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Easter in China PTR: Part 12 - Oriental Heritage
- Thread starter Gavin
- Start date
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 5 - Song Dynasty Town
Just found this video, which I'd forgotten I'd taken, hiding in some secretive folder on my camera. It's just that "tapestry" screen thing I mentioned. Nothing too exciting, and it doesn't look anywhere near as fab via my camera and YouTube - it looks way more like a screen than it did in real life - but I'll chuck it anyway.
[youtubevid]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQ-JZDsNvQ[/youtubevid]
Edit - F**k knows why it won't embed. Follow the link if you're that bothered I guess. Piece of s**t forums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQ-JZDsNvQ&feature=youtu.be
EDIT - Fixed the YouTube video for you - Hixee
Just found this video, which I'd forgotten I'd taken, hiding in some secretive folder on my camera. It's just that "tapestry" screen thing I mentioned. Nothing too exciting, and it doesn't look anywhere near as fab via my camera and YouTube - it looks way more like a screen than it did in real life - but I'll chuck it anyway.
[youtubevid]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQ-JZDsNvQ[/youtubevid]
Edit - F**k knows why it won't embed. Follow the link if you're that bothered I guess. Piece of s**t forums.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQ-JZDsNvQ&feature=youtu.be
EDIT - Fixed the YouTube video for you - Hixee
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 5 - Song Dynasty Town
The train from Hangzhou to the next city, Suzhou, only took about an hour. Again, it’s a very popular city for tourism, but it was a lot quieter than Hangzhou since I was there early in the week. My hotel was on the edge of a pedestrianized area, itself within the main tourist district, so I had a quick wander and got something to eat.
I immediately liked this place. There was something very cool and laid back (for China anyway) about it. Wide, clean, pedestrianized streets, and nobody batting an eyelid at the foreigner. It’s only half an hour away from Shanghai though, so that’s probably got a lot to do with it.
I don’t bother reporting on hotels usually, but this one was fab. Very modern and cool without being pretentious, fab staff, amazing breakfast buffet etc.
As with Hangzhou, there wasn’t a great deal to get overly-excited about with regards to parks, but there were a few minor places to grab while doing other general sightseeing. Suzhou is best known for the canals and craploads of old gardens scattered around. There are creds coming up, but I’ll chuck other stuff in first.
I decided to walk up to the best-known garden first, figuring that getting there early would be a good option. Some stuff on the walk up:
Following this canal north basically gets you to the garden.
The Humble Administrator’s Garden was nice, but a bit pricey to get into considering that parks and gardens in general around China are free.
It wasn’t too busy when I arrived, but started getting much busier quite soon after. It never got as crowded as Hangzhou though, and after this place everywhere else was pretty quiet.
These two places are not to be confused:
From there I went onto Pingjiang Road. It’s another canal that runs parallel to the one I’d walked up, but with a pedestrianized street next to it. It’s nice, but very touristy obviously, mostly consisting of souvenir and coffee shops.
The plan was to walk quite a bit further down it, but I took a quick detour almost immediately to another garden just of it, and really close to the first place. It was smaller, but quite fab, and I preferred it to the first place.
Crossing over, and through, that pile of rocks brings you out into the main garden.
From there it was back to Pingjiang Road for a bit.
Again, I took a detour off it, but this time to getthecred.
Suzhou East Park
This place was a 15-minute walk away from the canal, but I was walking in the wrong direction for 10 minutes before I realized, meaning I had to go back to where I’d started and walk the other way. I knew it was just a +1, but since it was there and involved little effort, I had to get it.
It seemed be a fairly big park, but I didn’t see much of it. For once, I actually got to the amusement park area first, which was just off the road. Usually with these places I always choose the wrong entrance and end up having to search around for the kiddy crap.
Just a powered dragon here.
A bridge connected it to Suzhou Zoo, but I didn’t head over.
From there it was back to the canal again. Even though it wasn’t far, the detour had cost me close to an hour thanks to the earlier f**k up on my part.
The canal ends at a busy main road and next to a metro station. There were two parks I wanted to get to, both very close to metro stations on the same line I was on, but in completely opposite directions. Either one was about half an hour away, and it was about 2pm by this point.
The metro - like most in China - was modern, fast, clean and cheap. There are only two lines in Suzhou at the moment, with more under construction, but it was fine for what I needed. They even play Tom and Jerry cartoons.
I couldn’t decide if this bitch was fabulous due to her couldn’t-give-a-flying-f**k attitude, or just an absolutely dreadful creature. Since I had a seat, I settled on the former.
Anyway.
Suzhou Amusement Land
I decided on this place over the other thinking that the other place might be open later, which I’ll get to in a bit.
I arrived just as the school trips were leaving, which left the park basically empty.
It was a bit more substantial than I’d thought it would be.
The bestial oral rape statue was a particular highlight.
A cred that we’ll get back to in a bit.
First up was a knockoff Chinese shuttle looped, ripped off from an original design by Meisho. I’ve done two of each now – real and knockoff – though there aren’t many of either, and they ride the same. Nothing special, but nothing inherently wrong with them.
I’ve mentioned it reports before, but the trains on these go forwards up the lift hill to the raised, flat section before dropping back to take the loop backwards, before hitting the spike and then doing the loop forwards. I can’t think of any other shuttle design where the trains complete the course backwards first.
Some amazing signage.
I only waited two minutes to ride it, but I can’t imagine how this works on anything even resembling a busy day. Oh wait, yes I can because it’s f**king China. At least they’re up-front and honest about their intentions to run something like s**t.
This was an upcharge, but seemed to be either a paintball or laser thing.
Before I took any notice, I’d assumed this would be a knockoff. When I looked properly though, I realized it must be a Vekoma since none of the knockoff companies have done this layout.
Before that though, I tried this:
F**k me it was awful. It was a motion platform that did nothing other than shake randomly with no connection to the screens. The screens were all misaligned with each other. Despite being clearly space-themed, the film was of the Tour-de-France and the cameras were running actual film. You could hear them, and the film was full of splotches and crackles. I can’t find a quick, easy way to rotate the image in Imgur.
I f**king hate Imgur, but I’ve filled Photobucket and I’m not about to pay to increase the size. I only use either of them for trip reports though, so I suppose I could go and delete a load of older stuff.
To the SLC!
Turns out it’s the 787m version. There are only two of this model, the other one being in Thailand, and they’re the longest SLCs after Odyssey. I think it’s basically because the elements are a bit more drawn out. There’s no discernible difference when you’re riding it.
It was pretty awful. Nowhere near as horrendous as the knockoff from a few days before, but it sat quite comfortably in the bottom half of all the Vekoma SLCs I’ve done. Considering that I place the Thai coaster as my best SLC - and that’s older and gone through a relocation - it just shows how ridiculously inconsistent these bloody things are.
It looked nice though, with decent landscaping, a tunnel, a water splash effect and an impressive backdrop. The sun was coming from behind the mountain though, so the pictures don’t look so good. Earlier in the day and it would’ve looked fab.
Upcharge. F**k off.
Apparently, it’s Halloween for 2 years. No idea.
There used to be a coaster in this building, but they moved it outside and it now houses an XD Theatre.
Meh, but they always are.
This was another upcharge haunted house, but looked like it might have been decent. They were closing it up though by the time I got to it.
Nope!
Here’s the coaster that used to be inside the building.
RCDB had it listed as SBNO. I’ve learned that that’s not always the case though. I think in some cases a few people visit a place once, get spited by a closed ride and e-mail in declaring it as SBNO.
This one clearly was though. The whole area was fenced off and it had been taken off the park maps. They haven’t taken it down though, so maybe there are plans to get it sorted. No idea.
Thoughts then. A bigger park than I expected, which looked quite decent upon arriving/entering, but with nothing of any real note.
I decided to try my luck with the cred at the other side of the city. I knew nothing about the place it was located at other than that it was next to a giant wheel. I figured that maybe, since these city wheels are usually open late, that the whole area would be open later and I’d be able to polish off the cred.
It was about a 10-minute walk from the metro; the ride from Suzhou Amusement Land had taken around half an hour.
There it is!
And, it had just closed 15 minutes before I got there.
This was annoying, but fine as I had until midafternoon the next day before I had to leave, so I could come back. I just found it stupid to have a giant observation wheel in a pay-to-enter park which closes at 5pm. I hadn’t expected to find a pay-to-enter park at all.
Anyway, after getting something to eat in the area, I got the metro back to where I’d got on it originally at the bottom end of Pingjiang Road and walked back up to see it at night, before heading back to my hotel.
The train from Hangzhou to the next city, Suzhou, only took about an hour. Again, it’s a very popular city for tourism, but it was a lot quieter than Hangzhou since I was there early in the week. My hotel was on the edge of a pedestrianized area, itself within the main tourist district, so I had a quick wander and got something to eat.
I immediately liked this place. There was something very cool and laid back (for China anyway) about it. Wide, clean, pedestrianized streets, and nobody batting an eyelid at the foreigner. It’s only half an hour away from Shanghai though, so that’s probably got a lot to do with it.
I don’t bother reporting on hotels usually, but this one was fab. Very modern and cool without being pretentious, fab staff, amazing breakfast buffet etc.
As with Hangzhou, there wasn’t a great deal to get overly-excited about with regards to parks, but there were a few minor places to grab while doing other general sightseeing. Suzhou is best known for the canals and craploads of old gardens scattered around. There are creds coming up, but I’ll chuck other stuff in first.
I decided to walk up to the best-known garden first, figuring that getting there early would be a good option. Some stuff on the walk up:
Following this canal north basically gets you to the garden.
The Humble Administrator’s Garden was nice, but a bit pricey to get into considering that parks and gardens in general around China are free.
It wasn’t too busy when I arrived, but started getting much busier quite soon after. It never got as crowded as Hangzhou though, and after this place everywhere else was pretty quiet.
These two places are not to be confused:
From there I went onto Pingjiang Road. It’s another canal that runs parallel to the one I’d walked up, but with a pedestrianized street next to it. It’s nice, but very touristy obviously, mostly consisting of souvenir and coffee shops.
The plan was to walk quite a bit further down it, but I took a quick detour almost immediately to another garden just of it, and really close to the first place. It was smaller, but quite fab, and I preferred it to the first place.
Crossing over, and through, that pile of rocks brings you out into the main garden.
From there it was back to Pingjiang Road for a bit.
Again, I took a detour off it, but this time to getthecred.
Suzhou East Park
This place was a 15-minute walk away from the canal, but I was walking in the wrong direction for 10 minutes before I realized, meaning I had to go back to where I’d started and walk the other way. I knew it was just a +1, but since it was there and involved little effort, I had to get it.
It seemed be a fairly big park, but I didn’t see much of it. For once, I actually got to the amusement park area first, which was just off the road. Usually with these places I always choose the wrong entrance and end up having to search around for the kiddy crap.
Just a powered dragon here.
A bridge connected it to Suzhou Zoo, but I didn’t head over.
From there it was back to the canal again. Even though it wasn’t far, the detour had cost me close to an hour thanks to the earlier f**k up on my part.
The canal ends at a busy main road and next to a metro station. There were two parks I wanted to get to, both very close to metro stations on the same line I was on, but in completely opposite directions. Either one was about half an hour away, and it was about 2pm by this point.
The metro - like most in China - was modern, fast, clean and cheap. There are only two lines in Suzhou at the moment, with more under construction, but it was fine for what I needed. They even play Tom and Jerry cartoons.
I couldn’t decide if this bitch was fabulous due to her couldn’t-give-a-flying-f**k attitude, or just an absolutely dreadful creature. Since I had a seat, I settled on the former.
Anyway.
Suzhou Amusement Land
I decided on this place over the other thinking that the other place might be open later, which I’ll get to in a bit.
I arrived just as the school trips were leaving, which left the park basically empty.
It was a bit more substantial than I’d thought it would be.
The bestial oral rape statue was a particular highlight.
A cred that we’ll get back to in a bit.
First up was a knockoff Chinese shuttle looped, ripped off from an original design by Meisho. I’ve done two of each now – real and knockoff – though there aren’t many of either, and they ride the same. Nothing special, but nothing inherently wrong with them.
I’ve mentioned it reports before, but the trains on these go forwards up the lift hill to the raised, flat section before dropping back to take the loop backwards, before hitting the spike and then doing the loop forwards. I can’t think of any other shuttle design where the trains complete the course backwards first.
Some amazing signage.
I only waited two minutes to ride it, but I can’t imagine how this works on anything even resembling a busy day. Oh wait, yes I can because it’s f**king China. At least they’re up-front and honest about their intentions to run something like s**t.
This was an upcharge, but seemed to be either a paintball or laser thing.
Before I took any notice, I’d assumed this would be a knockoff. When I looked properly though, I realized it must be a Vekoma since none of the knockoff companies have done this layout.
Before that though, I tried this:
F**k me it was awful. It was a motion platform that did nothing other than shake randomly with no connection to the screens. The screens were all misaligned with each other. Despite being clearly space-themed, the film was of the Tour-de-France and the cameras were running actual film. You could hear them, and the film was full of splotches and crackles. I can’t find a quick, easy way to rotate the image in Imgur.
I f**king hate Imgur, but I’ve filled Photobucket and I’m not about to pay to increase the size. I only use either of them for trip reports though, so I suppose I could go and delete a load of older stuff.
To the SLC!
Turns out it’s the 787m version. There are only two of this model, the other one being in Thailand, and they’re the longest SLCs after Odyssey. I think it’s basically because the elements are a bit more drawn out. There’s no discernible difference when you’re riding it.
It was pretty awful. Nowhere near as horrendous as the knockoff from a few days before, but it sat quite comfortably in the bottom half of all the Vekoma SLCs I’ve done. Considering that I place the Thai coaster as my best SLC - and that’s older and gone through a relocation - it just shows how ridiculously inconsistent these bloody things are.
It looked nice though, with decent landscaping, a tunnel, a water splash effect and an impressive backdrop. The sun was coming from behind the mountain though, so the pictures don’t look so good. Earlier in the day and it would’ve looked fab.
Upcharge. F**k off.
Apparently, it’s Halloween for 2 years. No idea.
There used to be a coaster in this building, but they moved it outside and it now houses an XD Theatre.
Meh, but they always are.
This was another upcharge haunted house, but looked like it might have been decent. They were closing it up though by the time I got to it.
Nope!
Here’s the coaster that used to be inside the building.
RCDB had it listed as SBNO. I’ve learned that that’s not always the case though. I think in some cases a few people visit a place once, get spited by a closed ride and e-mail in declaring it as SBNO.
This one clearly was though. The whole area was fenced off and it had been taken off the park maps. They haven’t taken it down though, so maybe there are plans to get it sorted. No idea.
Thoughts then. A bigger park than I expected, which looked quite decent upon arriving/entering, but with nothing of any real note.
I decided to try my luck with the cred at the other side of the city. I knew nothing about the place it was located at other than that it was next to a giant wheel. I figured that maybe, since these city wheels are usually open late, that the whole area would be open later and I’d be able to polish off the cred.
It was about a 10-minute walk from the metro; the ride from Suzhou Amusement Land had taken around half an hour.
There it is!
And, it had just closed 15 minutes before I got there.
This was annoying, but fine as I had until midafternoon the next day before I had to leave, so I could come back. I just found it stupid to have a giant observation wheel in a pay-to-enter park which closes at 5pm. I hadn’t expected to find a pay-to-enter park at all.
Anyway, after getting something to eat in the area, I got the metro back to where I’d got on it originally at the bottom end of Pingjiang Road and walked back up to see it at night, before heading back to my hotel.
TilenB
Strata Poster
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 5 - Song Dynasty Town
Fab report as always! Just a shame my browser hates imgur and sort of crashes whenever I get to the part 6. I'll try IE if it works any better there...
Does it work now?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQ-JZDsNvQ[/youtube]
Fab report as always! Just a shame my browser hates imgur and sort of crashes whenever I get to the part 6. I'll try IE if it works any better there...
gavin said:
Does it work now?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfQ-JZDsNvQ[/youtube]
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 6 - Suzhou Amusement Land
Yeah, that's done it, but the other link also works fine looking at it now on Tapatalk. Weird.
I have massive issues with Imgur on the work computers; it crashes the browsers constantly. It's better using Chrome, but still not great. No issues at home, but since I get most reports done at work I'm going to have to change I think.
I'll have a look at alternatives later; basically I need something with quick codes. Photobucket and Imgur are good for that as you don't have to open each picture individually to get them.
Yeah, that's done it, but the other link also works fine looking at it now on Tapatalk. Weird.
I have massive issues with Imgur on the work computers; it crashes the browsers constantly. It's better using Chrome, but still not great. No issues at home, but since I get most reports done at work I'm going to have to change I think.
I'll have a look at alternatives later; basically I need something with quick codes. Photobucket and Imgur are good for that as you don't have to open each picture individually to get them.
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 6 - Suzhou Amusement Land
I headed back to the park that I had got to too late the previous day, getting there just as it was opening.
Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou
This place was tiny, with very little to actually do. As I said before, it was surprising to have it as a pay one price kind of park. There’s only one coaster here, the only Vekoma Stingray coaster.
Since the park was empty, I had to wait ages before they would bother to send it round. It’s not up to much really. Kind of glad I got it for the uniqueness, but not something I’d be excited to see popping up elsewhere.
I did the Ferris wheel because it was there. It’s tied for the world’s 6th tallest with 4 other wheels, just a few feet short of that thing in Orlando.
I can’t imagine what must have happened to prompt them to put up this sign.
This was annoying as f**k. The place was totally empty, with one family behind me for the wheel. The bint on the gate still made us stand here for over five minutes while she f**ked around on her phone and shouted across at someone working on a food counter.
Common sense dictates to put the family behind me into the next car since there’s literally NOBODY else waiting. Nope. Shove them in with me. Idiots. Half an hour of being trapped with screeching peasants.
Plus, it was too hazy to really see much. On a clear day, there’s not really all that much to see anyway, but that should change in the next few years since China’s new tallest building should appear across the lake.
You get a decent view of the coaster though I guess.
You had to show your ticket to get onto the rides, but when I tried it for this walkthrough, some sour-faced bitch just grunted at me even though the couple in front walked straight in. I guess it was an upcharge and I didn’t have the right ticket. There’s no need to try and explain this though; just go back to your phone, you c**t.
There was a Disko and a Wave Swinger which I didn’t bother taking any pictures of. I’ll just finish off with a couple more of Stingray.
That’s it. I wasn’t impressed with this place at all. It’s tiny, with basically f**k all there and with rude bastards working in it. I left just as a bunch of school trips started to arrive. I was only in there about an hour and that was only because the Ferris wheel took 30 minutes.
It would make a lot more sense as an open, pay-per-ride place, especially since the main draw of it is the wheel. It just makes no sense to have it totally closed off by 5pm. Actually, scratch that. It’s in China, so it makes total sense.
I went to a couple more of those garden places for a couple of hours, but I can’t be f**ked to dig out any more pictures and they all start to look the f**king same anyway. Then it was back to the hotel to pick up bags and onto the train station – the hotel had a free shuttle – and onto the next city.
Three cities down; three to go.
Bollocks.
I headed back to the park that I had got to too late the previous day, getting there just as it was opening.
Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou
This place was tiny, with very little to actually do. As I said before, it was surprising to have it as a pay one price kind of park. There’s only one coaster here, the only Vekoma Stingray coaster.
Since the park was empty, I had to wait ages before they would bother to send it round. It’s not up to much really. Kind of glad I got it for the uniqueness, but not something I’d be excited to see popping up elsewhere.
I did the Ferris wheel because it was there. It’s tied for the world’s 6th tallest with 4 other wheels, just a few feet short of that thing in Orlando.
I can’t imagine what must have happened to prompt them to put up this sign.
This was annoying as f**k. The place was totally empty, with one family behind me for the wheel. The bint on the gate still made us stand here for over five minutes while she f**ked around on her phone and shouted across at someone working on a food counter.
Common sense dictates to put the family behind me into the next car since there’s literally NOBODY else waiting. Nope. Shove them in with me. Idiots. Half an hour of being trapped with screeching peasants.
Plus, it was too hazy to really see much. On a clear day, there’s not really all that much to see anyway, but that should change in the next few years since China’s new tallest building should appear across the lake.
You get a decent view of the coaster though I guess.
You had to show your ticket to get onto the rides, but when I tried it for this walkthrough, some sour-faced bitch just grunted at me even though the couple in front walked straight in. I guess it was an upcharge and I didn’t have the right ticket. There’s no need to try and explain this though; just go back to your phone, you c**t.
There was a Disko and a Wave Swinger which I didn’t bother taking any pictures of. I’ll just finish off with a couple more of Stingray.
That’s it. I wasn’t impressed with this place at all. It’s tiny, with basically f**k all there and with rude bastards working in it. I left just as a bunch of school trips started to arrive. I was only in there about an hour and that was only because the Ferris wheel took 30 minutes.
It would make a lot more sense as an open, pay-per-ride place, especially since the main draw of it is the wheel. It just makes no sense to have it totally closed off by 5pm. Actually, scratch that. It’s in China, so it makes total sense.
I went to a couple more of those garden places for a couple of hours, but I can’t be f**ked to dig out any more pictures and they all start to look the f**king same anyway. Then it was back to the hotel to pick up bags and onto the train station – the hotel had a free shuttle – and onto the next city.
Three cities down; three to go.
Bollocks.
Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 7 - Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou
I can only view this on tapatalk without it crashing. I guess Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast goes backwards first, but it wasn't initially intended to. The gardens at Suzhou look sublime!
Great report can't, wait for china's dinosaur park and joyland (assuming you went there)
I can only view this on tapatalk without it crashing. I guess Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast goes backwards first, but it wasn't initially intended to. The gardens at Suzhou look sublime!
Great report can't, wait for china's dinosaur park and joyland (assuming you went there)
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 7 - Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou
The next stop was Changzhou, a relatively minor city that’s actually home to some major parks. There was a big city park – Hongmei Park - quite close to my hotel, so I had a walk down there first before getting a taxi out to somewhere I knew had creds. There was a small amusement park section there, but no coasters.
They did have the world’s tallest pagoda though, which I wasn’t expecting Still, I probably would’ve been happier to find a surprise, bonus Jungle Mouse.
The main park for the day was China Dinosaurs Park, in the north of the city, but there was a +1 in the other direction to the south. Since it was still early, and a taxi between the two places would only take about half an hour, I decided to head down there.
I had no idea that I’d actually be at this place as long as I was though. I should probably have learned by now that “just one cred” doesn’t always mean a small park. This place was actually pretty major.
Yancheng Chun-Qiu Land
I was expecting a crappy city park with a few rides, but it was pay-one-price kind of place. There was also a safari park next to it.
It’s based around local Chinese culture and was really impressive. Surprisingly, there was plenty of detailed, accurate, English information around the various areas.
The Confucian School area had some kind of show. No idea.
Away from that area, a traditional-style street leads down to a temple complex and then onto the rides area. I guess this place was trying to do the same thing as Song Dynasty Town in Hangzhou, though this place was a lot nicer.
The dreaded Chinese tour group, easily spotted by having to wear caps and/or t-shirts provided by the tour company. Yes, these are fully-grown adults being treated like toddlers, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
I will never understand the concept of following a tour guide around an amusement park; you see it constantly at Ocean Park and in Disneyland here.
I tried out the flying island for the views.
I’d forgotten what kind of coaster they had here. Ah f**k.
I walked through the fake temple complex to the main ride area.
I’ll post one more picture of this piece of s**t, but won’t further disrespect my computer monitor by making it show more.
The biggest/only queue was for this horror walkthrough. I waited about half an hour for it. It was massive, taking about 15 minutes to get through, with some huge rooms and a couple of live performers, though they didn’t really do anything.
A big nope for the splashboat. I also skipped a 4D theatre earlier.
I think this was new. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a double knockoff tower.
Knockoff Flying Circus was closed. When I first saw one of these at Floraland, I thought it was probably original since they’re not exactly a common ride type. I’ve seen loads of them in China now though.
The rapids weren’t too wet judging by people getting off, so I gave them a go. Meh.
There was a big 4D dark ride in here. I’m struggling to remember any details, but it was pretty decent I think.
There was other stuff that I didn’t bother with since I’d already spent much longer here than I’d planned, so I just headed back out the way I’d come.
Taxi time, and FINALLY a major park!
China Dinosaurs Park
I had no idea how major this place actually is. There’s a big shopping/entertainment/restaurant/hotel area at the entrance of the park, which also includes an observation tower, which I didn’t get to try.
Ugh, more school trips. This place was pretty busy when I arrived in the early afternoon, but quietened down in the last hour or so before closing.
Just realized that I haven’t uploaded any pictures from inside, but this was Dinosaur Mountain, and indoor Zamperla motocoaster, but with dinosaur-themed cars instead of motorbikes. That’s two Zamperlas in a row, but at least these things aren’t offensive.
You can feed and ride real dinosaurs here!
I missed this. I intended to get back to it later, but I was closed by the time I got back to it. Judging from the general standard of the park, it was probably one of the better ones.
The vending carts were AMAZING. The dinosaur’s legs actually move and “pedal” the carts.
I came back to the top spin at the end of the day.
Ugh. To be fair, this has obviously been here ages, but a crappy Golden Horse spinner on a slab of concrete is very unbecoming in a park of this quality.
I skipped it at first though since there was a far more pressing matter right next to it.
DINOCONDA!
There was a pretty big queue for this, and they were running it like crap, with only one train and other usual Chinese bulls**t like keeping stations empty, making pointless announcements, quadruple checking restraints etc. They were getting a train out once every ten minutes. It broke down at one point as well. I ended up waiting almost 2 hours for it, though managed to grab a reride in half an hour (a queue which could/should have been 10 minutes) at the end of the day.
Anyway, it was fab and terrifying. On my fist ride, I managed to bag the front, outside seat. My initial reaction was that it was more intense than X2, the only other one of these I’ve done thanks to Eejanaika spite, but loking back I think they’re likely about the same.
It throws you around all over the place in a way that a lot of people wouldn’t like, but I don’t think that’s the same as being rough. At one point, I was thrown up and to the side so hard that both legs ended up on the same side as that hump in the middle.
Worst places for onride photos? Lift hills and break runs. The Chinese love it.
Such a fab ride entrance.
Annoying and unfunny. All clowns should be publicly executed quite frankly.
The log flume was pretty epic, with a decent indoor section and big drop at the end.
The 5D theatre turned out to be one those “Desperado” type attractions, only with dinosaurs. Obviously.
There was a kiddy area over in the far corner of the park.
The park developed around the dinosaur museum, which has loads of fossils, mostly focused on animals found around that area.
But, you know, there’s this to look at.
This thing again. Luckily, it was walk-on by the time I got back around to it.
They’ve clearly gone for a “Talocan” type experience here, with water and fire. It was a really good effort to be fair.
The horror walkthrough was decent for a change.
I didn’t ride it since they’re crap, but the theming on this was immense. The dinosaurs on either side also move when the ride’s running.
Some new upcoming attraction, which is clearly some kind of walkthrough.
I caught the back end of a show with live dinosaurs.
They clapped and waved and jumped into water and s**t.
I didn’t get to ride this. It was the biggest frisbee ride in the world when it was built, but there are a few of them around now.
Some maintenance/construction here, though I couldn’t work out if this was part of the main part or the water park since it was fenced off between both.
I went into the museum at the end of the day. I had the place to myself. There were “no photo” signs everywhere, but I decided to embrace the local culture by totally ignoring them.
On the way out, you pass over the log flume. Crappy picture:
There was some large-scale stunt show that I missed which I’m guessing from the noise of it would’ve been decent.
Shop:
I really liked this place. Apart from the Dinoconda faff, I didn’t have to wait too long for anything. Once I was off Dinoconda, at around half three, most of the school trips had f**ked off though, so that was the main reason rather than a sudden improvement in operations.
I’m away for the weekend to get more creds, but Joyland will be next up in here at some point next week.
The next stop was Changzhou, a relatively minor city that’s actually home to some major parks. There was a big city park – Hongmei Park - quite close to my hotel, so I had a walk down there first before getting a taxi out to somewhere I knew had creds. There was a small amusement park section there, but no coasters.
They did have the world’s tallest pagoda though, which I wasn’t expecting Still, I probably would’ve been happier to find a surprise, bonus Jungle Mouse.
The main park for the day was China Dinosaurs Park, in the north of the city, but there was a +1 in the other direction to the south. Since it was still early, and a taxi between the two places would only take about half an hour, I decided to head down there.
I had no idea that I’d actually be at this place as long as I was though. I should probably have learned by now that “just one cred” doesn’t always mean a small park. This place was actually pretty major.
Yancheng Chun-Qiu Land
I was expecting a crappy city park with a few rides, but it was pay-one-price kind of place. There was also a safari park next to it.
It’s based around local Chinese culture and was really impressive. Surprisingly, there was plenty of detailed, accurate, English information around the various areas.
The Confucian School area had some kind of show. No idea.
Away from that area, a traditional-style street leads down to a temple complex and then onto the rides area. I guess this place was trying to do the same thing as Song Dynasty Town in Hangzhou, though this place was a lot nicer.
The dreaded Chinese tour group, easily spotted by having to wear caps and/or t-shirts provided by the tour company. Yes, these are fully-grown adults being treated like toddlers, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
I will never understand the concept of following a tour guide around an amusement park; you see it constantly at Ocean Park and in Disneyland here.
I tried out the flying island for the views.
I’d forgotten what kind of coaster they had here. Ah f**k.
I walked through the fake temple complex to the main ride area.
I’ll post one more picture of this piece of s**t, but won’t further disrespect my computer monitor by making it show more.
The biggest/only queue was for this horror walkthrough. I waited about half an hour for it. It was massive, taking about 15 minutes to get through, with some huge rooms and a couple of live performers, though they didn’t really do anything.
A big nope for the splashboat. I also skipped a 4D theatre earlier.
I think this was new. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a double knockoff tower.
Knockoff Flying Circus was closed. When I first saw one of these at Floraland, I thought it was probably original since they’re not exactly a common ride type. I’ve seen loads of them in China now though.
The rapids weren’t too wet judging by people getting off, so I gave them a go. Meh.
There was a big 4D dark ride in here. I’m struggling to remember any details, but it was pretty decent I think.
There was other stuff that I didn’t bother with since I’d already spent much longer here than I’d planned, so I just headed back out the way I’d come.
Taxi time, and FINALLY a major park!
China Dinosaurs Park
I had no idea how major this place actually is. There’s a big shopping/entertainment/restaurant/hotel area at the entrance of the park, which also includes an observation tower, which I didn’t get to try.
Ugh, more school trips. This place was pretty busy when I arrived in the early afternoon, but quietened down in the last hour or so before closing.
Just realized that I haven’t uploaded any pictures from inside, but this was Dinosaur Mountain, and indoor Zamperla motocoaster, but with dinosaur-themed cars instead of motorbikes. That’s two Zamperlas in a row, but at least these things aren’t offensive.
You can feed and ride real dinosaurs here!
I missed this. I intended to get back to it later, but I was closed by the time I got back to it. Judging from the general standard of the park, it was probably one of the better ones.
The vending carts were AMAZING. The dinosaur’s legs actually move and “pedal” the carts.
I came back to the top spin at the end of the day.
Ugh. To be fair, this has obviously been here ages, but a crappy Golden Horse spinner on a slab of concrete is very unbecoming in a park of this quality.
I skipped it at first though since there was a far more pressing matter right next to it.
DINOCONDA!
There was a pretty big queue for this, and they were running it like crap, with only one train and other usual Chinese bulls**t like keeping stations empty, making pointless announcements, quadruple checking restraints etc. They were getting a train out once every ten minutes. It broke down at one point as well. I ended up waiting almost 2 hours for it, though managed to grab a reride in half an hour (a queue which could/should have been 10 minutes) at the end of the day.
Anyway, it was fab and terrifying. On my fist ride, I managed to bag the front, outside seat. My initial reaction was that it was more intense than X2, the only other one of these I’ve done thanks to Eejanaika spite, but loking back I think they’re likely about the same.
It throws you around all over the place in a way that a lot of people wouldn’t like, but I don’t think that’s the same as being rough. At one point, I was thrown up and to the side so hard that both legs ended up on the same side as that hump in the middle.
Worst places for onride photos? Lift hills and break runs. The Chinese love it.
Such a fab ride entrance.
Annoying and unfunny. All clowns should be publicly executed quite frankly.
The log flume was pretty epic, with a decent indoor section and big drop at the end.
The 5D theatre turned out to be one those “Desperado” type attractions, only with dinosaurs. Obviously.
There was a kiddy area over in the far corner of the park.
The park developed around the dinosaur museum, which has loads of fossils, mostly focused on animals found around that area.
But, you know, there’s this to look at.
This thing again. Luckily, it was walk-on by the time I got back around to it.
They’ve clearly gone for a “Talocan” type experience here, with water and fire. It was a really good effort to be fair.
The horror walkthrough was decent for a change.
I didn’t ride it since they’re crap, but the theming on this was immense. The dinosaurs on either side also move when the ride’s running.
Some new upcoming attraction, which is clearly some kind of walkthrough.
I caught the back end of a show with live dinosaurs.
They clapped and waved and jumped into water and s**t.
I didn’t get to ride this. It was the biggest frisbee ride in the world when it was built, but there are a few of them around now.
Some maintenance/construction here, though I couldn’t work out if this was part of the main part or the water park since it was fenced off between both.
I went into the museum at the end of the day. I had the place to myself. There were “no photo” signs everywhere, but I decided to embrace the local culture by totally ignoring them.
On the way out, you pass over the log flume. Crappy picture:
There was some large-scale stunt show that I missed which I’m guessing from the noise of it would’ve been decent.
Shop:
I really liked this place. Apart from the Dinoconda faff, I didn’t have to wait too long for anything. Once I was off Dinoconda, at around half three, most of the school trips had f**ked off though, so that was the main reason rather than a sudden improvement in operations.
I’m away for the weekend to get more creds, but Joyland will be next up in here at some point next week.
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 8 - China Dinosaurs Park
Brilliant! I'd forgotten about Dinoconda - I'm very jealous. I thought X2 was great! Although the operations sound like a nightmare.
I also really like the massive façades in those two parks. They look very impressive!
Unfortunately I had to skip Page 2, as it kept crashing my browser for some reason. :?
Brilliant! I'd forgotten about Dinoconda - I'm very jealous. I thought X2 was great! Although the operations sound like a nightmare.
I also really like the massive façades in those two parks. They look very impressive!
Unfortunately I had to skip Page 2, as it kept crashing my browser for some reason. :?
Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
Re: Easter in Chinart 8 - China Dinosaurs Park
Apparently I was obsessed with dinosaurs before roller coasters and I do still have a soft spot for them, so it's a pleasure to see the park in detail and I love how great the park looks. I'd seen Dinoconda's entrance "tree" before but didn't realise the scale until now! Can't wait for Joyland!
Apparently I was obsessed with dinosaurs before roller coasters and I do still have a soft spot for them, so it's a pleasure to see the park in detail and I love how great the park looks. I'd seen Dinoconda's entrance "tree" before but didn't realise the scale until now! Can't wait for Joyland!
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 8 - China Dinosaurs Park
^^ It'll be Imgur. It's a pain in the arse on my work computer as well, and a few people have reported it doing the same thing.
I've only just started using it because I filled up photobucket, but it really doesn't seem suited to embedding loads of images.
I don't want to start a topic, but if anyone's got any suggestions for a better hosting site, let me know. Flickr is s**t since you have to open every picture to get the embedding code. With photobucket and Imgur, you can get them from the album, which is obviously much better when including loads of pictures in a report.
These things take me long enough as it is without having to start opening every picture on an album to get links.
^^ It'll be Imgur. It's a pain in the arse on my work computer as well, and a few people have reported it doing the same thing.
I've only just started using it because I filled up photobucket, but it really doesn't seem suited to embedding loads of images.
I don't want to start a topic, but if anyone's got any suggestions for a better hosting site, let me know. Flickr is s**t since you have to open every picture to get the embedding code. With photobucket and Imgur, you can get them from the album, which is obviously much better when including loads of pictures in a report.
These things take me long enough as it is without having to start opening every picture on an album to get links.
Coaster Hipster
Giga Poster
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 8 - China Dinosaurs Park
Great report again! China Dinosaur looks like a pleasant park with gorgeous trees and detailed theming. And what a great view of Dinoconda from the lake
Very much looking forward to your Joyland TR. Starry Sky Ripper is one of the coasters I most want!
Great report again! China Dinosaur looks like a pleasant park with gorgeous trees and detailed theming. And what a great view of Dinoconda from the lake
Very much looking forward to your Joyland TR. Starry Sky Ripper is one of the coasters I most want!
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 8 - China Dinosaurs Park
Really enjoying this report. Look forward to the next part.
In regards to photos...
... That's what I've resorted to. I'm sure they've lowered the space on each account so more people pay for larger spaces but it's just becoming annoying for doing these trip reports and so far I haven't found a decent alternative.
Really enjoying this report. Look forward to the next part.
In regards to photos...
Hixee said:
... That's what I've resorted to. I'm sure they've lowered the space on each account so more people pay for larger spaces but it's just becoming annoying for doing these trip reports and so far I haven't found a decent alternative.
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 8 - China Dinosaurs Park
Next park then.
I checked out of my hotel and left bags there for the day. I’d originally thought of taking everything with me, but since the park was an hour south of Changzhou, and I was getting a train from a station in the north of the city that evening, I’d have to basically pass through anyway.
Dinosaurs Park had been pretty busy, but about half way to Joyland, it started to rain. F**k.
Joyland
I arrived to an empty car park, rain and a closed off main entrance. I seriously thought the place was closed.
However, a couple of ticket windows were open, and signs pointed to a side entrance near the hotel.
This area was a total dump to be honest, not at all what I was expecting. There was a really crap park-opening show, being performed for me and 5 other people.
I don’t know what this was as it was closed all day.
Empty splash battle.
There was another dark ride near the entrance I’d used, but it was run to a schedule and I never caught it. It seemed very much of the kiddy variety anyway. I moved around to the main area of the park, not hopeful of the coasters being open as it was still raining. It wasn’t heavy, but that rarely matters in China. Also, even when the rain stops, a lot of parks - looking at you Crappy Valley Shenzhen – still don’t reopen anything.
The park’s 4D dark ride (I think) was down and looked like it had been for a while. So far I was less than enthused about having just spent over an hour in a taxi to get here.
Something that’s open!
And something that wasn’t:
I was resigned to the fact that I’d be getting no creds, but then heard a distinctive roaring sound.
The rain had stopped by this point – literally only just – and they immediately sent Sky Scrapper out for a test run. Obviously, I went straight to it, but since I was literally the only person there, I had to wait at the air gates for about 10 minutes.
Other stuff was starting to open up as well.
Eventually, two more people showed up and they left us on the train. I got the front row to myself while they sat behind me. Very weird to be basically riding such a major coaster pretty much by myself.
Anyway, it was amazing. I’m not a fan of flyers generally, but I really enjoyed this one. It’s just so totally different from any of the others, though I guess Flying Dinosaur at USJ would fit into a similar category. The 540° was very cool, and the vertical loop was way more enjoyable than the pretzel loops on most of the other models.
I went straight back around for another ride, this time with a whole 6 of us on the train. Soon after though, the school trips started to arrive, though the park never got too busy and it was easy to get plenty of rides in later.
No idea;Closed.
I braved the stairs up to the top to get the views. There’s actually a café up there, but it was closed. Understandable really since it was quiet, but I don’t know if they ever bother to open it. Few people bothered to climb all the way up from what I saw during the day.
The other two coasters are basically just at the bottom of the steps.
Getting higher:
The Golden Horse mine train, Dragon Roaring Heaven, was running by this point.
Back at the bottom, I obviously had to get the cred. So sick of these things, but at least this one was decently themed. They’re generally not really any worse than the Vekoma originals.
The station was ok.
The skyloop stayed closed all day though.
This was the third one of these at Chinese parks that I’ve been spited by. The other two – at Happy Valley Wuhan and Fantawild Xiamen – were down when every Chinese Maurer Skyloop was shut down over safety concerns. I’ve ridden one since though, so no idea what’s going on with this one.
Rapids. Not too wet.
The tasteful gold thing housed a large dome theatre which was actually pretty impressive.
Across from it was one of those projection/actor shows. These are very common at Fantawild – every park has one of their three different versions – but they’re less common elsewhere. Despite having slightly different stories or themes, they’re all very much the same.
The building was fab though.
There was a kiddy area which was very reminiscent of Seuss Landing at IOA.
Looking back over the central lake.
I accidentally rode this thing twice. It had been the first thing I did when I arrived since it was raining and it was actually open – I forgot to write about it earlier since I’m throwing stuff in in the order the pictures were uploaded – but I somehow didn’t realise I’d already done it and did it a second time. I think because I’d approached it from a different area and hadn’t paid real attention to the outside of it first time around.
It’s a flying theatre, and it was f**king s**t. They’re all f**king s**t.
I didn’t ride the splash boat thing. I think it was called Monster’s Blood or something.
Out of place and cheap.
This thing was weird. It was based around moles with a piss-poor 3D screen. There was a basic story, and at certain points you had to do stuff to the panel in front of you, like slap the buttons, shout into a microphone or punch the s**t out of a panel in the front.
Not the most polite of exits:
I guess I only spent around 3 hours here, but that was enough to get a couple of rides in on the mine train and 4 on Sky Scrapper. I could have ridden more since it wasn’t busy and I had plenty of time, I was starting to flag a bit by this point. It had been just over a week of early mornings and s**toads of walking and my tired old carcass was having none of it.
Not too sure about the park really. Sky Scrapper is stunning, but the other coasters are generic crap. Parts of the park look amazing while others are pretty horrible, and there was quite a bit closed really. The 4D dark ride would have been a major attraction, but that looked like it had been f**ked for a while based on barriers/signs around it.
So yeah, Sky Scrapper exceeded my expectations, but the park as a whole fell below them. I was expecting to really like this place and find Dinosaur Park just OK with one excellent coaster, but it turned out to be the complete opposite way around.
Next up: Nanjing
Next park then.
I checked out of my hotel and left bags there for the day. I’d originally thought of taking everything with me, but since the park was an hour south of Changzhou, and I was getting a train from a station in the north of the city that evening, I’d have to basically pass through anyway.
Dinosaurs Park had been pretty busy, but about half way to Joyland, it started to rain. F**k.
Joyland
I arrived to an empty car park, rain and a closed off main entrance. I seriously thought the place was closed.
However, a couple of ticket windows were open, and signs pointed to a side entrance near the hotel.
This area was a total dump to be honest, not at all what I was expecting. There was a really crap park-opening show, being performed for me and 5 other people.
I don’t know what this was as it was closed all day.
Empty splash battle.
There was another dark ride near the entrance I’d used, but it was run to a schedule and I never caught it. It seemed very much of the kiddy variety anyway. I moved around to the main area of the park, not hopeful of the coasters being open as it was still raining. It wasn’t heavy, but that rarely matters in China. Also, even when the rain stops, a lot of parks - looking at you Crappy Valley Shenzhen – still don’t reopen anything.
The park’s 4D dark ride (I think) was down and looked like it had been for a while. So far I was less than enthused about having just spent over an hour in a taxi to get here.
Something that’s open!
And something that wasn’t:
I was resigned to the fact that I’d be getting no creds, but then heard a distinctive roaring sound.
The rain had stopped by this point – literally only just – and they immediately sent Sky Scrapper out for a test run. Obviously, I went straight to it, but since I was literally the only person there, I had to wait at the air gates for about 10 minutes.
Other stuff was starting to open up as well.
Eventually, two more people showed up and they left us on the train. I got the front row to myself while they sat behind me. Very weird to be basically riding such a major coaster pretty much by myself.
Anyway, it was amazing. I’m not a fan of flyers generally, but I really enjoyed this one. It’s just so totally different from any of the others, though I guess Flying Dinosaur at USJ would fit into a similar category. The 540° was very cool, and the vertical loop was way more enjoyable than the pretzel loops on most of the other models.
I went straight back around for another ride, this time with a whole 6 of us on the train. Soon after though, the school trips started to arrive, though the park never got too busy and it was easy to get plenty of rides in later.
No idea;Closed.
I braved the stairs up to the top to get the views. There’s actually a café up there, but it was closed. Understandable really since it was quiet, but I don’t know if they ever bother to open it. Few people bothered to climb all the way up from what I saw during the day.
The other two coasters are basically just at the bottom of the steps.
Getting higher:
The Golden Horse mine train, Dragon Roaring Heaven, was running by this point.
Back at the bottom, I obviously had to get the cred. So sick of these things, but at least this one was decently themed. They’re generally not really any worse than the Vekoma originals.
The station was ok.
The skyloop stayed closed all day though.
This was the third one of these at Chinese parks that I’ve been spited by. The other two – at Happy Valley Wuhan and Fantawild Xiamen – were down when every Chinese Maurer Skyloop was shut down over safety concerns. I’ve ridden one since though, so no idea what’s going on with this one.
Rapids. Not too wet.
The tasteful gold thing housed a large dome theatre which was actually pretty impressive.
Across from it was one of those projection/actor shows. These are very common at Fantawild – every park has one of their three different versions – but they’re less common elsewhere. Despite having slightly different stories or themes, they’re all very much the same.
The building was fab though.
There was a kiddy area which was very reminiscent of Seuss Landing at IOA.
Looking back over the central lake.
I accidentally rode this thing twice. It had been the first thing I did when I arrived since it was raining and it was actually open – I forgot to write about it earlier since I’m throwing stuff in in the order the pictures were uploaded – but I somehow didn’t realise I’d already done it and did it a second time. I think because I’d approached it from a different area and hadn’t paid real attention to the outside of it first time around.
It’s a flying theatre, and it was f**king s**t. They’re all f**king s**t.
I didn’t ride the splash boat thing. I think it was called Monster’s Blood or something.
Out of place and cheap.
This thing was weird. It was based around moles with a piss-poor 3D screen. There was a basic story, and at certain points you had to do stuff to the panel in front of you, like slap the buttons, shout into a microphone or punch the s**t out of a panel in the front.
Not the most polite of exits:
I guess I only spent around 3 hours here, but that was enough to get a couple of rides in on the mine train and 4 on Sky Scrapper. I could have ridden more since it wasn’t busy and I had plenty of time, I was starting to flag a bit by this point. It had been just over a week of early mornings and s**toads of walking and my tired old carcass was having none of it.
Not too sure about the park really. Sky Scrapper is stunning, but the other coasters are generic crap. Parts of the park look amazing while others are pretty horrible, and there was quite a bit closed really. The 4D dark ride would have been a major attraction, but that looked like it had been f**ked for a while based on barriers/signs around it.
So yeah, Sky Scrapper exceeded my expectations, but the park as a whole fell below them. I was expecting to really like this place and find Dinosaur Park just OK with one excellent coaster, but it turned out to be the complete opposite way around.
Next up: Nanjing
Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 9 - Joyland
Another really intriguing park, thanks! I read somewhere the park was supposed to be themed to a popular computer game called World of Warcraft. The theming looks cool but sometimes overdone; I don't know why they would then choose those colours for the sky loop...
Another really intriguing park, thanks! I read somewhere the park was supposed to be themed to a popular computer game called World of Warcraft. The theming looks cool but sometimes overdone; I don't know why they would then choose those colours for the sky loop...
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 9 - Joyland
The next city was Nanjing. As usual, I arrived in the evening. I only stayed one night here though, and just had the following day free before heading out again that night. It’s a fairly major city, but I basically saw nothing of it. It was just a stop off point since it was the easiest place to get to the final city of the trip later.
There were a bunch of +1s around, so I spent the day getting some of those, but ended up ditching a couple of them since I just got to a point where I couldn’t be arsed making an effort for another powered dragon.
Nanjing Pearl Spring Resort
I got a taxi out to this place early in the morning. The whole resort is huge and, obviously, I got dropped off at some random entrance miles away from the amusement park area. It took about half an hour to get to the rides, but the walk was nice at least, and there was literally nobody else around.
Yay?
And here come the f**king school trips. Again.
I didn’t do the ghost train. I should probably do more of these things since they’re awful.
The actual spring of the name was gorgeous. You could see the bubbles coming up. I was quite hypnotic really.
However, bollocks to that; there’s a cred!
I’m so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so OVAH these f**king things now. O.V.A.H. Ovah!
They’re from Hebei Zhongye, and are relatively new compared to other Chinese loopers, including smaller models from the same company, but they’re now appearing everywhere, mostly popping up in the last 3 years or so. The first one I did I kind of liked since the loops are stupidly forceful thanks to a totally disproportionate drop-loop ratio, but I’ve quickly learned to hate them.
Even with a new train, it was vile.
This “Made in China” train was fab though, and reminded me of when I used to bother with Roller Coaster Tycoon and deliberately made s**t crash.
Stuff I didn’t do:
If I wasn’t pushed for time, I probably would’ve taken the cable car up to the “Great Wall” as they were calling it. The area was really nice and the views were probably pretty impressive.
On the way out, I decided to try the toboggan thing. It was pricey at 4 quid, but it was amazing!
You get pulled up the lifthill backwards, probably because it’s pretty long and steep, then get off and get on another car to head down. Obviously, I just pushed the lever all the way forwards, and couldn’t understand why the ride op was screaming at me until I almost came off 5 seconds later.
Taxi back into town then.
Happy World
This was an indoor/outdoor park connected to a shopping mall. It was free to enter and then pay-per-ride. It was dead, so I was in and done within about half an hour.
The main cred briefly pops out of the front of the park into the entrance plaza. I would’ve liked to have taken some decent pictures, but I was literally the only person who rode it for the whole time I was there.
Oh, it’s a custom Vekoma Motorbike coaster, not a knockoff, and was pretty decent really.
The outdoor section is out the back.
Ugh. Knockoff Chinese spinner.
And done.
The next place was weird.
South Fort Park
There was an entrance fee that included a ticket onto some observation deck on the bridge. All very silly.
At the base was the amazing amusement park, with literally two rides and which seemed totally closed.
There was a small building nearby with a couple of members of staff. They took money off me and let me get the cred. Honestly, I can see this place being labelled as SBNO soon.
Admittedly, it was dead, but I just don’t see the point of even having those two rides there.
Since I’d paid for it, I went up onto the bridge. I figured it was the only thing I’d actually do in the city other than grab a few creds.
The woman operating the lift was a miserable bitch, not even acknowledging people when they came in and out, though I admired her ingenuity. She’d set herself up quite comfortably to get paid to do f**k all apart from watch films in her makeshift cinema, and arse about on her phone.
Onto the last place then:
Hongshan Forest Zoo
I had planned to quickly pop in for the creds and try to grab at least one more place, but I just couldn’t be arsed, so just took my time here instead.
They had pandas. Obviously. This one was quite fab.
Just sat down having a munch for a bit.
Then off for a paddle.
It went a bit downhill from there. Like most of these places, the big cats were kept in tiny cages.
This was marked on the map as housing lions and tigers, and was clearly designed for them based on the fencing and the indoor area.
They just had ducks in it though.
The bears and wolves had it better.
Anyway, f**k the animals; there were creds here somewhere.
These places all look the same. Same rides. Same colours. Same everything. I’m so f**king sick of them.
Golden Horse Space Car:
Golden Horse Spinner:
And that’s it. Like I said, there were a couple of other +1s, but I just didn’t bother. I just took the zoo slowly – it was pretty big – and headed to the train station. Nanjing was basically a quick stop gap since I had to pass through to get to the next place, Wuhu, which isn’t yet on the high-speed network. I saw nothing of the city, so can’t really say anything about it. It seems weird for such a major city – over 8 million people - to not have a major park though.
The train was vile. It was just a regular, poor-people train, which was packed full of dreadful peasants. Even the train station was vile; the high-speed network usually has new, modern stations which are basically like airport terminals, but the older system is rank. There were regular buses, but with so many different bus stations, it was just easier to take the train, especially as I could book it in advance. It was only 2 hours, which was bearable I suppose.
Next up: Wuhu.
The next city was Nanjing. As usual, I arrived in the evening. I only stayed one night here though, and just had the following day free before heading out again that night. It’s a fairly major city, but I basically saw nothing of it. It was just a stop off point since it was the easiest place to get to the final city of the trip later.
There were a bunch of +1s around, so I spent the day getting some of those, but ended up ditching a couple of them since I just got to a point where I couldn’t be arsed making an effort for another powered dragon.
Nanjing Pearl Spring Resort
I got a taxi out to this place early in the morning. The whole resort is huge and, obviously, I got dropped off at some random entrance miles away from the amusement park area. It took about half an hour to get to the rides, but the walk was nice at least, and there was literally nobody else around.
Yay?
And here come the f**king school trips. Again.
I didn’t do the ghost train. I should probably do more of these things since they’re awful.
The actual spring of the name was gorgeous. You could see the bubbles coming up. I was quite hypnotic really.
However, bollocks to that; there’s a cred!
I’m so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so OVAH these f**king things now. O.V.A.H. Ovah!
They’re from Hebei Zhongye, and are relatively new compared to other Chinese loopers, including smaller models from the same company, but they’re now appearing everywhere, mostly popping up in the last 3 years or so. The first one I did I kind of liked since the loops are stupidly forceful thanks to a totally disproportionate drop-loop ratio, but I’ve quickly learned to hate them.
Even with a new train, it was vile.
This “Made in China” train was fab though, and reminded me of when I used to bother with Roller Coaster Tycoon and deliberately made s**t crash.
Stuff I didn’t do:
If I wasn’t pushed for time, I probably would’ve taken the cable car up to the “Great Wall” as they were calling it. The area was really nice and the views were probably pretty impressive.
On the way out, I decided to try the toboggan thing. It was pricey at 4 quid, but it was amazing!
You get pulled up the lifthill backwards, probably because it’s pretty long and steep, then get off and get on another car to head down. Obviously, I just pushed the lever all the way forwards, and couldn’t understand why the ride op was screaming at me until I almost came off 5 seconds later.
Taxi back into town then.
Happy World
This was an indoor/outdoor park connected to a shopping mall. It was free to enter and then pay-per-ride. It was dead, so I was in and done within about half an hour.
The main cred briefly pops out of the front of the park into the entrance plaza. I would’ve liked to have taken some decent pictures, but I was literally the only person who rode it for the whole time I was there.
Oh, it’s a custom Vekoma Motorbike coaster, not a knockoff, and was pretty decent really.
The outdoor section is out the back.
Ugh. Knockoff Chinese spinner.
And done.
The next place was weird.
South Fort Park
There was an entrance fee that included a ticket onto some observation deck on the bridge. All very silly.
At the base was the amazing amusement park, with literally two rides and which seemed totally closed.
There was a small building nearby with a couple of members of staff. They took money off me and let me get the cred. Honestly, I can see this place being labelled as SBNO soon.
Admittedly, it was dead, but I just don’t see the point of even having those two rides there.
Since I’d paid for it, I went up onto the bridge. I figured it was the only thing I’d actually do in the city other than grab a few creds.
The woman operating the lift was a miserable bitch, not even acknowledging people when they came in and out, though I admired her ingenuity. She’d set herself up quite comfortably to get paid to do f**k all apart from watch films in her makeshift cinema, and arse about on her phone.
Onto the last place then:
Hongshan Forest Zoo
I had planned to quickly pop in for the creds and try to grab at least one more place, but I just couldn’t be arsed, so just took my time here instead.
They had pandas. Obviously. This one was quite fab.
Just sat down having a munch for a bit.
Then off for a paddle.
It went a bit downhill from there. Like most of these places, the big cats were kept in tiny cages.
This was marked on the map as housing lions and tigers, and was clearly designed for them based on the fencing and the indoor area.
They just had ducks in it though.
The bears and wolves had it better.
Anyway, f**k the animals; there were creds here somewhere.
These places all look the same. Same rides. Same colours. Same everything. I’m so f**king sick of them.
Golden Horse Space Car:
Golden Horse Spinner:
And that’s it. Like I said, there were a couple of other +1s, but I just didn’t bother. I just took the zoo slowly – it was pretty big – and headed to the train station. Nanjing was basically a quick stop gap since I had to pass through to get to the next place, Wuhu, which isn’t yet on the high-speed network. I saw nothing of the city, so can’t really say anything about it. It seems weird for such a major city – over 8 million people - to not have a major park though.
The train was vile. It was just a regular, poor-people train, which was packed full of dreadful peasants. Even the train station was vile; the high-speed network usually has new, modern stations which are basically like airport terminals, but the older system is rank. There were regular buses, but with so many different bus stations, it was just easier to take the train, especially as I could book it in advance. It was only 2 hours, which was bearable I suppose.
Next up: Wuhu.
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 10 - Nanjing S**te
Wuhu is an extremely nondescript city just south of Nanjing, but for some reason, Fantawild have decided to turn it into their version of Orlando and build s**tloads of parks there. Thinking about it, Orlando is a nondescript s**thole once you take the parks out, so maybe they’re onto something.
I’d been lucky with the weather up until this point, and managed to at least grab a few crap creds early on, but after that it rained for the whole two days I was there, causing some major spite. Well, only one coaster of any note I guess, but it was one of the ones I was most looking forward to on this trip.
There was one of those crappy city parks on the way to the first Fantawild place, so I did a quick 20 minutes there first thing in the morning on the way.
Zheshan Park
Whatevs.
I was stunned to find that, along with the jungle mouse, they also had a powered dragon. Shocked.
I’ve never seen one of these before. It looked vile.
From there it was onto Fantawild Adventure, the first of their parks in Wuhu. It was the crappest looking one, so I figured that if it rained I wouldn’t mind missing out on stuff, keeping the newer parks for the next day when it would hopefully clear up.
Fantawild Adventure
I’m just going to start by saying that I am so sick of Fantawild and their bulls**t. It took me over 15 minutes to even buy a ticket. They have numerous options for number of parks/days. While I don’t read Chinese, it was clear from the boards what the options were, and I ran it through a translator to check anyway.
2 days. 3 Parks. Perfect since I was there for two days and wanted to go to their three parks. What could be simpler? I took a picture of what I wanted, FROM THEIR F**KING PRICE BOARD ABOVE THE TICKET WINDOW, only to be met with utter slack-jawed confusion by the bint behind the counter.
She got on the phone to call a manager over, who spoke English, who also seemed a bit confused at my outlandish request for something from their price list, but I eventually got the ticket. More on that later.
It was clearly about to rain, so I GRABBED the creds – all s**te, but luckily close to each other and no people there - before that happened half an hour after I arrived and they inevitably closed them.
Crap.
More crap.
Mine crap.
Kiddy crap.
Closed, but I don’t do them anyway.
The indoor stuff was all open, but was all just copy and paste stuff that I’ve done too many times before now.
Third time a park has had this show; third time I’ve not seen it.
This was a bit weird. Fantawild have a number of different projection/actor shows: Mysterious West, Ghost Love Story and Butterfly Lovers. This clearly used to be Mysterious West – the building and area are identical to at the other parks – but they’ve upgraded it to Ghost Love Story. It’s all still sitting in a western themed area though.
Another copy/paste:
I’d only done the two attractions from this next picture once each before.
This is a Poseiden’s Fury knockoff. It’s not too bad, but I could happily skip the next one I come across.
The next thing is sh**te though. You just sit on a rotating platform, looking at some crap animatronics. Then the seats tip back and the whole thing raises up into a dome screen.
The ubiquitous space-themed area.
Skipped the simulator:
Skipped the flying theatre:
In another of the parks I’ve been to, this building just housed a space museum.
I almost didn’t bother looking, but there was actually a shooting dark ride inside.
It was only about lunch time by this point, and it was still raining. The other two parks were about 5 miles away from this one. I knew that the coasters would be closed, but since one of them only had two crap coasters, only one of which I’d have been able to ride anyway, I thought I’d just go and do the dark rides, saving the newest park, with the better coasters, for the next day.
Fantawild Dreamland
Ugh. Ticket faff. When I’d first used the ticket that I’d eventually been allowed to buy at the first park, I’d had to scan my thumb print. Obviously, the machines at the second park didn’t want to work; the ticket wouldn’t even scan. The girl on the gate at first said that my ticket wasn’t valid and to come back the next day(!!!!), until I showed her the back of the ticket, showing the validity in F**KING CHINESE! Then she said that there was a computer problem. Three other people had to come over and “ooooooh” and “aaahhhh” over what to do before a manager finally came over and let me in after 15 minutes. No apology. This would be repeated the next day.
There was quite a bit of maintenance going on here, which made for crap pictures, but is actually a good sign.
Fantawild really haven’t, from what I’ve seen so far, been very good with the upkeep of their slightly older parks, basically leaving them to fall apart while they just build new ones. With this place being next to the new Oriental Heritage and with plans for more parks in the pipeline, they’re clearly wanting the whole area to be up to scratch.
Jinshan Temple Showdown – though here it had a different English name – is one of their better attractions and I’ll always make an effort to ride it.
This was a new one for me:
Just a 4D theatre along the lines of Tough to be a Bug. They’ve got the (far superior) Conch Bay at their Adventure park just down the road though, which is essentially the same thing, but with a different theme and on a bigger scale.
Qin Dynasty Adventure:
It’s a dark ride that I was first pretty impressed by when I first tried it, but have come to realize that it’s actually a bit s**t. The vehicles just don’t have enough of a range of movement, and the sets inside are a bit too inconsistent, ranging from “pretty impressive I suppose” to “gash”.
One of the two coasters here, which was closed, was a crappy looper. Shameful really since this park opened 3 years after Fantawild Adventure. Still, I guess opening in 2010 makes it one of their older parks. They’re generally adding better coasters these days.
Bubble Ballet was another new one for me.
I’d seen similar technology being used in a show at Oriental Heritage.
It’s fab, though the “story” – some clowns steal some eggs from a bird, then give them back at the end – was a bit cack. I took a bit of video anyway since it’s much clearer what the “bubble ballet” actually is.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7UJ8DcO4M8[/youtube]
I’m quite stunned how Fantawild can get something like that to work, but then elsewhere have 90% of their “Small World” animatronics totally f**ked weeks after opening.
There was another show, “Ashley”, right next door. I had no idea what it was, but it was actually pretty epic. It won the Brass Ring award from IAAPA for Best Show Costing Over $1million (Yes, that's an actual thing; I checked).
Midway Mania knockoff wasn’t as much fun when I was the only one in my car.
Wizards Academy, a 4D dark ride and a staple of the “Dreamland” brand of parks. It’s actually excellent.
Their only other coaster was actually running since it’s undercover.
No adults allowed though. Like I’ve said before, at pay-per-ride places, you can usually get on, but at proper parks they're having none of it anymore. Obviously no big loss in terms of ride experience, but frustrating from a cred whore perspective since these things are popping up everywhere.
This was another new one, in name at least.
The actual ride system was something I’ve done a few times before – large platforms that move people into a room surrounded by 3D screens.
This one was a total T2:3D ripoff though, in terms of its story and execution. It started with the bint talking to the crowd and getting “interrupted” through the video. Then, it went into the 3D section, with some VERY similar graphics, and even had some live actors on a bike, or it might have been a car I can’t remember now.
That was it for that day. I’d managed to get most of the coasters thanks to grabbing them early before the rain started, but the weather made it a bit of a s**t day really. That and the fact that there was very little of anything new that I hadn’t done before. The “Dreamland” parks I still enjoy since their attractions are generally new/improved versions, and this one had a couple of shows I’d never seen at another park, but the “Adventure” parks are getting on my tits now. Same copy and paste crap, being left to get run down while they throw money at new parks.
Final park next. Spoiler: the weather was still f**king s**t and I didn’t get the Gravity Group woodie.
Wuhu is an extremely nondescript city just south of Nanjing, but for some reason, Fantawild have decided to turn it into their version of Orlando and build s**tloads of parks there. Thinking about it, Orlando is a nondescript s**thole once you take the parks out, so maybe they’re onto something.
I’d been lucky with the weather up until this point, and managed to at least grab a few crap creds early on, but after that it rained for the whole two days I was there, causing some major spite. Well, only one coaster of any note I guess, but it was one of the ones I was most looking forward to on this trip.
There was one of those crappy city parks on the way to the first Fantawild place, so I did a quick 20 minutes there first thing in the morning on the way.
Zheshan Park
Whatevs.
I was stunned to find that, along with the jungle mouse, they also had a powered dragon. Shocked.
I’ve never seen one of these before. It looked vile.
From there it was onto Fantawild Adventure, the first of their parks in Wuhu. It was the crappest looking one, so I figured that if it rained I wouldn’t mind missing out on stuff, keeping the newer parks for the next day when it would hopefully clear up.
Fantawild Adventure
I’m just going to start by saying that I am so sick of Fantawild and their bulls**t. It took me over 15 minutes to even buy a ticket. They have numerous options for number of parks/days. While I don’t read Chinese, it was clear from the boards what the options were, and I ran it through a translator to check anyway.
2 days. 3 Parks. Perfect since I was there for two days and wanted to go to their three parks. What could be simpler? I took a picture of what I wanted, FROM THEIR F**KING PRICE BOARD ABOVE THE TICKET WINDOW, only to be met with utter slack-jawed confusion by the bint behind the counter.
She got on the phone to call a manager over, who spoke English, who also seemed a bit confused at my outlandish request for something from their price list, but I eventually got the ticket. More on that later.
It was clearly about to rain, so I GRABBED the creds – all s**te, but luckily close to each other and no people there - before that happened half an hour after I arrived and they inevitably closed them.
Crap.
More crap.
Mine crap.
Kiddy crap.
Closed, but I don’t do them anyway.
The indoor stuff was all open, but was all just copy and paste stuff that I’ve done too many times before now.
Third time a park has had this show; third time I’ve not seen it.
This was a bit weird. Fantawild have a number of different projection/actor shows: Mysterious West, Ghost Love Story and Butterfly Lovers. This clearly used to be Mysterious West – the building and area are identical to at the other parks – but they’ve upgraded it to Ghost Love Story. It’s all still sitting in a western themed area though.
Another copy/paste:
I’d only done the two attractions from this next picture once each before.
This is a Poseiden’s Fury knockoff. It’s not too bad, but I could happily skip the next one I come across.
The next thing is sh**te though. You just sit on a rotating platform, looking at some crap animatronics. Then the seats tip back and the whole thing raises up into a dome screen.
The ubiquitous space-themed area.
Skipped the simulator:
Skipped the flying theatre:
In another of the parks I’ve been to, this building just housed a space museum.
I almost didn’t bother looking, but there was actually a shooting dark ride inside.
It was only about lunch time by this point, and it was still raining. The other two parks were about 5 miles away from this one. I knew that the coasters would be closed, but since one of them only had two crap coasters, only one of which I’d have been able to ride anyway, I thought I’d just go and do the dark rides, saving the newest park, with the better coasters, for the next day.
Fantawild Dreamland
Ugh. Ticket faff. When I’d first used the ticket that I’d eventually been allowed to buy at the first park, I’d had to scan my thumb print. Obviously, the machines at the second park didn’t want to work; the ticket wouldn’t even scan. The girl on the gate at first said that my ticket wasn’t valid and to come back the next day(!!!!), until I showed her the back of the ticket, showing the validity in F**KING CHINESE! Then she said that there was a computer problem. Three other people had to come over and “ooooooh” and “aaahhhh” over what to do before a manager finally came over and let me in after 15 minutes. No apology. This would be repeated the next day.
There was quite a bit of maintenance going on here, which made for crap pictures, but is actually a good sign.
Fantawild really haven’t, from what I’ve seen so far, been very good with the upkeep of their slightly older parks, basically leaving them to fall apart while they just build new ones. With this place being next to the new Oriental Heritage and with plans for more parks in the pipeline, they’re clearly wanting the whole area to be up to scratch.
Jinshan Temple Showdown – though here it had a different English name – is one of their better attractions and I’ll always make an effort to ride it.
This was a new one for me:
Just a 4D theatre along the lines of Tough to be a Bug. They’ve got the (far superior) Conch Bay at their Adventure park just down the road though, which is essentially the same thing, but with a different theme and on a bigger scale.
Qin Dynasty Adventure:
It’s a dark ride that I was first pretty impressed by when I first tried it, but have come to realize that it’s actually a bit s**t. The vehicles just don’t have enough of a range of movement, and the sets inside are a bit too inconsistent, ranging from “pretty impressive I suppose” to “gash”.
One of the two coasters here, which was closed, was a crappy looper. Shameful really since this park opened 3 years after Fantawild Adventure. Still, I guess opening in 2010 makes it one of their older parks. They’re generally adding better coasters these days.
Bubble Ballet was another new one for me.
I’d seen similar technology being used in a show at Oriental Heritage.
It’s fab, though the “story” – some clowns steal some eggs from a bird, then give them back at the end – was a bit cack. I took a bit of video anyway since it’s much clearer what the “bubble ballet” actually is.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7UJ8DcO4M8[/youtube]
I’m quite stunned how Fantawild can get something like that to work, but then elsewhere have 90% of their “Small World” animatronics totally f**ked weeks after opening.
There was another show, “Ashley”, right next door. I had no idea what it was, but it was actually pretty epic. It won the Brass Ring award from IAAPA for Best Show Costing Over $1million (Yes, that's an actual thing; I checked).
Midway Mania knockoff wasn’t as much fun when I was the only one in my car.
Wizards Academy, a 4D dark ride and a staple of the “Dreamland” brand of parks. It’s actually excellent.
Their only other coaster was actually running since it’s undercover.
No adults allowed though. Like I’ve said before, at pay-per-ride places, you can usually get on, but at proper parks they're having none of it anymore. Obviously no big loss in terms of ride experience, but frustrating from a cred whore perspective since these things are popping up everywhere.
This was another new one, in name at least.
The actual ride system was something I’ve done a few times before – large platforms that move people into a room surrounded by 3D screens.
This one was a total T2:3D ripoff though, in terms of its story and execution. It started with the bint talking to the crowd and getting “interrupted” through the video. Then, it went into the 3D section, with some VERY similar graphics, and even had some live actors on a bike, or it might have been a car I can’t remember now.
That was it for that day. I’d managed to get most of the coasters thanks to grabbing them early before the rain started, but the weather made it a bit of a s**t day really. That and the fact that there was very little of anything new that I hadn’t done before. The “Dreamland” parks I still enjoy since their attractions are generally new/improved versions, and this one had a couple of shows I’d never seen at another park, but the “Adventure” parks are getting on my tits now. Same copy and paste crap, being left to get run down while they throw money at new parks.
Final park next. Spoiler: the weather was still f**king s**t and I didn’t get the Gravity Group woodie.
Re: Easter in China PTR: Part 10 - Nanjing S**te
Another good installment Gavin. It's a shame about the rain, but I suppose that's just one of those things.
What actually is it?gavin said:Jinshan Temple Showdown – though here it had a different English name – is one of their better attractions and I’ll always make an effort to ride it.
That's rather mesmerising actually. Definitely looks better in the video that in the pictures, so thanks for sharing that!gavin said:
Another good installment Gavin. It's a shame about the rain, but I suppose that's just one of those things.
Oh dear! I want to say I look forward to hearing about it, but not because I'm glad you got spited! :lol: You know what I mean - I look forward to reading about the final park!gavin said: