days in the trip allocated for instances such as this so asked whether it would be open in the next few, including the coming weekend.
I've done a weekend at a Wanda before, it was really busy (and this city is stupidly busy) but they were coping really well and became the only park in China I've seen outside Disney to run 2 trains on a major rollercoaster.
The word weekend then caught their attention.
'Yes. The red one WILL open at the weekend.'
Ok then.

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Last ride of the day was this Octopus simulator thing that wasn't any good.
It was obnoxiously following a couple of octopi around a cruise liner while they bounced from danger to danger screaming oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh continuously and I was just done by then.
Spent the whole time replanning the rest of the trip in my head.

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Oh i've experienced a Typhoon. They ran more rides in it than you do.

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Well unfortunately, yes.
 
Ugh, that sounds s**t. That ticketing thing must be new because it was just a pay-one-price affair when I went in July.

Sucks about the duelling coasters, too. I guess the whole idea of alternating them has gone out the window.

You'll be pleased to know that I didn't do the water coaster, so at least you have that. I assumed it was just a regular water splash thing, and it wasn't listed on RCDB as a coaster back then. I should've checked.

Still no sign of that supposed robocoaster thing then. I'm guessing that's not happening anymore.

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Yes I was told by RCD China that Sunac has introduced pay-per-ride system lately.

Devastated about the non-alternating dueling. I'm planning to get there this June but at least I know I can further lower my expectations.
 
Yes I was told by RCD China that Sunac has introduced pay-per-ride system lately.

Devastated about the non-alternating dueling. I'm planning to get there this June but at least I know I can further lower my expectations.
I know it's counterintuitive for us enthusiasts, but in China it's usually better to hit parks at weekends if you want more of a guarantee for everything to be open (still not guaranteed).

Mondays especially seem to be a big no-no, especially at Happy Valley parks (yeah, I know this isn't Happy Valley, just saying).

Most of my trips have been at weekends and I've had few issues. The couple of times I've done longer trips have been over Easter. It's not a holiday in China, but school trips around that time seem to keep things slightly busier. I'm never around for summer holidays, so can't really comment, but I'd imagine, like anywhere, the parks will be busier.

Purposely choosing quiet times will occasionally not work in your favour in China. It's such a luck of the draw situation though. I'm sure they don't put anywhere near as much thought into it as I just have.
 
I know it's counterintuitive for us enthusiasts, but in China it's usually better to hit parks at weekends if you want more of a guarantee for everything to be open (still not guaranteed).

Mondays especially seem to be a big no-no, especially at Happy Valley parks (yeah, I know this isn't Happy Valley, just saying).

Most of my trips have been at weekends and I've had few issues. The couple of times I've done longer trips have been over Easter. It's not a holiday in China, but school trips around that time seem to keep things slightly busier. I'm never around for summer holidays, so can't really comment, but I'd imagine, like anywhere, the parks will be busier.

Purposely choosing quiet times will occasionally not work in your favour in China. It's such a luck of the draw situation though. I'm sure they don't put anywhere near as much thought into it as I just have.

Much agree actually. I went to Happy Valley Shanghai on a public holiday last June, and I managed the apparently rare feat of grabbing all the creds on my first visit. I even saw Fireball running two trains!


A bit disappointed to hear about Duelling Dragons (Inverted). As this is the re-birth of the Intamin thrill invert I was expecting something more. @HeartlineCoaster How would you compare it to generic B&M Inverteds?
 
Still no sign of that supposed robocoaster thing then. I'm guessing that's not happening anymore.

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It is now due to open later this year. Had a rather large setback when it caught fire near the end of last year and they had to replace quite a large chunk of the electrics.
 
I'm planning to get there this June but at least I know I can further lower my expectations.
Hit me up when you're planning proper. We don't want you having another disaster. ;)

I know it's counterintuitive for us enthusiasts, but in China it's usually better to hit parks at weekends if you want more of a guarantee for everything to be open (still not guaranteed).
Hold that thought.

How would you compare it to generic B&M Inverteds?
A surprisingly difficult comparison actually. They don't really offer the same sort of sensations and I wasn't really looking for the things I love about Inverts in this - character and vicious positive forces.
I have also fallen out of favour with the B&Ms in recent months so overall this is more my cup of tea just for doing more interesting and unique stuff - launches and the ridiculous loop.
It lacks the grace of the B&Ms perhaps because they've stuck to that rigid pairing system on the rows of the trains, but the restraints are far superior of course.
I probably wouldn't put it above my favourites like Pyrenees. Above the unremarkable ones though? Yeah, why not.
There's a lot more they can do with this - if they didn't focus so much on this stupid spectacle of the double track thing to then not ever bother using it, then it could easily be a lot more special.


To save extra (potentially wasted) journeys, the two spare days I had at the weekend were reallocated to extra time down here. Hotels were extended and shortened and the train back to Changsha was postponed.
One of those spare days was provisionally another day trip to Wuhan – had a couple of spites there last time involving a different set of duelling dragons but the ones down here were a different ride experience at least – higher priority right? Wuhan was also where the initial outbreak of this virus thing and was already flooding the regional news so depending on your scepticism could have been a bullet dodged there too. (Epidemic - does that count towards my natural disaster spite collection?)
The other spare day was provisionally another day trip to Nanchang but the way Sunac was currently treating me that could have ended horribly as well, souring my previous experience with the park by running it terribly and leaving me coming away from the trip with more damage than improvement to my favourite rides.
No big loss in retrospect, but it did feel like a waste of potential at the time.

Particularly this day.

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With its culture.

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Day 10 – Jin Ying Amusement Park

I smell a mouse.

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Gotcha.

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Next?

Guangzhou Zoo

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Wow. Look at that unique layout.

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This one not so much.

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Aww, pandas.

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What you can’t see here is a sign every 12 inches saying do not bang the glass, then as everyone has blatantly been ignoring those signs, crowd control barriers physically keeping you away from the glass.

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Always been more of a red panda man myself. Can I take one of these home?

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Next?

South China Botanical Garden

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Are we sure about this one?

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Go on, take a closer look.

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Fear not. The tranquility of the Botanical Garden has been broken by some ugly amusements.

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Sadly this one was ‘maintenance’.
I’d say it’s beyond help.

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+4 for the day then.

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Canton Tower looks pretty at night.

Up next – a bit more of an actual park.
 
When I say actual park, I use the term loosely. I skipped this place 3 years ago because well.. it has nothing going for it. Just a highly concentrated cred run.

But here I am, stuck in Guangzhou with nothing better to do.

Day 11 – Chuanlord Holiday Manor

They chuck about 10 tickets at you for entry to this place that included some ice thing and some animal thing that I didn’t want. What I did want was the cashless ride card on which you get about 4 times what you pay to get in and far more than you'll ever actually need.

Warning: quality of my pictures matches quality of the park.

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First thing I came across was this spinning yacht device . First time I’ve managed to get on one. It’s a joke of a ride, consisting of an oval with a kicker wheel.

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Mmm. Powered Dragon. Something you may notice here is that all the rides are painted in the same colours. I’m not just posting the same picture 8 times and inflating my count, honest.

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Best ride of the day right here. It had a slightly unconventional layout for a Jungle Mouse including a couple of moments of surprise airtime.

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This area is where the park got tricky. They have a minimum number of riders they require to operate some of their rides.

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And as usual, it was heaving.

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So I got warmly greeted by a ride host and told to wait in this area for some more people (after being verified that I was under 1.8m, relief).
Notice the scales as well. Between 40kg and 75kg. There’s a very narrow band of criteria here.

A good half hour went by and eventually some blokes turned up and spent an age faffing about with whether they wanted to or not before several of them got declined anyway for weight reasons (while wearing rucksacks and carrying shopping bags, no doubt with chickens inside). I'm still holding out for the day I caption 'chicken on a rollercoaster.'

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I didn’t even want to ride the bastard. It was horrible.
I laugh in the face of Intrimidator 305 and honestly the closest I’ve ever come to blacking out on a ride was this thing. The sustained force throughout the whole of the double loop was pure disgust. Why.

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The spinner took tactics as it needed at least 3 people per car.
Got flatly refused the first time, then in passing later I saw 4 girls walk up to it and start the usual collective fuss about whether they would ride or not.
Sprinted up to join them. 1 of them decided against it. Swift nod from the operator. I’m in.
They lost their minds on it. I didn’t.

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Talking of losing their minds, made a new friend on this one, stealing her from her husband while they were having an argument in the queue about riding it.
It was dumb and rough for what it was, but I’ve never quite seen a reaction like this from someone on any ride - full on panic attack. Well maybe Kitt SuperJet. And the Taron queueline.
This needed 2 people and it took me an age to get 1 of them, so I didn’t bother with the farcical matter of attempting all 4 ‘tracks’.

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Was worried this didn’t exist. Couldn’t find that final cred anywhere on the map. Craftily hidden under a roof. It spins, really viciously, once.

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I was subconsciously putting this thing off. Didn’t actually need to because I spent well over an hour in the same scenario, sitting outside it waiting for other guests to justify the running of it.
They said 4, but then settled for 2 children and forced me into the front.

I thought I hated these before but now just sitting here recalling the ride experience again is making me feel ill.
Time stopped in the upside down bit. I hate that soooooooo much. I literally can’t deal with it. But there’s nothing I can do. It felt like something gave way in my head and for the briefest of moments I was alright again. And now I’m worried what that sensation was.
Positive thinking – it was smoother than the one in Finland.

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Jumped on the wheel cos I had tons of credit left and didn’t want to reride anything in the slightest.

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Regretted it because it was creaky and dirty. Couldn’t get through the holes properly for pictures either.

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Spent too long waiting for an operator to show up for this thing.
The cheapest of cheap shooting dark ride hardware, but not a shooting dark ride.
Just a ride through some caves and animals in the dark. It was actually really claustrophobic and I guess kinda cool, in an unintentional sort of way.

I then wanted to leave rather abruptly but Didi decided otherwise. In the first instance of it letting me down it said my car was there, but it wasn’t, then got stuck for 15 minutes not letting me cancel or rebook until, I guess, he cancelled at the other end. In my impatience I got guest services to taxi me up instead, the driver of which then attempted to rip me off at the toll booth, reminding me why Didi is still so superior.
He was mumbling to himself as he drove off, disappointed that he failed to fool ol’ ghost face.

Well that was cheerful. Don’t worry, it gets better.
 
That sounds like a truly depressing day at a park. Haha.

Good stuff.
 
Awww, I've actually got a bit of a soft spot for Chuanlord, and those replacement coasters are looking a lot fresher than the same models they replaced (plus that means I have more creds when I get back).

I "luckily" got that looper after I'd lost a load of weight. I'm pretty sure they didn't even have that restriction back then, but it popped up when I revisited a while later. I wouldn't get on it now. It's so stupid though given that it's a stock model and all the others are fine.

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That Skyloop sign is fantastic, fits with the quirky park.

Apart from the yellow paint, which is now a bit fresher, I don't recognise the manor at all. Good to see the mass constriction actually completed.
 
It's so stupid though given that it's a stock model and all the others are fine.
At least it isn't a 1.7m like that Lewa one now.


I can’t keep the poorly held suspense any longer.

The weekend arrived. I went hunting on the website to find specific ride opening times rather than risk turning up several hours too early for the dragons again.
10:30 you say?
Time for a revisit.

Day 12 – Guangzhou Sunac Land again

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Of course they weren’t sticking to it. Got to the entrance of the ride. 12:00 opening.
Sat on a bench for an hour, depressingly noticing that the amount of people in the park was exactly the same as it had been on the Wednesday.

They tested both sides separately, exactly as they had on the Wednesday. I stood and watched the staff activity in the station intently. They were up in the red station, wiping down the railings and the baggage holders. Making it presentable? Then they put a rope across the stairs and went back down to the green one.

The green one opened. Asked about the red one today?
Nope. Not happening.
Maintenance?
‘Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… yeah… let’s say that.’

The girl that had promised me it would open at the weekend wasn’t in guest services for another chat.
The rest of them didn’t care. ‘Ride the green one – it’s better.’
So I left.

Have some pictures of the poxy thing running if you want.

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‘Erections strictly prohibited’ is so very true.

Decided to go up the Canton Tower after seeing it the other day.

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The attractive look it has on the outside is a bit of a design flaw on the inside when it comes to being an observation deck. All that twisted cladding just blocks the views.

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They have some engineering stuff on show.

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A graph. Erections no longer prohibited.

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Perhaps the building design was a money making scheme all along, as the only way you can get an unobstructed view is to pay an extra 20 quid to ride the silly bubble thing on the roof.

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What’s in the mystery door?

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I went up for the drop tower though. ‘Highest thrill ride in the world’. I’ll take that claim.

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As a piece of hardware it ain’t much. Not as tall as I expected, hardly leaves you in suspense at the top at all and a slightly punchy drop.
Something about just looking down to the ground over the edge of the building and appreciating the sheer height you are at while on it though.
That was a pretty special feeling. Would recommend.

Back to Changsha after that. The circle is complete.
One more major park to come and finish things on a high and I’m getting excited again just remembering it. I do love this hobby really.
 
The mystery door takes you up to the very highest observation level, just above the top of the drop towers. I forked out for it on my first visit there. Not worth the extra cost.

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Oh my god these blog posts are amazing. I’ve been in tears laughing at the signs - the happy dog one and his ‘ideal’... good lord!!

These parks look bleaker than anything I could have imagined. Are you alone wandering though these ghost towns?! That is commitment!

At the very least, you have provided me with some very decent entertainment.... even if these parks didn’t provide you with the same!! For that, I salute you, Sir.
 
The mystery door takes you up to the very highest observation level, just above the top of the drop towers. I forked out for it on my first visit there. Not worth the extra cost.
Ah! That doesn't even seem to be an option any more. I think they've changed the pricing structure as I remember you getting rather offended by it.

These parks look bleaker than anything I could have imagined.
Please don't let this be the main impression you take away from this. Lots of the parks are actually really lovely.


Back where it all began then, they’ve got this shiny new Fantawild resort.

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With a second gate on the way? From the décor it looks like they’re going backwards and doing an Adventure next. I hope it’s an upgraded version. I do like it when they do something new, as we’re about to find out.

Day 13 – Oriental Heritage Changsha

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Having being put back in a cynical mood, I wasn’t expecting the coasters to be open for another 6 hours after the park, if at all due the cold. So the first thing we ended up on was…

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Another flying theatre! Yes!
It was alright, I think.

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In poor taste it did have this picture in the queue of that stupid Vekoma Stingray that spited me twice before being demolished.

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On to better things, the area for Celestial Gauntlet looks amazing. I’ll be doing lots of visuals as I go along for this park as I really think they’ve outdone themselves this time. Normally the ‘thrill ride’ areas with a Woodie and bog standard water rides are very plain and often lazy by their standards.

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To my surprise it was already open and they were just waiting for someone to ride it. Go on then.

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I liked the look of this thing, other than the vests.
Ride without prejudice.

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And it didn’t disappoint overall. The lift hill provides some unusual audio of people screaming as you approach the summit.
The drop gives you the briefest moment of ‘wahey I’m out of the seat oh no I’m not.’

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The hang in the inversion is insane. I love how all these modern rides are manging to pull off sensations like this now. Loops used to be so boring.

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Everything else in the layout is about a third of the height of the first element so it hauls its way through a bunch of hills and a couple more inversions with a varying degree of pleasure - some of them actually are good and some of them just look good while not really doing anything to you.

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Tunnels at the end provide some great interaction.

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It’s a cool ride. Nothing game changing. Very fun and re-rideable, but to me not quite worthy of being the stand out attraction at a park. It should be a secondary compliment. To a Jungle Trailblazer. With a new layout.

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From there, we unknowingly wandered into one of the standouts of the whole trip. I had something written down on my bit of paper for the day saying ‘new dark ride?! – rocks and vines out front’ and didn’t even notice this was that until afterwards.

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The queue went on forever and just kept getting more and more insane, to the point where I was beginning to think it was the attraction and there was no ride at the end.

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Particularly when you end up in this room looking like an art gallery with this big ancient scroll on display. So, it’s just a museum?

No, keep going.

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It’s a trackless dark ride. Oh yes.

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It’s called Magic Gallery or perhaps better, Magic Brush. It follows this boy who can turn into a brush and then bring to life the contents of any drawings or paintings. He takes you on a bit of an adventure.

The ride is really, really long and packed full of intimate detail. Stuff of proper wonderment and awe as you go round. What real dark rides are made of.

The smells are back and more amazing than ever. You end up inside a physical set of a rotting ship at one point and it smells just like the Mary Rose museum. Then a massive flood effect happens while a dragon is playing hide and seek with you.

You learn some history along the way, you meet a sexy water Goddess with her Kirin-drawn chariot, then it smells like the nicest soap ever, you go behind a curtain and he’s found that giant scroll painting from the gallery in the queue and it comes to life and you fly around and it’s all magical and ahhhhhhhhhh. So much to take in. So much charm.

I get back to the station in the midst of re-contemplating my life, like you get on the brake run of a new top 10 coaster.
The ride host walks over with two cups of tea for us as we get off.
I can’t describe how happy this makes me. It’s the simple things.

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Stuff like that just doesn’t happen and yet here we are.

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So we’ve got a potential Jinshan beater on our hands here. I’m tempted to give it the edge as it’s much more of a ‘ride’ and therefore better paced, without reliance on a show.
The ONE criticism I do have is that because it was running so few vehicles (no capacity required), you often got a bit ahead of the scenes and you’d have to swivel and crane to catch all of it.

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Here’s one of those water rides that looks anything but plain. Sadly all closed for the weather.

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A show was starting here soon.

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The puppy was round the corner to fill the time.

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Entrance area to the show.

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No big deal.

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In a similar vein to Magic Brush it was about reawakening some famous woman who was mummified in a tomb and all the creatures in that flag, but this time it was done with science. The characters came to life, some conversations and traditional dance happened.
I don’t know what black magic was going on here. That show I described at the start of the trip with the translucent projection screens around a stage was cranked up to the max.
They described it as augmented reality and you couldn’t see a screen at all in front of the single big stage but projections appeared out of thin air, completely covering up the action when required. This was complimented by a huge screen behind the stage as well.
Sometimes they used that lying on the floor of the trick with more projections and a giant mirror to make it look like people were flying and it was overall pretty epic.

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Same story with the rapids, but wow.

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Nuwa has had an upgraded entrance façade as well. She’s much bigger and more detailed and the fighting blokes aren’t normally there.

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The whole package felt like a Legend of Nuwa 1.1. I may be suppressing things but it felt like there were a couple more details thrown in. Most importantly it was running with a ton more ferocity.
Properly vicious movements from the car that make you concerned for your safety.
Do they weaken over time or do they just make them better now?

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They’ve got another cool show here that I’ve seen before - the Lady Meng Jiang one with brick bubble ballet. Good lineup.

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And something else that stands out to me about this park is how each attraction has much more of it’s own dedicated themed area.
Often they can look amazing out front, but where they are is a bit plonked amongst everything else.

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Not quite as pretty, but it’s in the kids area themed to Boonie Bear at the circus.

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I like the Orkanen layout. The start is really good and its generally much less meandering than the smaller models.

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They had the most relaxed staff ever here. You could just walk in and sit on the train at any time, none of this batching nonsense. Or even have a nose around the op box cos they’d just disappear down the queue for a chat while people were taking their seats. And it’s like the first ride in China ever that I’ve been able to keep my glasses on. A nation that doesn’t like them on gentle flat rides.

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Maybe it is pretty.

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Maybe I’ve just got a thing for reflections now.

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Hadn’t done this tower ride for about 3 years, back in my first Fantawild where I despised the place. Maybe that gave me a bad impression of it.

Nah, it still sucks. So much wasted potential. It has that horrible controlled sensation all the way up and all the way down.
It has doors at the top that make it look like it’s trying to be Tower of Terror. But it doesn’t do anything.
It has screens in the middle that make it look like it’s going to do something cool. But it doesn’t do anything.
Very slowly drifts past a snake on them at the end of the ride cycle while the hardware hisses loudly.

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Managed to put this off at about 10 parks previously. Finally gave it a go.
Expected a lengthy 3D cinema about boring stuff, but actually got a brief and graphic history of all their different dynasties and the various wars involved.


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From other reports not sure if these are all the same now.
It was decent enough.

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This was amazing. Another boat ride with a new theme - all about 4 letter Chinese idioms or ‘Chengyu’, represented by scenes.

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To send charcoal in snowy weather.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chengyu#Chinese_examples
Have a read, they’re great.

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Rerides until satisfied then, followed by a slight sadness on departure.

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Really, really liked this place. I thought I would be done after the Asian Legend park but even after so much fatigue I fell in love with Fantawild all over again here. They’re now by far my favourite chain in the country - and it’s taken them long enough. Ningbo was clearly an anomaly and I’ll take the adventure parks as a learning process. This is a spectacular example of that process continuing.

I shall now follow their future with greater interest than ever.
Sunac can suck it.
 
Gotta admit the scenery from some of the Chinese park is impressive. Not the cheap cardboard stuff you could expect.

I have somewhat higher expectations for the Hyper Space Warp - being a New Vekoma fanboy and such. Still looks like a very fun ride based on your commentary, but it sounds like it could have been optimized a tad further.

Any plans to do Top Gun soon? (I mean, after the virus...)
 
Any plans to do Top Gun soon?
Give it about 6 years to open, then yes. Would be a good revenge trip for Ningbo.


All good things must come to an end.

There was time for one more park in the morning before the plane home. A humble affair in the middle of the city.

Day 14 – Hunan Martyr’s Park

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Entertainment ground. That’s the one.

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Spongebob x Nemo collab.

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Jungle Mouse was the order of the day of course.
It had a weird smoother track style and a much less vicious layout. Modern.

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And there used to be a looper here on this patch of grass. Spite.

The end.


Summary

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This is where we learn that it wasn’t a circle. The Changsha Quadrilateral? That still counts as alliteration.

New creds - 45
Total parks – 18
Dark rides - 26
Jungle Mouses - 8
Best coaster – Jungle Trailblazer (Nanning)
Best not a clone coaster - Harpy
Best park – Fantawild Asian Legend for the overall lineup. Honorable mentions to Colourful Yunnan Paradise and Oriental Heritage Changsha
Distance travelled ~ 3313 Miles-ish
Not counting things that haven’t opened at all yet – Xingdong and the S&S, Spites - 5/50 (10%)

The science holds! January is king.
 
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