After finally getting my Florida trip report finished, full of all those crappy parks with s**te theming and terrible rides, it’s time to start playing catch up with some other, much better, places that I’ve done since, starting with some amazing Chinese parks in a city called Shantou, a small (by Chinese standards) city near the coast, a couple of hours’ train ride away from Shenzen on the high-speed network. This involved the hassle of taking the Metro to/through Shenzhen after work on a Friday to get to the high-speed train station there. When the Hong Kong terminus finally gets finished – already two years behind schedule and looking like it’ll take another two – these trips will become so much easier, especially given that it’s literally a 2-minute walk from my apartment.
The station in Shantou isn’t actually in Shantou though. It’s placed midway between Shantou and another minor city, seemingly to serve both but actually stuck in the middle of nowhere an hour’s drive from either. Luckily, my seatbeltless taxi got me to my hotel in just over half this time thanks to a ludicrously reckless driver who didn’t want to concern himself with looking up at traffic lights.
After checking in, I went for a bit of a wander to find something to eat. Not much to the place really:
The following morning, I spent ages trying to get a taxi out to one of the parks. Well, the only park really. This is probably the only place I’ve seen in China that didn’t seem to have too many cabs.
The city planners clearly didn’t think ahead when they planted the trees here.
Due to the lack of taxis, it was common practice for random people on motorbikes, completely unlicensed and unofficial, to drive around picking up passengers. Riding on the back of a motorbike, without a helmet, through a Chinese city is not something I’d like to repeat, but the thought of not getting the creds outweighed the fear of impending death.
There were some huge, wide roads around and leading up to the park, all empty though, which makes me think that they’ve planned ahead with regards to future development. Anyway, onto the park then.
Fantawild Adventure
This is only the third Fantawild park I’ve been to out of the 18 current parks (some of those due to open this year), but it’s easily the worst of those three.
It was pretty much the same as the one I’d done in Chongqing with regards to ride selection – they’re about the same age - but the Chongqing park gets away with it a bit more since it’s a small place in a corner of a retail park as opposed to being a bigger, “destination” park in its own right.
The coaster selection was piss-poor with just three, small Golden Horse knockoffs. The newer parks are definitely upping their game in that respect.
They had a walkthrough/funhouse thing which was just dire.
It wasn’t quite bad enough to warrant this sign, though I guess by the end of the day I was close to some self harm.
They had some decent enough theming scattered about, but the areas in between were just bare and shoddy.
The 3D show, Conch Bay, was actually excellent, with multiple screens, animatronics, stuff coming down from the ceiling and anal rapers in the seats. It’s clearly inspired by Tough to be a Bug, but with an underwater theme and with the actual 3D film being a lot better.
The park mascot is the stuff of nightmares:
Sky Sailor, a Soarin’ ripoff, seems to be a staple across pretty much every park. This one was awful though. Yes, they’re all the same thing, but with this one being older, it felt more run down. The range of movement in the seats seemed poorer, with the screen quality being shocking as well. Awful.
This “Star Tours” type simulator was also identical to the one at the Chongqing park.
A VERY annoying thing about Fantawild parks is that a lot of their attractions, not the coasters though, run on schedules.
To be fair though, they kind of have a system of guiding people around between attractions – consisting of staff waving flags – so you can, theoretically, move between all the attractions without having to really pay too much attention to the times.
This was one of those talking to the audience things; it was ****.
Does this look kind of familiar?
It was basically a rip off of Poseidon’s Fury at Islands of Adventure, only using a more local story as a backdrop. It had the same three sections as PF, though clearly done on a much, much tighter budget.
Since it’s on a schedule, before the show they had a kind of preshow outside with a bunch of dancers.
Mysterious West, a rip off of Knott’s Mystery Lodge, was again something I’d seen before. It’s very good though; better than the original it was ripped off from.
The Xiamen park has taken the technology, but made a new, bigger and better, show out of it with a different story and multiple actors.
Because it’s on a schedule, as we were leaving, the same dancers from before were waiting at the exit, in different costumes, to put on a little show.
Special Effects Studio was f**king appalling. Just soooooo cheap and shoddily done.
Look who was waiting for us at the exit though:
Dino Rampage was the last thing I rode. It’s a “Spiderman” type 3D dark ride, and identical to the one I’d done in Chongqing.
A few other parks seem to have this as well, though the Xiamen park - as well as, presumably, some other newer parks - has again taken the ride concept and applied it to a different story/theme. They’ll never ben up to Universal standard, but for knockoff’s, they’re actually not bad at all.
My vehicle got stuck right before the station though, where it proceeded to then go apes**t, spinning around and lurching to the sides for a couple of minutes.
I wasn’t impressed with this place, mostly down to the fact that, apart from the Poseidon rippoff and 3D show, there was nothing I hadn’t done at the Chongqing park. That shouldn’t be a criticism since they’re nowhere near each other and basically opened at the same time, but I was hoping for a bit more.
There’s load of empty space around the park, with, as I mentioned earlier, huge roads around the whole place, which makes me think it won’t be too long before we hear news of a second park for Shantou.
What’s discouraging though is that Fantawild are just opening a s**t ton of new parks all over the place, but without really taking care of what they have already. This place is only 5 years old, but feels a lot older as it’s been allowed to stagnate and fall apart slightly. It also seems like once a park is open, they add nothing new to it. They open as “full” parks, but are then ignored as newer parks are opened. I just have to wonder how long they can keep that practice up for.
The station in Shantou isn’t actually in Shantou though. It’s placed midway between Shantou and another minor city, seemingly to serve both but actually stuck in the middle of nowhere an hour’s drive from either. Luckily, my seatbeltless taxi got me to my hotel in just over half this time thanks to a ludicrously reckless driver who didn’t want to concern himself with looking up at traffic lights.
After checking in, I went for a bit of a wander to find something to eat. Not much to the place really:
The following morning, I spent ages trying to get a taxi out to one of the parks. Well, the only park really. This is probably the only place I’ve seen in China that didn’t seem to have too many cabs.
The city planners clearly didn’t think ahead when they planted the trees here.
Due to the lack of taxis, it was common practice for random people on motorbikes, completely unlicensed and unofficial, to drive around picking up passengers. Riding on the back of a motorbike, without a helmet, through a Chinese city is not something I’d like to repeat, but the thought of not getting the creds outweighed the fear of impending death.
There were some huge, wide roads around and leading up to the park, all empty though, which makes me think that they’ve planned ahead with regards to future development. Anyway, onto the park then.
Fantawild Adventure
This is only the third Fantawild park I’ve been to out of the 18 current parks (some of those due to open this year), but it’s easily the worst of those three.
It was pretty much the same as the one I’d done in Chongqing with regards to ride selection – they’re about the same age - but the Chongqing park gets away with it a bit more since it’s a small place in a corner of a retail park as opposed to being a bigger, “destination” park in its own right.
The coaster selection was piss-poor with just three, small Golden Horse knockoffs. The newer parks are definitely upping their game in that respect.
They had a walkthrough/funhouse thing which was just dire.
It wasn’t quite bad enough to warrant this sign, though I guess by the end of the day I was close to some self harm.
They had some decent enough theming scattered about, but the areas in between were just bare and shoddy.
The 3D show, Conch Bay, was actually excellent, with multiple screens, animatronics, stuff coming down from the ceiling and anal rapers in the seats. It’s clearly inspired by Tough to be a Bug, but with an underwater theme and with the actual 3D film being a lot better.
The park mascot is the stuff of nightmares:
Sky Sailor, a Soarin’ ripoff, seems to be a staple across pretty much every park. This one was awful though. Yes, they’re all the same thing, but with this one being older, it felt more run down. The range of movement in the seats seemed poorer, with the screen quality being shocking as well. Awful.
This “Star Tours” type simulator was also identical to the one at the Chongqing park.
A VERY annoying thing about Fantawild parks is that a lot of their attractions, not the coasters though, run on schedules.
To be fair though, they kind of have a system of guiding people around between attractions – consisting of staff waving flags – so you can, theoretically, move between all the attractions without having to really pay too much attention to the times.
This was one of those talking to the audience things; it was ****.
Does this look kind of familiar?
It was basically a rip off of Poseidon’s Fury at Islands of Adventure, only using a more local story as a backdrop. It had the same three sections as PF, though clearly done on a much, much tighter budget.
Since it’s on a schedule, before the show they had a kind of preshow outside with a bunch of dancers.
Mysterious West, a rip off of Knott’s Mystery Lodge, was again something I’d seen before. It’s very good though; better than the original it was ripped off from.
The Xiamen park has taken the technology, but made a new, bigger and better, show out of it with a different story and multiple actors.
Because it’s on a schedule, as we were leaving, the same dancers from before were waiting at the exit, in different costumes, to put on a little show.
Special Effects Studio was f**king appalling. Just soooooo cheap and shoddily done.
Look who was waiting for us at the exit though:
Dino Rampage was the last thing I rode. It’s a “Spiderman” type 3D dark ride, and identical to the one I’d done in Chongqing.
A few other parks seem to have this as well, though the Xiamen park - as well as, presumably, some other newer parks - has again taken the ride concept and applied it to a different story/theme. They’ll never ben up to Universal standard, but for knockoff’s, they’re actually not bad at all.
My vehicle got stuck right before the station though, where it proceeded to then go apes**t, spinning around and lurching to the sides for a couple of minutes.
I wasn’t impressed with this place, mostly down to the fact that, apart from the Poseidon rippoff and 3D show, there was nothing I hadn’t done at the Chongqing park. That shouldn’t be a criticism since they’re nowhere near each other and basically opened at the same time, but I was hoping for a bit more.
There’s load of empty space around the park, with, as I mentioned earlier, huge roads around the whole place, which makes me think it won’t be too long before we hear news of a second park for Shantou.
What’s discouraging though is that Fantawild are just opening a s**t ton of new parks all over the place, but without really taking care of what they have already. This place is only 5 years old, but feels a lot older as it’s been allowed to stagnate and fall apart slightly. It also seems like once a park is open, they add nothing new to it. They open as “full” parks, but are then ignored as newer parks are opened. I just have to wonder how long they can keep that practice up for.
