The park looks like a Disney rip off and in fact its obvious where the inspiration was stolen from. I think the park had received some bad press from said corporation and so had endeavoured over the last few years to rebrand and take away the associations to their parks.
The first coaster was a large corkscrew ride which we feared would be quite rough but was surprisingly OK with just a kick coming out of the corkscrews.
Second coaster was called spinning mouse. It was the Maurer style cars on a standard mouse layout and us such didn't offer a particularly great ride.
The third coaster was an indoor themed one. Called Jurassic Adventure the ride features dinosaurs on the outside and a fully grown jungle on the inside. It was quite a fun ride although the ratchet rollbacks on each hill caused quite a bit of clanging sound.
Close to this ride is a great looking tower (a bit like St Marks Sq. in Venice) that houses a drop tower.
Great looking Top Spin attraction
Fourth coaster was Spinning Batman, a Caripro clone that was easier to board but much more unpleasant to ride. On one of the turns the car swung around so hard that I felt my hip pop, fortunately not enough to dislocate it but it was uncomfortable all the same.
Coaster number 5 was the kiddy coaster "Worm Coaster". A typical caterpillar coaster made different by being raised off the ground by about 10 feet.
We were queueing for coaster number 6, Space Trip when the heavens opened and a major storm came over the park. Storms in Beijing are not brief affairs as we're used to and we spent the best part of 2 hours sheltered in the queue lines. There were some comments about it being OK with the group to take ride in the rain but seeing trains colliding in the station block run when empty perhaps indicated otherwise.
We took some time out in the arcade where Jeppe got addicted again to the money games
And I claimed yet another top stop on the Harley game.
We were giving up on the park and had made our way back to the coach when the skies suddenly cleared up and a decision was taken to re-enter the park. Usually there's an hour or so for the tracks to dry before the rides are reopened, which would have meant the park would be closed by then. But a little persuasion/begging* (delete as applicable) with the park staff and the rules were bent and the rides opened early.
We were giving up on the park and had made our way back to the coach when the skies suddenly cleared up and a decision was taken to re-enter the park. Usually there's an hour or so for the tracks to dry before the rides are reopened, which would have meant the park would be closed by then. But a little persuasion/begging* (delete as applicable) with the park staff and the rules were bent and the rides opened early.
So, coaster number six, Space Trip was a nice layout looking like a Flitzer/Schwarzkopf hybrid offered lots of sweeping turns and a decent ride. I'm wondering if the intent for this ride was to enclose it as it's that sort of ride and would fit the theme better.
Coaster number 7 was another Jungle Mouse coaster. This one looking quite rusty and sounding quite old. Compounding this ride experience was a branch sticking out over the final straight which hit one of us in the face. Not me though!
Coaster number 8 was the mine train, which was similar to the one in Sun Park but with an extra level and a slightly more little uphill element that caused most of the train to yelp.
Nice death slide attraction
Close to this coaster is a strange shuttle coaster with an equally strange ride selection process that had meant some westerners hadn't been allowed to ride this the last time they visited. Unfortunately none of us got to do it this time but for different reasons. The ride had been closed for maintenance.
We were heading over to the SLC copy, Suzhou Coaster, when the ride operators told us it was still to wet to run in the rain. I guess this coaster needs the full hour to get over the weather. So we didn't get to ride this, but we were grateful to the park for doing what they did to get us on the the rides they did. For those that are curious about the name, the city of Suzhou is similar to Cape Kennedy, the home of the country's space program.
The park has some lovely unique theming, not on par with Happy Valley but without the investment. The park is expanding currently building a large indoor retail and entertainment complex that is expected to open in the next couple of years...one to watch for sure!
Beijing Shijingshian Park is located in the west of the city at Bajiao Amusement Park station, which can be found at the west end of Line 1
No comments:
Post a Comment