No, Nanning isn’t a weird sexual fetish involving women of a more mature vintage, but rather a city in China.
I wanted to go away for a weekend since the last couple of weeks I’ve been able to get out of work early, and flight times and prices worked out really well. The flight was only 80 minutes from here, and although I knew nothing about the place whatsoever, I like just trying out new places. Plus, there were a few creds scattered around, so, you know.
Disclaimer: This report contains absolutely no "crazy", "zany" or otherwise "insane" behaviour. There are also no coasters of any note whatsoever.
Day 1
Well, day two really since I got in on Friday evening, but I literally just went out for drinks near my hotel (4*, £30 a night; thanks China!) and then headed out the next day, a Saturday, sometime around 11 o’clock. I wanted to have a bit of a look around the city, so walked in the general direction of the first park, which was actually pretty far, but it means I got to see more and I knew I wouldn’t need much time at each place.
This park, Nanhu Park, didn’t have any coasters, but I had a quick look to make sure. It was really nice though, and absolutely huge.
The lake in the middle, and the waterways leading into it, was packed with fountain nozzles, but nothing was switched on. It looked like it could have been really impressive though.
I’ll just point out that the weather was s**te for the whole weekend. It rained constantly, though not heavily, so it makes the whole place look really drab in the pictures, but it was actually quite nice. Some central square kind of area a bit further down the road:
Further on still was Minge Lake.
As expected, it was wet, didn’t smell great and I’ve no intention of ever going there again.
Carrying on then, and we eventually get to some coasters. I’d been walking for a good couple of hours by this point. Get ready for a wonderful exclusive of this amazing park. RCDB doesn’t even pictures yet.
Shimen Forest Park
This was just your typical city park with a less than inspiring entrance.
Checking the map, I figured that I wanted to be heading to The Cherry Blossom Valley Theme Paradise.
As expected, the park itself was really pleasant. The Chinese do these parks very well. Cities are full of them, they can be enormous, they’re free and the upkeep is usually excellent.
This house up on the hill was less “Mulan” and more “Addams Family”:
Anyway, Cherry Blossom Vally Theme Paradise wasn’t – for a change - far from the entrance I used. These parks usually have multiple entrances since they can be huge, and I invariably end up choosing the wrong one and having to trek across the whole thing to get to the creds.
Not really much of a Theme Paradise then. To be fair, it was nicer than a lot of these kinds of places. It actually had grass and wasn’t just crammed into an ugly concrete corner of an otherwise gorgeous park. It was totally dead though, which was surprising given that it was a Saturday and these parks tend to get a fair few people in them at weekends. As I said before though, the weather was crap, so I guess if you live in the city, you just wouldn’t bother going out in it, and I’m guessing that Nanning doesn’t have much of a tourism scene.
Coasters then.
First up was a powered dragon.
This was followed by a jungle mouse.
More of these little Chinese fairgrounds need to get this combination of coasters. Currently, only about 90% of them seem to have it.
The next park was only about a 15 minute walk away. I was expecting nothing at all, and was actually worried I might not even find it as it doesn’t show up on Google maps at all. There’s not even a label in Chinese, so I thought that there may be some incorrect information on RCDB or something.
Fengling Children’s Park
It turns out that the place is absolutely enormous, with quite a bit of stuff scattered over a hill in different areas. I went in through some side entrance and had to walk pretty far up the hill before I got to anything.
The whole place was really nice, with really nice landscaping and music being pumped out through hidden speakers. There was an enormous Ferris wheel which I thought at first was closed, but it was actually just moving stupidly slowly.
The first coaster was just one of those Golden Horse space car things.
At first, I thought the second coaster listed on RCDB wasn’t here, but it was just in a totally different area that couldn’t be seen from where I was. I’d assumed that all the rides would be shoved in the same area, but they were actually quite spread out.
I thought about going on the Ferris wheel, but it was around 3pm by this point, and I had a flight to catch at 8pm the following day.
Instead I headed in the direction of Magic Kingdom and Waterpark in the Back Door.
I didn’t get pictures, but the waterpark (closed for the winter) was absolutely huge with craploads of slides and what must’ve been an enormous wave pool. Some other rides dotted about:
I’ve seen a few of these Lanuch Towers now.
The second coaster was a Golden Horse spinner. I was ecstatic.
Heading back down the hill, on the same side but further along from where I’d come in, I ended up at the main entrance area with a few other basic rides.
Chic, c’est la vie.
The park map shows another coaster near the spinner, which looks to be a basic knockoff looper, and is listed as “Roller Coaster (Planning)”, so no idea when that’s happening.
So yeah, despite no decent coasters, this place was actually decent and was clearly a self-contained amusement park as opposed to the city park with rides I’d been expecting. Later that evening, I actually saw it advertised on a big screen in the city, seemingly offering some all-inclusive thing for about £6 between 5pm-11pm, though I can’t be sure.
The final park for the day was much too far to walk, so I got a taxi which took about 40 minutes thanks to crappy traffic. It probably would’ve take half that otherwise.
Shishan Park
And we’re back to a city park with some crap squeezed in. I’m not going to write any more about it, but I’ll just shove some pictures in. Getting my second jungle mouse of the day was amazing. I may have to post about it in that “WOW Moments!” topic; it’d be more interesting that a lot of the s**t going in there so far anyway.
I went back to the hotel, had some drinks and went out again that night. I’ll get the second day up later if I can actually be arsed making the effort to write about even more generic Chinese s**te.
I wanted to go away for a weekend since the last couple of weeks I’ve been able to get out of work early, and flight times and prices worked out really well. The flight was only 80 minutes from here, and although I knew nothing about the place whatsoever, I like just trying out new places. Plus, there were a few creds scattered around, so, you know.
Disclaimer: This report contains absolutely no "crazy", "zany" or otherwise "insane" behaviour. There are also no coasters of any note whatsoever.
Day 1
Well, day two really since I got in on Friday evening, but I literally just went out for drinks near my hotel (4*, £30 a night; thanks China!) and then headed out the next day, a Saturday, sometime around 11 o’clock. I wanted to have a bit of a look around the city, so walked in the general direction of the first park, which was actually pretty far, but it means I got to see more and I knew I wouldn’t need much time at each place.
This park, Nanhu Park, didn’t have any coasters, but I had a quick look to make sure. It was really nice though, and absolutely huge.
The lake in the middle, and the waterways leading into it, was packed with fountain nozzles, but nothing was switched on. It looked like it could have been really impressive though.
I’ll just point out that the weather was s**te for the whole weekend. It rained constantly, though not heavily, so it makes the whole place look really drab in the pictures, but it was actually quite nice. Some central square kind of area a bit further down the road:
Further on still was Minge Lake.
As expected, it was wet, didn’t smell great and I’ve no intention of ever going there again.
Carrying on then, and we eventually get to some coasters. I’d been walking for a good couple of hours by this point. Get ready for a wonderful exclusive of this amazing park. RCDB doesn’t even pictures yet.
Shimen Forest Park
This was just your typical city park with a less than inspiring entrance.
Checking the map, I figured that I wanted to be heading to The Cherry Blossom Valley Theme Paradise.
As expected, the park itself was really pleasant. The Chinese do these parks very well. Cities are full of them, they can be enormous, they’re free and the upkeep is usually excellent.
This house up on the hill was less “Mulan” and more “Addams Family”:
Anyway, Cherry Blossom Vally Theme Paradise wasn’t – for a change - far from the entrance I used. These parks usually have multiple entrances since they can be huge, and I invariably end up choosing the wrong one and having to trek across the whole thing to get to the creds.
Not really much of a Theme Paradise then. To be fair, it was nicer than a lot of these kinds of places. It actually had grass and wasn’t just crammed into an ugly concrete corner of an otherwise gorgeous park. It was totally dead though, which was surprising given that it was a Saturday and these parks tend to get a fair few people in them at weekends. As I said before though, the weather was crap, so I guess if you live in the city, you just wouldn’t bother going out in it, and I’m guessing that Nanning doesn’t have much of a tourism scene.
Coasters then.
First up was a powered dragon.
This was followed by a jungle mouse.
More of these little Chinese fairgrounds need to get this combination of coasters. Currently, only about 90% of them seem to have it.
The next park was only about a 15 minute walk away. I was expecting nothing at all, and was actually worried I might not even find it as it doesn’t show up on Google maps at all. There’s not even a label in Chinese, so I thought that there may be some incorrect information on RCDB or something.
Fengling Children’s Park
It turns out that the place is absolutely enormous, with quite a bit of stuff scattered over a hill in different areas. I went in through some side entrance and had to walk pretty far up the hill before I got to anything.
The whole place was really nice, with really nice landscaping and music being pumped out through hidden speakers. There was an enormous Ferris wheel which I thought at first was closed, but it was actually just moving stupidly slowly.
The first coaster was just one of those Golden Horse space car things.
At first, I thought the second coaster listed on RCDB wasn’t here, but it was just in a totally different area that couldn’t be seen from where I was. I’d assumed that all the rides would be shoved in the same area, but they were actually quite spread out.
I thought about going on the Ferris wheel, but it was around 3pm by this point, and I had a flight to catch at 8pm the following day.
Instead I headed in the direction of Magic Kingdom and Waterpark in the Back Door.
I didn’t get pictures, but the waterpark (closed for the winter) was absolutely huge with craploads of slides and what must’ve been an enormous wave pool. Some other rides dotted about:
I’ve seen a few of these Lanuch Towers now.
The second coaster was a Golden Horse spinner. I was ecstatic.
Heading back down the hill, on the same side but further along from where I’d come in, I ended up at the main entrance area with a few other basic rides.
Chic, c’est la vie.
The park map shows another coaster near the spinner, which looks to be a basic knockoff looper, and is listed as “Roller Coaster (Planning)”, so no idea when that’s happening.
So yeah, despite no decent coasters, this place was actually decent and was clearly a self-contained amusement park as opposed to the city park with rides I’d been expecting. Later that evening, I actually saw it advertised on a big screen in the city, seemingly offering some all-inclusive thing for about £6 between 5pm-11pm, though I can’t be sure.
The final park for the day was much too far to walk, so I got a taxi which took about 40 minutes thanks to crappy traffic. It probably would’ve take half that otherwise.
Shishan Park
And we’re back to a city park with some crap squeezed in. I’m not going to write any more about it, but I’ll just shove some pictures in. Getting my second jungle mouse of the day was amazing. I may have to post about it in that “WOW Moments!” topic; it’d be more interesting that a lot of the s**t going in there so far anyway.
I went back to the hotel, had some drinks and went out again that night. I’ll get the second day up later if I can actually be arsed making the effort to write about even more generic Chinese s**te.
