Day Six - Mysterious Island, Pearl Land, and Amazing World
Today was kind of a "Credit Whore Day" that started out at a really nice park!
Our first stop was Mysterious Island in Zhuhai. A nice little park with two coasters, one of them being an Intamin launched that while small in size, really kicked a$$!
We then headed on to Pearl Land also in Zhuhai which was a nice park, nothing amazing, maybe slightly on the ghetto side, but overall a good place to pick up 4 random coaster credits.
And then we ended our night with a small park called Amazing World we tried to go to last night, but was closed due to rain. Since it was not very far out of the way back to our hotel we decided to hit it again and tonight we were in luck! It's a mostly indoor place with a few outdoor rides much like Toverland! There was a custom Vekoma Roller Skater here (again, just like Toverland) and to some there was even a total of four credits!
Now some pictures....
We started at Mysterious Island...a little damp, but we were here for some filming so they would open the coasters for us anyway!
We arrive at the park about an hour before the public was allowed in. The Intamin Launch (called Sky Car) looks small, but man it was GREAT!
Everyone ready to ride?
It basically has Storm Runner's top hat, although a little shrunk down.
LOOP -DE- LOOOOOOOOOP!!!!!
Sky Car + foliage.
Next up was the Screamin' Squirrel...this coaster was not quite as good as the Intamin.
What's the one thing I like the best about mermaids in China?
NO SEA SHELLS!!!
1Overall Mysterious Island was a really NICE park! Some great rides, good landscaping and theming. The park is only a few years old so as it fills it in should be even better!
Now we are at Pearl Land...it was a little ghetto, but overall nice. By far not the worst park we visited on the trip.
The first coaster "Jet Coaster" had some bizarre looking trains.
It actually was a lot of fun!
You dirty, dirty whore!
KidTums is all "C'mon mommy, do I *really* need to be riding all these Chinese death traps?"
The "Jungle Mouse" was quite twisty. I'm not sure I've ever seen a mouse with THAT many turns.
This was called "Pearl Land's Screaming Loop."
And then yeah, you are pretty much screaming in pain the whole time. Note that this *looks* like an Arrow/Vekoma looper, but it's just another Chinese knock off.
Next we went over to Amazing World which is inside the South China Mall...it's a giant indoor park with a Vekoma Roller Skater, much like Toverland.
This version is a custom one and it's really tall and very long. It's mostly indoors, but has a partial outdoor section.
Since this place wasn't on the original itinerary it was a BONUS CREDIT!!!
For those REAL Jeff Johnson credit whores there were a few other rides here that could be counted as a coaster with some stretch of the imagination.
"That's right this is TWO credits!!!"
This thing is almost more of a credit...
It's this kiddie spinning thing that moves along the track and is powered by drive tires. I can see some people counting this for sure, but for me, heck, I didn't even bother to ride them!
"Hi, my name is Bob and I *am* ...sad and pathetic!"
Day Seven - Happy Valley Shenzhen, Honey Lake, Donghu Park
Today was another day of many parks! We first started out at Happy Valley in Shenzhen which was another awesome park! I never imaged we would encounter such amazing looking parks in China. Seriously, the Happy Valley parks are nicer than 80% of USA parks. The only thing that have lacking is the operations are a bit odd, but I think it has more to do with how the local culture navigates through the parks.
I think I may have even liked this park better than the one in Beijing, but without the B&M flyer the ride selection wasn't quite as good.
Next we visited Honey Lake Park. This was a strange, STRANGE place. When researching all these parks we were told that Honey Lake is basically on death row. Half of the park now has a new highway running right through it and you can see the old entrance on one side of the road and a defunct old roller coaster on the other.
Across the park they have one roller coaster that looked barely operating and a couple other flats that kind of, sort of worked. If you didn't see rides running you would think that this whole park had already been abandoned years ago.
Then the final stop for the day was Donghu park. I nice city park with a small amusement section that included two coasters and an alpine slide. Great little park, mostly for kids, but still a lot of fun!
Onto some photos...
We arrive at Happy Valley Shenzhen where they are celebrating 10 top hats full of sex and hot oil.
Just like the Beijing version, there was a Vekoma mine train, totally crazy themed and different from the other park and a bazillion times nicer than the Hard Rock Park version!
Yup, they had a Vekoma SLC just like the Beijing Happy Valley. At least aren't the same as every other damn SLC in the world!
The Chinese knock off Wacky Worm with the punching bee.
"This is the proper riding position for the Punching Bee coaster."
They also had one of those "Fire Academy" rides from Legoland, but this one you had to put out the fire on the...um...CRASHED PLANE?!?!
In the shops you are encouraged to buy your kids machine guns.
Oh, look! They have a dark ride here themed to Santa Claus. How nice!
Wait a second...if this is a dark ride about Christmas and Santa Claus why do they have guns? OMG! It's a shooting dark ride themed to Christmas! This might very well be the BEST DARK RIDE IN THE WORLD!!!!
The splash battle ride looked great...
And this awesome kids ride in the "Typhoon Bay" area where you ride in beds and bathtubs!
There was a lot of mystery meat on sticks...
This is "Honey Lake" and at first glance it may look really nice. That coaster there is just sitting in the water rotting away. I don't think it's been opened in YEARS.
The coaster that was open was ALSO rotting away!
By the looks of the queue, I don't think this ride sees much love.
Although for a rusted out dilapidated coaster, it actually ran pretty good!
I don't think too many children will be playing today.
The water park seems to be closed at the moment...I think we'll wait it out though as it may be open a bit later.
Next up was Donghu park where we DID find kids playing! Donghu is a large city park with a small amusement section and an alpine slide.
And yes there is ANOTHER one of these knock off spinning coasters. We think the Chinese government forced all the parks to buy these!
It doesn't matter...we are dirty dirty whores and will ride anything!
Including ride the powered coaster! (Even kidtums got this non-credit!)
There was also this really AWESOME Alpine Slide. Not sure how long it is, but this had to be one of the longest I've been on.
Alpine Slide POV!!!
Before dinner we had a "McDonald's Appetizer."
At dinner had a special guest! Mr. Chicken! Turns out Mr. Chicken's name was "Ed." He had quite an interesting past. He was a gansta rapper than lived in South Central Los Angeles. He didn't run with a very good crowd most of his life. There came a time though where he met a girl and started to turn things around because of her. On the night he was going to propose he went to a party where some of his friends got into a fight with some chinese mobsters. He was told that if he didn't come with them he would never see his woman again. After doing unmentionable acts to some birds living on the street he stood up for his rights and fought to come back to his true love. He almost made it out but was caught right before boarding a crate that would bring him back to Los Angeles. Today he was our dinner...and I gotta say, Ed tasted DAMN GOOD!
"I'm sorry things didn't work out Ed, but man, you made one great meal!"
(KidTums doesn't look so sure!)
Ed says "Can you eat my breasts first? I was very fond of them and I'd like to share them with you."
Tonight we crossed into Hong Kong...tomorrow Ocean Park and then Hong Kong Disneyland!
You can find an expanded version of this report
here.
Thanks for reading!
--Robb Alvey
