Introduction

In the Summer of 2010 I was kindly invited to accompany some friends for a 2-week tour of China. The route would take us around Beijing in week 1 and Shanghai in week 2.

The Beijing leg would also have us heading out to Tianjin and Qinghuangdao

The Shanghai leg would take in Suzhou, Nanjing & Wuhu

The intent, along with the usual tourist stuff (Great Wall, Tiannamen Square etc) was to visit Chinese Theme Parks. The country has always had a large number of small city parks with rollercoasters within them but since the Olympics they'd also seen an influx of Western style theme parks with larger rides. With the Chinese economy in a healthier state than the UK's and America's investment here was also much higher...Basically right now, China is the place to visit for the new rides. The Olympics had also offered another benefit in that it was now easier to get about, but we still arranged for a guide to accompany the group to deal with the more difficult issues such as language :)

The flight wasn't too bad. I caught two movies then attempted to sleep, failing miserably. Shutter Island was better than I though, a shame as I wanted to call it Shitter Island. Losers looked like someone trying to steal The A-Team's thunder and failing.

Those of us from the UK and Denmark were arriving a day early so the plan was to mop up some last minute coasters that I'd found in the week leading up to the trip before meeting the group proper.

Beijing Airport

Upon arrival at the airport, which was fairly efficient considering the number of people going through it, myself and Martin then went to meet Jeppe. We'd received a text saying he was in Starbucks (his usual haunt) but when we go there we couldn't find him. Turned out his plane had arrived at a different terminal. So with little time left before our bus left for the hotel, Jeppe started his trip with a speedy transfer between terminals. At the hotel we then met with Kat and took the opportunity to freshen up before heading on our day 0 (the official trip started the next day) adventure properly.

Just before the trip I had done a last minute check of parks in the Beijing area and had located 3 more parks, one of which had 2 coasters. So the plan was to visit those in today.

Huangcun Park

First up was Huangcon Park, located in Dixian in south Beijing. When we got there we could see the coaster from the main road, and when we eventually figured out where the entrance was we made our way to the coaster. There was no operator and the entrance gates were chained up. Further investigation revealed that the train and track were both rusting away. So things were not looking good.

Checking out the rest of the park we noticed that none of the rides had operators but were all in better condition than the coaster.

We found a ticket office but had to wake up the staff member who was asleep on a bed in the back of the room. After indicating our ride preference by taking a picture of it and pointing to the camera screen to her she made it clear in fluent chinese that the ride wasn't open.

The Japanese cross armed gesture for closed I gave her confirmed our suspicion; the ride wasn't running anymore and had become an SBNO statistic.

Huangcun Park is best accessed by taxi as its too far south to get to on the Metro

Beijing World Park

The second park was back into Beijing for Beijing World Park. This one was in the SW of the city and is primarily a miniatures theme park with a small selection of rides in one corner including a mine train ride and a mouse coaster.

They also have the Urine Boy statue!

Upon exiting our taxi we were swarmed with scalpers trying to take photos of us to sell. We managed to make our way past them and into the park proper. A firm "no" usually did the trick.

The poor elephant was chained to the ground and could only move one step forward and back. Later on in the day we saw it water fighting with a bunch of kids. I wonder if he takes his frustration out on them?

We found the mouse coaster first and it was overgrown so add that to the SBNO list too, only here it stands for Standing But Now Overgrown.

The mine train was a 20yuen upcharge and we were assaulted by the camera people again this time once we were restrained, albeit very loosely in the ride. The ride itself was weird, stuff was too close to the car for comfort (an entire mountain wall, an axe blade) and the ride was a large figure eight with some hills and a weird banked straight section. When we made it back to the park we were presented with keyrings of our photos. Man that was fast! We declined their offer and left the area.

The rest of the park is quite nice with a mixture of good and bad reconstructions of famous buildings from around the world. The Manhattan skyline was pre 9/11 which was a little surprising.

Golden Gate Bridge?

As we exited the park we were again "attacked" with more key rings of our faces, which we declined. I wonder where they end up?

Aoyun Fuwa Paradise

The final park was a small little collection of rides opened in time for the Olympics and themed around their mascots.

The coaster here was another mouse, the kind with single seat cars. We were the only ones in the park and we had to get the attention of the rideops again to open the ride, which this time they were able to do. Sweet. The ride was actually surprisingly good with the hairpins turns taken without the laterals that usually bring this ride down.

So 2 coasters out of 4 wasn't bad, but 100% on finding the parks which I was pleased about.

Liking the flying chair-o-plane ride!

This park is best accessed by taxi. Gongyixiqiao on the end of Line 4 is the closest station but is still over a mile east of the park.

Tiannamen Square

The evening was spent with a quick stop at Tiannamen Square. There's not much to say about the square other than it's very large and popular with tourists both from the rest of China and beyond.

They make a big deal of raising and lowering the flag at sunrise and sunset, which attracts a crowd. It was still quite early and they were already gathering.

At no point did I pose with 2 carrier bags.

After the square we then went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner (because Martin is a Hard Rock Ho as much as a coaster one Dinner wasn't the best and we noticed how the restaurant was over-staffed. Something we'd come to notice a lot in Beijing.

Badaling

Started the day with a trip out to the Great Wall of China. The bit we were going to was called Badaling, which is one of the main touristy bits, and boy were there a lot of tourists! The wall looked amazing and it's difficult to appreciate how steep it is in places. We walked 2 and half towers worth with one steep part which was a lot more fun going back down than it was climbing.

Pottery soldiers in the Badaling Gift Shop

There weren't many westerners around so those of us who were there were often being pulled into photos by the locals. Not a major inconvenience at all! The tower parts were particularly congested and we soon learnt there is no queueing etiquette like there is in the UK. It's every man, woman and child for themselves.

As we approached the 3rd tower we saw a total lack of movement on the ascent to it, so steep slope + crowd + pretty high heat and humidity, we decided it wasn't worth doing and headed back. Ironically there's an Alpine Coaster not far from that tower that would have given us the incentive to persevere with the crowds and climb but with it being closed today there was no need to do so.

Big Jade statue in the gift shop can be your's for approximately 40K, pre haggling. Not sure how you'd get it home. A warning for anyone who wants to haggle here, it's rude to walk away from the haggle as we found out when one of the group had the store manager following her outside the store continuing the haggle after she'd given up.

We stopped nearby at a large craft factory with a restaurant on the top for lunch. It was the fastest lunch ever and I think we were all fed, watered and out of the place within half an hour. Their efficiency in the kitchen matched their skills in making enamel plates and vases, there were some very pretty pieces on display and you could also see the stuff being made in typical factory conditions.

Back at the hotel and I took a photo of the accessories that had been laid out for us!

and this is our hotel. Not bad at all.