Schwarzkopf
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Posts posted by Schwarzkopf
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^ You might be able to relate more to this part of the PTR then... well, from the other side of the lake, haha.
Thanks for the comments again, didn't expect it to get this many...
Day 3 - Dead Sea
We got up pretty late after being KNACKERED from Petra, so planned to just spend the afternoon at the Dead Sea. I grabbed some photos of our gorgeous 'hotel' before we went out...
The view. Well, the view was a brick wall, but if you twisted your head with the same ability as Regan from the Exorcist, you saw this:
We minced to the 'Bus Station' in a taxi, then got a local bus to the Dead Sea area. The buses in Jordan are like minibuses, and you just flag one down whenever you want to get on (as long as you're on the rough route). Thus, it's pretty hard to know where you're going unless you know already, as their are no bus stops and no buses are marked/numbered.
The bus driver kindly told us when it was our time to get off, and we jumped in an unlicensed taxi for the rest of the journey, which was around 15mins. Then, we had arrived.
Looking over to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories...
There was loads of salt, loads.
We forgot swimming shorts so had to go in in our boxers... This is a bit of a tradition now, I made the same mistake in Tel Aviv and Helsinki <3.
The increased buoyancy makes it impossible to swim... I can't really describe how it feels because it's so weird. Here it looks like I'm touching the bottom but I'm actually not!
Like, you'd never be able to do that in normal water...
For all the foot fetish people <3.
Once we were done with the Dead Sea we called Omar, our illegal taxi driver, and got a lift back to the bus stop, which really wasn't a bus stop.
'I love your country, it's very spacious!'
Once we were back in the city we had a mince...
.. and for all the vegetarians and animal rights activists who may read this...
There were loads of sheeps heads loads, but I failed to get any pics 3.
Oh, there's a fab photo from City Mall I forgot to post. The name of this chippy... Brighton!
So that's it for Jordan. Thanks for reading!
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Thanks for the comments guys!
Yeah, the spinning coaster was really weird... according to RCDB there's only one other one like that (in China), but it's still listed as under construction (probably because nobody has been there yet).
I guess it could work for a smaller park, or even a bigger park as a family ride if it was themed in some way...
Day 2 - Petra.
We'd booked our bus tickets the day before, which were about £15 return for the 3 hour (each way) trip. Not bad seeing as it was an actual direct coach. Plus, it didn't stop off at a carpet factory owned by the bus driver's brother, which was a bonus.
Ticket prices for a day in Petra are around £50, basically doubling in the last couple of years. This resulted in the obvious 'dirty, evil robbing bastadz' expression being overused.
When you enter the site it's VERY Star Wars...
You then get to a gorge which guides you the rest of the way...
This shows how huge it is (see the people at the bottom)...
After around 15mins you reach the end, leading to stunning views of the Treasury.
<3
After the Treasury there's another path leading towards the 'city centre', going past the amphitheatre and some other tombs...
Gavin suggested doing a bit of a detour and doing a 'hike' up one of the mountains. This turned out to be a good idea as it was epic.
Getting higher...
Higher...
Mincing...
Looking back...
At the top. Random couple sitting on the edge...
'Photos of us on high crap'. You can't really see in these photos, but this is right on the edge of a drop which must be around 600-800ft.
Some ants I mean, people...
It was grotesque <3.
The path back down took a different route, past some more tombs and venomous creatures.
Then it was time for MORE stairs, leading up to the monastery...
By this point we were pretty knackered, and got STUNG £3 for a drink at the top. It was worth the effort though...
The thought of the 2 hour walk back to the bus was a bit daunting, as we had both obviously flaked, so we were only up there for about 10 minutes before we decided to mish it back, via the 'city centre'.
To be honest, Petra really blew me away. I didn't really know that much about it before visiting, so was aware of the carved buildings but had no idea just how dramatic the scenery was around it. It's amazing, and totally worth the £50.
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OK, this wasn't really a coaster trip but there were a couple of credits involved so I may as well post it in here. Feel free to move it if it's not coastery enough .
So, me and my friend Gavin went to the Middle East last week.
We were there for 4 nights, with 3 full days.
Day 1 - Credits and tourist stuff in Amman, the capital.
Day 2 - Petra
Day 3 - Dead Sea
Day 1.
There are 5 credits in Amman according to RCDB, 3 of which are shopping malls with 1 each and one of which is an actual outdoor 'park' outside the city. Due to it being winter, we expected the outdoor park to be closed and unfortunately we were right. On top of that, one of the shopping malls was impossible to find, leaving us with just 2 credits. Obviously, the coasters were just a bonus and not the focus of the trip, so whilst it was spiteful it didn't really matter.
We got up at about 8am and headed straight for the bus station, where we booked tickets to Petra for the following day. As taxis were so cheap, this was pretty much how we got around in the city. Within half an hour or so we were at 'City Mall', a new western style shopping centre complete with a credit!
The coaster...
It actually made me feel quite grotesque, maybe because it spins loads but doesn't actually DO anything else. The 3 circuits were NOT appreciated.
After the +1 we grabbed another taxi to 'Amman Mall', an older and more ghetto mall somewhere else in the city.
People were openly smoking in all public buildings and areas including malls, shops, hotels, busses etc.
The second (and final) credit of the trip <3.
The name made us chuckle...
There were a couple of other rides...
By this point it was nearly lunch, so we hung around for McMurder to open. This sounded amazing but was pretty grim...
Once the credits were done, we minced back into the old town area to see the Citadel and the Amphitheatre. As the Citadel was up a huge hill, we got a cab up there first and then walked down to the Amphitheatre.
The Citedal was quite cool...
This flag was excessive.
Dome thing...
Looking down at the Amphitheatre...
More views...
Ok, Theatre time.
Totes caught this kid stacking it...
Looking back up to the Citadel...
So that's our first day. I was suprised how nice the people were in Jordan, after having lots of bad experiences in Egypt and Morocco. Don't let the dumpyness of the city fool you, it's fab.
Thanks for reading!
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Ughhhh that was VILE. I did mention it earlier (scroll back to Tiananmen Square, haha)!
Gross. I still think the spitting is worse because it happens so often, and the NOISE they make just before //3.
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The Great Wall of China
There are various sections of the wall you can visit. The closest one to Beijing is Badaling, but it's also the most touristy (and a lot of it has been rebuilt) so we spited it and went to Jinshanling.
It was a bit of a pain to get to because you have to get a bus to a town 'nearby', then hire a driver to take you the rest of the way, then take you back. It was a bit overwhelming when we got off the bus and were getting harassed by all the drivers. It was pretty vile 3.
However, when we got to the wall it was worth the spite.
The condition of the wall changes every time you turn a corner...
Some of it was really steep, worse than Brighton & Hove /3
Shoot <3
The next day we had a HORRID journey home...
Beijing - Shanghai (2 hours)
2 hour layover
Shanghai - Hong Kong (2 hours)
12 hour layover
Hong Kong - Doha, Qatar (8 hours)
3 hour layover
Doha, Qatar - London (7 hours)
///3.
All in all, I can't make my mind up about China. It's an amazing place, but for all the wrong reasons. I don't like seeing one side of a road full of luxury apartments, with people on the other side sitting in the gutter with rags on who have absolutely nothing. But, I guess it's only recently discovered how fab capitalism is... it'll level out eventually.
Oh, and I don't miss the food. Ugh. Or people spitting on the floor //3.
That's it.
Thanks for reading!
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This is the only one I can find...
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Happy Valley Beijing
It was quite surreal going to this park because as a teenager I admired the theming, and to be honest, couldn't see myself going here for a while (if ever)...
The operations here were a lot better than the other two Happy Valleys, but they still did the irritating opening times. Crystal Wings and Extreme Rusher didn’t open till a bit later so we started at the back of the park. The Mine Train was up first…
We were a bit sick of these by this point, but it looked pretty.
We then got the SLC over and done with, which only took about half an hour thank GOD. Yeah, it was worse than the one in Shenzhen…
(still better than Kumali <3)
The other burdenous cred was the Golden Horse, which took a rather venomous, spiteful hour 3. This area to me was the only part of the park which felt run down…
... it did spite Bugs Life / Antz though <3
(and you can see them GORPING //3)
By this point Crystal Wings had opened and had a short queue…
… guess why?
TWO TRAINS
No word of a lie, this was the first and last park in China we saw coasters running two trains.
Crystal Wings is fab. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Superman (SFGadv) so wasn’t expecting much, but the setting of Crystal Wings made it for me. <3.
The Disko totes ruins this 3
The last coaster was the new S&S, Extreme Rusher. The queue was excessive, but they were running two trains (<3) so they can be forgiven. They were running it really well actually, but I guess new rides are always spiteful…
It was about 2 hours...
Eventually it was our turn. I’ll post a little review after the photos…
This hill was OBSCENE. It was like, a turn, with ejector airtime, banked the wrong way...
The trains <3
I thought it was really good. The launch was amazing, and the layout is so random and RCT-esque that it feels out of control. The only issue I had was that a couple of the transitions were REALLY brutal, especially when you enter the brakes. Hopefully it doesn’t become painful in a few years…
Another ride I remember thinking looked fab was the Frisbee, but for some reason they’ve removed the snakes from the supports… maintenance issues perhaps?
Never seen a stand up Rockin’ Tug before, AND it had a bump in the middle…
The Splashdown looked fab, but we couldn’t be bothered to queue over an hour for it...
OK, we didn’t ride anything else so I’m just going to post the rest as general park photos:
Absolutely gorgeous park, helped even more by having decent operations. Happy Valley Shanghai had slightly better coasters, but I’d rather spend a day here I think.
Thanks for reading! Next (and final) part: The Great Wall of China
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Pretty much what Elissa said really. The restraints were HORRIBLE, and they pinned me to the point that I had trouble breathing for the whole ride (they were pushing right against my collar bones and I couldn't inhale fully it was so tight). It was SO rough too, but I think that was mainly due to the amount of shuffling which occurs as it struggles through the inversions.
The main problem with Chinese manufactured coasters is that they're designed for shorter people. If you're over about 5ft 10 you'll find a lot of them very uncomfortable (we're both over 6ft and there were a few coasters we only just got on). The shuttle loop coasters were particularly painful on my shoulders.
Regarding flat rides, to be honest, we didn't really do any on the whole trip (except the Giant Frisbees). I'm not the biggest fan of flats anyway, and simply wouldn't trust a lot of the rides in China. I'll go on the coasters, but even on quite a few of them I was genuinely scared. Flats though? Nah.
Besides, they were pretty generic, and most parks were pay per ride so that was another deterrent.
Thanks for the comments again! I'll try and get Happy Valley up tomorrow, then it's just the Great Wall and the report is finished!
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^ Thanks!
Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park
With 10 coasters, this was the park with the most amount of credits on the whole trip. It was a pretty huge park actually.
As usual, it was about £2 to get in, then it was pay per ride. It wasn't cheap by any means, costing us more than £30 to get all our credits. When compared to the general cost of living in China, it's VERY expensive.
Knockoff Disney castle <3
The first credit we stumbled upon was the mine train, which was a clone of the one at Sun Park (but in a much worse condition)...
To get to the main section of the park you have to go over a bridge, which gives pretty good views of the other rides:
The SLC hadn't opened yet, so we jumped on the Big Apple next to it...
It was rather overgrown...
A Chinese park wouldn't be complete without a Golden Horse!
Next up was the Knockoff loopscrew...
If I remember correctly, this was the smoothest one on the trip and was ALMOST good!
The Knockoff Batflyer was closed. Shame, it looked amazing //3. It might be SBNO, as we returned a few days later and it was still dead. I'm sure I saw a PTR from a couple of months before we went and it was closed then too...
Oppsite the Batflyer was 'Jurassic Adventure' or something. For an enclosed coaster it was pretty huge and had some amazing theming, if a bit ghetto.
For some reason this park has two 'Jungle Mouse' coasters, one being larger and newer than the other. We did the newer one first, which wasn't too bad...
The smaller one was GROSS though. I did get a video of it but can't find it...
By this point the Knockoff SLC had opened. Goliath (Walibi) anyone?
I don't really know what to say about this coaster...
The shape of that twist...
It nearly stalled on several elements...
This video shows how slow it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfiXwsypeHI
The last (open) credit was the shuttle loop, 'Coaster'...
There were loads of Knockoff flats, loads.
The most interesting ride for me was 'Adventure of Jones' aka 'Ghetto Knockoff Stormforce'. It was FAB <3
It had the backwards drop and everything <3
Spite Gardaland...
Another view of the castle...
'Some cheesy show...
Ugh //3
Health and safety?
So RCT...
The last ride we did was a Soarin knockoff, which actually used some of the scenes from the real one, mixed with some other Chinese stuff. So ghetto, but better .
Thanks for reading!
Next part: Happy Valley Beijing
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Forbidden City
I'm not going to tell you what this is, because you should know. If you don't, shame on you!
There's a moat around it.
One of the main entrances, opposite Tiananmen Square. We used this one...
It's huge, but we found it rather repetitive. Every time you walk into a new section, it's a the same as the previous one.
It's huge, but we found it rather repetitive. Every time you walk into a new section, it's a the same as the previous one.
It's huge, but we found it rather repetitive. Every time you walk into a new section, it's a the same as the previous one.
But, it was very pretty.
Me sashaying...
Ben shanteing...
On the way to the gardens...
The gardens were cute <3
We then left at the other end, doing a circuit of the Raoul...
This got us back to Tiananmen Square. There were no tanks unfortunately, just babies being lifted in the air to piss in bins.
Looking back to FC...
Yeah, that's the square. It was pretty dull to be honest!
We quickly minced to Beijing Zoo, cus Ben wanted another Panda fix...
Aww <3.
People were throwing VARIOUS projectiles at the bears...
By this point it was time for dinner, and after seeing an advert on the metro for duck necks;
... we wanted some duck. Yeah.
This is the biggest duck restaurant in the world or something... it was excessive!
We had a whole duck, head included. 'Can we have the BILL please?'
It was well nice <3.
Oh, and the woman insisted that we have some bone soup.
It, was, grotesque.
Thanks for reading! Next part... Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park, home of the Chinese knockoff!
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^ Haha, I didn't notice that! What a dump...
Sooo, we decided to get a bullet train to Beijing, no photos of the journey or anything, but the bullet train was awesome.
Sun Park & Beijing World Park
On the way to Sun Park we walked past this structure. No expert, but it looks like a roof for something.
... and looked EXACTLY like B&M track!
Sun Park was a typical pay-per-ride park. Very RCT1, you pay a couple of quid to enter too.
First credit was the LoopScrew, which wasn't bad at all really. Smoother than a lot of Vekomas...
Disney infringement...
Next credit, the Jungle Mouse...
So much rust...
SO much...
Ghetto mine train...
Couldn't really get any photos of this...
It looks really dull but has some crazy hidden trackwork. It was actually quite vicious, haha.
Powered dragon' coaster, with some more fab english
This was really ghetto too, and it's SUCH a credit
You also get ravaged by foliage...
The kiddie coaster was amazing <3
Bit of a squeeze, but still a lot better than a Go Gator!
The last credit was a weird family coaster that did NOTHING. The infringement made up for it though...
Yeah, it was awful.
Beijing World Park
We knew this place had a coaster, but that was about it. The models were pretty good...
There was a random elephant hanging around the entrance <3
Here are some pictures of models.
This was actually huge...
Oh, China. Really?
The coaster was another rusty mine train. This is the only photo we have of it
It was the least amount of legroom I've EVER had on a coaster. It was actually painful just sitting there...
Thanks for reading!
Next part: Beijing tourist stuff...
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Shanghai Zoo
Firstly, we were going to skip this Zoo and do the one in Beijing instead, then RCDB added a coaster here so we decided to include it.
Secondly, I really don't care about animal rights. However, even I was pretty shocked by what I saw at this place.
They had a whole section for dogs, which I found weird for a zoo...
The Pandas were in much worse conditions than the ones in HK...
Other animals, I won't bother with captions...
This was horrible...
Ben got some nice pictures of the turtles...
Finally, the coaster!
It was pretty ghetto...
The previous day we'd seen a poster for a Canival in Shanghai, occupying some the World Expo site. We went to check it out incase they had some credits, and they did!
Suspended kiddie coaster, similar to the one at Bottons in the UK...
An actual Pinfari Big Apple!
Italian...
There were 3 other coasters. A Pinfari looper...
... a Pinfari wildcat...
... and finally, a Pinfari Invert, which was closed, unfortunately. We think it's the one which used to be at Nigloland?
That was our final day in Shanghai. Great city <3.
Next part: Sun Park in Beijing!
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Thanks for the comments so far!
^ Nah, sorry, we generally don't do videos... and we were only there for a few minutes to ride the coaster as we'd been delayed earlier!
World Joyland
This park is a bit of a shag to get to but obviously it had to be done.
We got a train from Suzhou to Wuxi, which is the nearest major city to the park. From there we took a taxi, which took about an hour. There IS a bus from Wuxi station to the park, but we didn't realise this till we were returning later on. If I could go back I'd still probably get the taxi there just because busses are so much more difficult to understand if you don't know where you're going.
Anyway, the park.
Due to the fact that it had only been open a couple of months, nobody really knew what rides were there (apart from the 3 coasters), so we did miss quite a lot. To be honest, suprise suprise, the operations were so bad that it was about 4pm by the time we'd ridden all the coasters, and we had to get all the way back to Shanghai from here.
The theming looks great, but is already showing signs of decay. Generally, the park felt rushed. I just got the feeling that they'd cut a lot of corners.
The kiddie area copied IoA SO much...
Of course, we went to the B&M Flyer first.
it was worth the trek just for this...
The twist/loop/turn is up there with X2's first drop for my craziest coaster moments. Pure fabness.
It took us about an hour in the end because you have to FAFF with lockers, then it broke down for about half an hour when we were right at the front of the queue. There were actually puddles of sweat on the floor due to the humidity and so many people being crammed together. It was gross.
After the flyer we got some lunch. The service was so terrible that this took the best part of an hour in the end /3.
Once we had inhaled some chicken and chips it was X Car time <3
We like these. That's all there is to say really. Oh, they made Ben take his watch off, then put it in a locker, only to get given a wristband with a sharp key attatched to it. I think we were the only ones who were questioning this policy?!? She couldn't count either.
The Mine Train didn't open till 2, and by now it was about half past so we sashayed over. This was the most putrid queue of the day for sure. An hour and a half. ONE TRAIN.
Oh, and it's a Golden Horse knockoff, not a Vekoma <3. To be fair, it wasn't a bad knockoff.
Rapids. Meh, couldn't be bothered.
By this point we just wanted to leave, so got some photos just to show how much of a dump it is.
Paint all over the floor...
THESE ARE SO ANNOYING //3
Finally, a bit of casual copyright infringement...
They also use ideas/buildings and stuff from popular games, none of which is licensed. Ben will be able to tell you more about it, but as far as I know there may be a lawsuit?
Either way, this place is a massive hole which I don't want to return to. I can't believe THEY got such a great B&M, what a waste.
Next: Shanghai Zoo and Shanghai Carnival
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Nope, we had no idea about the tide thing?
No idea with the Toboggan, it looked pretty SBNO but all the rides there were so run down it was hard to tell for definite. After riding the one at Chuanlord we were actually quite glad it wasn't open, they really are the worst rides ever. Oh, and if you're over 6ft you'll have trouble closing the restraint on your legs (at Chuanlord they had to remove all the padding so it would lock on us)!
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^ Yeah, and half the seats didn't have restraints...haha.
It was raining pretty heavily in Shanghai when we were at the station waiting for our train to Suzhou, which worried us because the two cities are fairly close together. By the time we arrived in Suzhou (30mins or so on the bullet train) it had stopped, so we went to the Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou
This is the place with the Vekoma Stingray. It was closed because of the weather so we got a cab to Suzhou Amusement Land, planning to return later.
This place had 4 credits, one of which was an enclosed Galaxi type coaster. It had been taken down and built outside, but was in the process of being repainted, so was closed. .
(No photo)
So, we minced over to the SLC. It's like the one in Thailand, with the same elements as the regular SLC just in a slightly different shape.
No alcoholics... and, Cervical what?!
See how instead of sticking to the square footprint it just decides to go a different direction, under the lift hill?
It started off quite smooth, then got slightly vulgar towards the end.
Enclosed or not enclosed?
The last coaster was the Shuttle Loop. We were expecting it to be decent like the one we'd done the previous day, but it just wasn't the same 3.
They had the most GHETTO ORPs on this cred. A guy was standing at the bottom of the loop taking your photo, then it popped up on the screen at the end. Some were actually perfectly timed, but some were not.
We didn't hang around very long because we had to get back to the other park (and this place was a dive).
Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou
We couldn't figure out where the name of the park originated from...
Well, the Stingray was now open thank GOD.
I knew it wasn't going to be great, but it's so unique I would have been really upset to miss it. Even though the rules were RIDICULOUS. Girls had to wear hair nets and they forced you to use lockers, even though there's only one train... the amount of faff was obscene.
The lift was quite surreal. It felt like being on a stand up drop tower!
Yeah, I LOVED the lift and the first drop/turn, then it was just over. The brake run was HORRIBLE too.
Brakes and inversions don't mix 3
This was one of the better bits...
So, in summary, it wasn't bad by any means but I can see why there's only one. The capacity is pretty dire.
Once the credit was acquired we got a taxi to our hotel in Suzhou. We still had the apartment in Shanghai, but figured it would be better to just leave all our stuff there and bring an overnight bag for these dumps. The hotel was FOUL. There were cigarette burns on the bed and actual unflushed human urine in the toilet when we arrived...
Next: World Joyland
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^ It just seemed to swing higher really... and the Intamin restraints are a lot better! I think the location over the lake helped too.
Jin Jiang Action Park & Fisherman Warf.
Jin Jiang is in a pretty gross area of the city. The entrance is basically under a huge road interchange and there are loads of beggers, loads.
We bought a pack of tickets which was enough for the coasters + a couple of extra rides.
The first thing you see is the big wheel, because it's HUGE.
Well, it's 350ft. I think it looks taller because the cars are so tiny...
The Zamperla MotoCoaster was just inside the entrance so we grabbed it first. Not much to say here, really not a fan of these...
Here it is again, with the spiteful GIB in the background...
It opened a few weeks later. Annoying...
After the spite we went over to the shuttle loop, probably named 'Roller Coaster' or something. I think it actually was.
You go out of the station forwards, up a lift hill, then come down the drop backwards, do the loop backwards, up a spike, then do the loop forward again.
This was the first of three on the trip and was by far the best one. We expected death but got a smooth, intense coaster. It was actually amaze <3.
The only issue is the restraints are designed for shorter people, so our shoulders got absolutely ruined. Not enough westerners...
Next cred was 'Karst Kave Coaster'. It was a powered coaster, but we couldn't tell if it was Zamperla or a knockoff. Half their other coasters are Knockoffs and the other half are 'real' ones, so it's impossible to tell 3. It was fairly decent though, mainly due to the amount of ghetto-fab theming <3.
Our fourth and final cred ar Jin Jiang was ANOTHER Golden Horse...
After the creds we had tokens left, so braved the dodgy rapids. They were pretty sick to be fair. Better than Alton's or Thorpe's.
...and the ghetto ghost train.
Fisherman Warf is quite far out, so we had to take the metro to the end of a line and then get a taxi from there. What a dump.
'It's actually Southend'
The sea was gross...
Got the Jungle Mouse first. One of the scariest, rustiest coasters I've ever done...
I couldn't get out because my seatbelt was so rusty it got stuck... that's what you get for trying to use safety equipment in the People's Republic of China.
The woman kept pointing at this dodgy looking Power Surge knockoff next door, so after shouting 'Zamperla haven't been anywhere near that, have they?' we ran over to the powered coaster...
The looping toboggan was closed. Thank god...
That Top Spin, OMG... Wish we had a better photo of it...
It took us HOURS to get back into the city as there were no taxis ANYWHERE. We went into this random empty posh hotel and got them to call us one. They gave us a free drink too!
Next: Suzhou parks (Giant Wheel Park of Suzhou and Suzhou Amusement Land)...
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^ You should be! It's a very interesting place...
Shanghai sightseeing.
Well, before we did any sightseeing we ran to Century Park to grab the Golden Horse cred, which was my 600th!
Again, you paid a quid or so to get into the park, then there was a small fairground section inside. I like the idea of paying for parks, it creates jobs and keeps the scum out...
The credit...
Yeah, it's another Golden Horse, not much else to say really.
We then sashayed to a view point for some skyline frames <3
I think at this point someone wanted to go for coffee with us because we were western and amazing, so we quickly rejected and ran away... into the CBD...
I forced Ben to go up the Shanghai World Financial Center with me. From now on I will refer to it as 'the bottle opener'...
It's one of the tallest buildings in the world, at 1,600ft. This dwarfs everything in Europe, and is taller than any building in the United States. It's also the highest observation deck in the world (the one in Dubai is only like, half way up the tower, whereas this is at the top).
Model...
...from the top...
20 million people make a lot of smog...
These would all probably be taller than an anything in London...
The observation deck is sort of, hanging from the bit at the top of the hole of the bottle opener...
Glass floors...
Meeee
Yeah, it's huge. I thought it was amazing, but Ben wasn't the biggest fan
On the way down we bought some Knockoff Vitamin Water. This stuff was actually nicer than the real stuff!
Even though we'd already been up the tallest building in the city we still had to go up the Oriental Pearl Tower too because...
They have...
A CREDIT <3 <3 <3.
This giant roundabout pedestrian bridge thing was awesomeeee.
The Oriental Peal Tower. The coaster is in the bottom sphere.
Even though we only wanted the credit, we had to pay full price, so went to the top anyway. The only good thing was that they had a bigger glass floor (and an outdoor area). Of course, it was an anticlimax after just going up the other tower.
So yeah, the coaster. It's in a Space themed arcade. It's SUCH a weird place for a park, and a waste of space really, not that I'm complaining, haha.
Gotta love the signage...
It was a custom rollerskater type thing. Here's the station...
... and some of the ride...
It was pretty fierce for a kiddie credit actually. Yeah.
We'd now killed enough time and it was dark, so we went back to the viewing area from earlier for some night shots. Shanghai is so gorge at night <3.
Fin.
Next Part: Jin Jiang Action Park & Fisherman Warf
p.s, if anyone is interested in seeing more of the city I'd recommend these two videos. It really is an amazing place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUXXLqKQ2w4
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^ It's got to be done though! I'm not going all that way and missing a credit just because I can't be bothered to wait for it, no way haha.
Happy Valley Shanghai.
Of the 3 Happy Valleys on the trip, this was the most unique. I felt the other two were fairly similar (they had basically the same rides, areas, theming etc). Whilst Shanghai didn't have as much theming (apart from a couple of rides which had LOADS), the rides were generally better and there were more of them.
This park was also HUGE, probably because it's just outside the city unlike the others, which are more inner-city...
Quite a few of the pics were taken from the Flying Island, so I'll shove that in first.
OK, we arrived fairly early (but still after opening), so some of the rides wern't open yet. The main other beef I have with Happy Valley is that some rides won't open till 12pm or 1pm, then the park closes at 4pm. For example, the woodie here was only open for 3 and a half hours, and it's not even like the park was empty (we queued a good hour and a half for the woodie). So, you've got to plan quite well to get all your credits if it's busy.
I'm pretty sure we headed to the other side of the park to ride the Mega-Lite, stopping off at the vulgar reverchon (it's not a reverchon, but that's what I'm calling it).
Oooh it was disgusting.
Oooh, the back of my head is in this one <3
Next up was the Mega Lite, via some fab pride rock esque theming.
The Intamin is hiding behind it...
I thought it was a good ride, but quite over rated. The airtime is true ejector, but I think not having the height of the 'real' mega coasters takes quite a lot away from it to be honest. Plus, the cable lift really isn't necessary and ruins what could be an awesome first drop. Like I said though, the airtime hills were great.
By this point it was 12ish and the B&M was open, so we minced back over to the other side of the park.
I think we had a synchronized 'sweat attack' in this exact location. It was vile. One minute you'd be fine, then suddenly the humidity would hit you and you'd sweat uncontrollably for 5 minutes or so. Ugh.
Obviously, it was fierce. Nothing else to say really...
Excessive switchback.
Oh, and, it's a Vekoma SLC apparently.
By this point it was lunch, but the woodie still hadn't opened so we decided to do the Gyro Swing quickly and go to Pizza Hut for some aircon. It doesn't look hot in the photos, but it was over 30 degrees with 98% humidity or something...
This was OMGAMAZING. So much better than the Huss ones. <3 <3 <3.
After lunch we went over to the woodie, but decided to get the othe credits first because the queue was ridiculous.
First was the Intmain Mine Train, which was actually amaze. It only had one lift, but still did quite a lot. It kept it's pace up for the whole ride too. It was also walk on, thanks to the fact that the entrance is impossible to find <3.
Such an Intamin <3
The kiddie was the only cred left (other than the woodie), so we scooped that up too. It was actually quite vulgar and rough.
The only other non-coaster ride we did was the Splashdown, because according to Ben it was 'really famous and has a huge dark ride section!'. Yeah, it didn't. It was just Tidal Wave, lets face it. The hose pipes at the end that gave you a gob full were just icing on the cake.
I was quite suprised to see one of these, as I though Canada's was the only one. They are good, but we couldn't be arsed.
By this point it was time for the woodie, which still had a huge queue. Well, 'Wooden Coaster - Fireball'.
It overshot the station...
We sat in the back, which gave crazy ejector on the first drop (see how tight the crest of the lift is?). The rest of the ride I thought was pretty good, just your standard decent large woodie. Ben seemed to like it more than me. Perhaps I let what other people have said about it influence me and I expected too much from it, or maybe after riding Mountain Flyer a few days earlier I'd become spoilt. Meh, that first drop is up there with my favourite coaster moments though...
Overall:
Fab rides, dire operations. Such Happy Valley 3.
Next part will be... erm... Tourist stuff in Shanghai and some bonus creds!
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Shanghai...
We were planning on getting an overnight sleeper train with beds to Shanghai to save a bit of cash, and for the experience, but they'd sold out, so we had to buy 'standing' tickets. Luckily, we stole someone elses seats, and nobody knew what to say to us as we were the only white people on the train. Totes got away with it, even if we did get stared at for TWENTY HOURS.
A seat sounds fine, but TWENTY HOURS was gross, as the toilets were leaking and there was faeces on the floor. Oh, and you could smoke. It was so ghetto, and possibly the worst TWENTY HOURS of our lives.
See the guy casually having a cig?
I've only just noticed, the girl in the pink dress is far too fierce to be on that nail of a train, bless <3
After a quick McMurder and a bit of getting lost, we rocked up at the apartment, which was by far the best accomodation of the trip. Well, it's luxury for me anyway .
We were KNACKERED from the grotesque train journey, but didn't want to waste a day, we decided to run to Gonqging Forest Park (or whatever it's called). It was another Metro/Taxi job, so wasn't too bad.
The park is more of an outskirts country park with a few rides shoved in. You pay a quid or so to get into the park, then each ride is another couple of quid.
Photos are a bit thin and far between due to the fact that we ran in, got the credits and left.
REALLY dodgy Big Apple knockoff...
Vile Jungle Mouse...
They also had a Loopscrew, which was SO smooth. What's the catch you may ask? Well, I realised my restraint wasn't locked as we were going up the lift, so I had to cling on for dear life to the side of it. China //3.
The only non-coaster ride we did was the electric bobsled thing. I'd never done one before (hears screams of shock) and thought it was pretty fun actually... better than the normal ones.
Oh, and we saw Manila Luzon on the way out! (RuPaul's Drag Race reference)
On the way back we realised we'd be changing in the 'People's Square' station, which is almost like the main central square in the city. There is also a credit here, at 'People's Park', so we grabbed it.
+4
Next part: Happy Valley Shanghai.
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Crappy Valley Shenzhen
We planned this as the last park in the Shenzhen area on the long shot off chance that the new S&S coaster would by magic, decide to open. It obviously didn't, but nobody really knew how close (or far) it was from opening so it was worth giving it a try at least.
The park was HEAVING, and they only had one train on all the coasters. I've heard horror stories about Happy Valley operations, but didn't realise quite how awful they were.
We didn't turn up till lunch time, which resulted in a terrible ride count (we only just managed to get the creds in, and there were only 4 open!)...
We started with the Big Apple knockoff on a roof. Although, I don't see why such a major park would NEED to shove a coaster on a roof? Whatever...
Luckily this was walk on, unlike the Vekoma Mine Train, which we waited about an hour and a half for. Ugh.
This was the first time we experienced the STUPID Chinese way of crowd control in queue lines. You know how on XNWO at Thorpe they don't let you queue in the main queue, but force you to wait outside and then let you through in groups? Well, they do this for all their major coasters at Happy Valley, resulting in a huge queue of people blocking the main paths of the park, standing in the heat, when there's a nice shady purpose built queue line standing empty, only for you to walk through when they let your 'train' enter. I can understand why they do this on XNWO because it's a dark building etc, but these were just normal outdoor cattlepens that they wouldn't use. Hopefully I explained that haha, perhaps Gavin or Ben can help.
We then queued a couple of hours for the Golden Horse Spinner, which we didn't take any photos of, so I'll steal one from RCDB:
The queue jumping was horrendus here, which set a trend for the rest of the trip. Seriously, entire families would just casually shove their way through like you're standing in their way or something. censoredx:.
Our last ride of the day was the last credit, Kumali. If I remember correctly this was better than Kumali, but the one in Beijing was DISGUSTING? Ben?
See what I mean... When inside, there were entire queue sections just closed off...
Although I'll give them credit for ONE thing, the few sections of queueline they were using had these little benches, which were at all the Happy Valleyz:
It was outrageously boiling, so we got some masculine snowcones...
The Vekoma ///3
(note the amazing translation <3)
Even the reflection was offensive.
The test seat was fab... it was actually on a random bit of transfer track <3
Oh, here's some photos of the unfinished coaster. S&S, why do you suck so much? To be fair, the guys from S&S were there all day, and were walking out of the park behind us going on about how they were playing with the launch or something. One of them was really hot actually...
It seemed to be several track connections which were playing up, which is understandable after doing the one in Beijing at the end of the trip. Some of the transitions were REALLY brutal just a few months after it opened, so god knows how it's going to age. Anyway, more of that later...
Wtf?
As this was our last night in Shenzhen, we splashed out a quid or so on a meal.
This made me LOL...
Dinner tonight was the dogs bollocks. No, really, it was dog.
Thanks for reading! Next part will be the journey to, and first day in, Shanghai.
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^ Yeah, the park has a lot of potential. It's just run so badly.
That's the impression I got from most of the Chinese parks to be honest. It's 'new wealth' I suppose. They suddenly have all this money for investment, build a huge park but don't REALLY know how to operate it properly. Hopefully in a few years they'll get the hang of it!
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Knight Valley.
Right. I'll start off by saying that I don't like this park. It's gorgeous, could be amazing, but...
1) They have hardly any rides, and half of them were spiting
2) The entrance price is far too high for what it is
3) They were supposed to get 2 X car coasters, but didn't, and they're still on the park map anyway...
Mountain Flyer is SICK though <3.
Knight Valley is in the Shenzhen area, but pretty far from the city. But then in Asia, something being on the Metro could mean that it's about 50 miles out...
From the nearest metro station we took a taxi, and 20 minutes or so later we were sashaying through the entrance <3.
Obviously, we headed straight for the Woodie, which was up a HUGE hill. The hills were disgusting. Ben, the non smoker, ran off and left me gasping for air a few hundred feet behind.
You can see it once you get up the hill...
The station was fab, as were the two fly throughs!
More views from the station...
The top of the first drop section:
This is SUCH an odd coaster. It looked amazing from the construction photos, then when I first saw it in person I was slightly let down. It just... doesn't look that big or impressive.
Then you go up the lift and look behind you, and realise how ridiculously huge it is. There's SO much just hidden in the structure or behind the terrain. It's amazing <3.
It was just ridiculously fast from the first drop to the brake run, without letting up at all. It has huge speedy sections, then towards the end goes all GCI and starts bunny hopping and twisting and shiz. It really is fantastic, and we were so happy to get on it after spending the whole summer thinking it was going to be closed (it only opened a week or so before we rocked up).
Points for spotting the coaster, and double points for spotting the pair of boosters?
Storm Force, the only other major ride in the park was shut. This was actually really annoying because it looks fab <3.
It just casually goes through the hotel and then...
So annoying.
It's actually excessive /3
There was also an aviary, a powered bobsled, a crappy aquarium and a show of some discription.
Yeah, that's it from Knight Valley. Mountain Flyer was amazing, but that's clearly GCI and nothing to do with this dump really. To think we paid about £20 for what is essentially a one ride park...
Thanks for reading (and the comments so far)! Crappy Valley Shenzhen up next...
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Chuanlord <3
Chuanlord Holiday Manor (http://rcdb.com/9924.htm) was a 30 minute or so taxi ride from Chimelong. This is the only way to get there really, and despite us having the chinese name for the park printed out it took a team of guest services, a few taxi drivers shouting and half an hour of our lives before we were on our way. The park is in the middle of nowhere, so we knew there was a chance of being a bit stranded, but we knew we were getting creds so didn't care.
This park was a highlight of the trip and possibly the weirdest park I've EVER been to.
You have to buy an electronic card containing a certain amount of credit (hehe), although I can't remember the exact amounts. Either way, we had enough for all the creds and a couple of other rides.
We literally just ran around grabbing any cred we could see, the first being the first of MANY 'Jungle Mouse' creds.
It was vile, but unfortunately the least putrid Jungle Mouse of the trip...
First Golden Horse Spinner Knockoff of the trip!
This was probably the most run down spinner of the trip actually. It was also the only smaller one (all the others were slightly taller and had another 'layer' of layout if that makes sense...).
This park has two spinning coasters. The second one is for kids, and is basically an oval shape with a couple of tyre sections helping it get around. It was strange, and was playing really obscure remixes of ancient western songs.
The surfing coasters were equally messed up. It's actually two sets of two, so four in total, but only one side of each set were open. Still, 2 creds isn't bad...
They're actually like old school cafeteria seats...
Standard powered dragon cred...
Final cred...
The dreaded...
Disgusting...
.... LOOPING TOBOGGAN //////////////3.
No more comments, just pictures.
Ugh. I've never been so scared on a coaster. Ever.
Moving on...
There was a LOT more here than we expected. Loads of flats, loads. Here are some pics of flats, starting with a very Chinese one which was everywhere...
Ugh
Ugh
Ugh
Ugh
Ugh.
Knockoff Booster:
This thing looked amazing, but I wouldn't dare. NOT in China anyway...
Kids fishing. This was pretty gross actually...
...dinner...
The squids ///3
OMG, I nearly forgot Duck Circling <3
Throw the rings around the necks of the (real) ducks, as illustrated...
We had a go, and failed:
(God I look rough).
After a REALLY long day, we still had to get back to the city, THEN get another train back to Shenzhen. No legal taxis would take us, so we walked to the nearest train station, which luckily was a huge new bullet train station randomly in the middle of nowhere near the park.
Saw this prime property on the way:
Thanks for reading!
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^ Yeah, I still prefer the Vekoma ones to the Zamperla MotoCoasters though. The Zamperla ones are a bit pathetic really, not to mention the restraints...
Ben got a few pics of Hair Raiser. It's annoying that the track has been complete for months but they're taking so long building the area around it /3.
It does look really nice though. In fact, all the newer stuff at Ocean Park was much nicer than the older stuff. I'm guessing they're stepping up to compete with Disney now.
Thanks for the comments so far!
Alton Towers Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Closest thing I can think of is Fujin Raijin II / Expoland.
Coaster had accident, whole park closed, park reopened but coaster stayed closed, then at the end of the season the whole park closed for good.
Still not completely cut and dry as other factors were involved, but if the accident had never occurred I believe the park and coaster would still be operating today.