Park number 5 for the day was Suzhou Giant Wheel Park. This is a small park on a little bit of reclaimed land on the east coast of Jinji lake in the centre of the city. The centre piece is obviously the large wheel, currently the biggest in Asia but we had come for Stingray, the only new generation Vekoma Flying Coaster in the world.
Different to the others this has a very small footprint making the ride very compact. The ride operation is atrocious with the riders having to watch a video first, women have to purchase hair nets and all loose items including glasses with straps have to be locked in a locker on the station. We had been forewarned of this prior to the trip but some people chose to ignore that advice and have a rant on the station platform. It was all a bit disappointing to see and made the group look bad, particularly given the fact they had deliberately closed the ride so that we wouldn't have to queue.
As for the ride itself it was actually quite fun with some intense elements. Not being familar with the layout it was hard to predict which way the track would go next. During one of the diving sections at the start I felt like I was getting a nose bleed and I spent some of the ride checking that I was OK (it was just running) which distracted me a little bit. The best bit for me was the ending where you dive in a half loop back into the station ending with a view looking upwards where you can see the entire layout of the track you've just been around.
The end of the day was spent on the wheel, which was pleasant enough for the half hour journey that the wheel takes and would have allowed a wonderful photo opportunity of the Stingray coaster if the setting sun wasn't at just the precise angle to overexpose the shot.
Suzhou Giant Wheel Park lies on the east coast of Jinji Lake approximately 20 minutes by car from the main city station.
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