Beijing Olympic Park

Heading back from the Great Wall we passed what was supposed to be a Chinese take on a Disney park before the money ran out and the project was left incomplete.

Back in Beijing we took a quick drive past the Birds Nest Stadium complex, which looks amazing. We were going to stop here but people were keen to ride coasters so I began making plans to come back here on my own later on in the trip.

What a crazy building.

A not so famous landmark.

On to Sun Park...

Sun Park

Following our coach drive we finally ended up in Sun Park for some coaster riding, which some people were in serious need of. It's funny seeing these cre-hos who have the coaster craving very badly to the point they were heckling the coach coordinator to go straight there skipping everything. It was almost as bad as a diabetic having a hypo after not having sugar. There has to be a name for this. If not then I proclaim "ValtPang" the name after its first victim.

Sun Park is like Beijing's little inner city park funfair. It's listed as having 6 coasters.
The first one we came across was a powered dragon called "Sliding Dragon". It was down for maintenance, a good start that upset some people.

Next to the dragon coaster was another children's ride but this had a dance remix of the Benny Hill soundtrack. Most odd!

This could have been a coaster but had been converted into a shooting ride.

This is just the toilet.

Something to keep the kids entertained and to secretly build up their arms to Popeye proportions.

The second was the parks mine coaster, called "Mine Coaster". It was pretty decent, way better than the mine coaster yesterday, but a fairly gentle ride that wasn't intense at all, in fact it was more in a mountain.

The third coaster was the park's spinning coaster, called "Spinning Coaster" (see a pattern?). It was a copy of the type of ride that Dragon Fury is at Chessington but clearly ripped off. It ran pretty good giving us a fairly decent spin and one "whoa" moment as we hit one uphill at just a little too fast a speed. The restraint system was a little odd consisting of a conventional car seat belt which dug into your neck as the ride span.

The fourth coaster we saw was Jungle Coaster but with a queue of Americans (no idea where they came from) we decided to skip it for the next ride then come back. When we did ride it, it was just OK. As a jungle mouse it had some laterals which instantly put it in second place behind yesterday's. I'm wondering if I rode the best of its type first!

The park has a Ring of Fire. That is not a coaster.

Coaster number 5 was the main coaster in the park and called Roller Coaster, with "Made in China" as a subtitle. A single loop double corkscrew coaster, it was alright as they go and certainly not as head banging as usual. The exit from the second corkscrew looked a bit wrong but rode OK. This ride also had a weird restraint system with the lap seat belt having to be fed through the overhead harness. This ride also seemed to attract a sizeable crowd who were happy to watch rather than ride.

I'm not sure how much pleasure could be derived from this given the state of the signage.

Coaster 6 was the smallest coaster of the entire trip. Called "Fruit Worm Coaster" we had to squeeze into the seats and hold on as there was no way the restraints would reach around us. The ride itself was fun considering its size mostly because once the ride operators had us on they either didn't want or couldn't stop the ride and we ended up going round 6 times.

Thinking we'd done all the rides we then spotted one more. It was a kiddy coaster themed around the Tarzan Disney animated movie. Not a bad ride and again one where we benefitted from having an extra lap. One surprising thing on this ride was when an adult with young kid in front suddenly picked the kid up and turned her around giving her a backwards ride. Nobody seemed to mind though, perhaps I could try that later?

So we concluded that the first coaster that wasn't running was the new addition and was probably down because it was being tested. It was funny seeing certain individuals constantly going back on the off chance they'd get a go. ValtPang in full effect.

We decided to head off and see what else the park had to offer. A lovely garden was a popular photo backdrop for newly married couples, we must have seen about half a dozen of them in the park.

Interesting form of transport.

The river running through the centre of the park.

Just to the east of the theme park is a newly opened go-ape aerial ropeway.

To the north of that are some tennis table courts. Not all the Chinese are good players.

Beyond that lies a new water park area, which they've added a fake beach to. It seemed pretty popular with the locals, especially with the weather as hot as it was!

In the west we'd employ enough people to do a job. In Beijing I think they over employ. Whether that's a sign of a healthy economy or there's some sort of subsidy going on I wasn't sure.

Shark Tale rip off anyone?

We then headed back into the theme park bit to catch up with the rest of the group, and watch ValtPang do its thing as people went back to the powered ride once more. (Yes I know by watching people go back to the coaster I must have done so to. Its not hypocrisy though as I didn't care if I didn't ride it, I just enjoyed watching others try to deal with it).

Not sure how unrecycling works...

The end of the day was spent in one of the city's revolving restaurant. We were totally under dressed compared to some of the other patrons but had a great night out with some lovely food. I think I went back to the buffet 7 times, but then it was an all you could eat and we were unlikely to get such nice food anywhere else so why not?

Tomorrow there are no coasters, it's all about the sightseeing.

Tiannamen Square

Today was officially tourist day and whilst a couple headed up to Harbin to ride more coasters, we chose to stay with the group beginning with a walk into Tiannamen Square.

This was fine and having been here already I took the opportunity to chill a bit.

Forbidden City

From here we entered the Forbidden City. Its a shame the beggars and traders aren't forbidden as it would be a whole lot more enjoyable without them around. Lots of large squares and entrance gates that went on as far as the eyes could see. (I'm not selling this very well at all, am I?).

The area is complex and it's so hard to believe that it's still not fully open to the public. Those bits that were were very busy though.

One of these "Rub for good luck" knobs!

Amazing! (is that better?)

Male and Female dragons. You can tell which one is female as that's the one crushing the baby dragon under it's foot. Throughout the complex there are pairs of things off setting each other e.g. male and female.

A mural of seven dragons, that I tried to take a pano of but was proving too popular with the locals to get a good shot of.

Some of the old crown jewels were put on display including stunning intricate crowns.

When we entered the Emperors Garden, wow what a change. It was so removed from the hustle and bustle and offered amazing respite from everything. Here we were fortunate enough to meet the Last Emperor's Nephew. Now in his 80s he's confined to a desk at which he does calligraphy for a price, which none of us were prepared to pay (which left a very uncomfortable air around the room). I hope they never make a sequel to The Last Emperor or they'll have to call it "The Last Sell Out".

For more money you can dress up in concubine costumes (this part of the complex was home to over 3,000 of them; all to serve the Emperor...Lucky SOB!

Another jade sculpture. Again very intricate.

This one is carved from a single piece. It's huge!

Following a disastrous gig by DJ Yoda, the authorities are now opposed to more like him from performing in the city.

At the north end of the complex looking south. The entrance is just over half a mile in the distance.

The Forbidden City is located to the north of Tiannamen Square and is busy all year round. You can spend all day walking around it if you're so inclined. We cleared it in half.