Gutterflower

Looks like track is on site for the Mack Mega Coaster. The shots below appeared on Weibo last night and show some track arriving. although it doesn't give location information this is the only Mack being built this year in China. I think with the success of Helix this is probably the most exciting project this year anywhere in the world. Hyper style layout from Mack with the worlds tallest vertical loop to boot

Some construction of the park in Xisuangbanna too. B&M looks good although it has a very shallow drop. The Zamperla Pony Express is up too and it looks to me like a clone of the Knott's version (Can anyone confirm? I'm guessing of a fuzzy memory of the ride) No sign of the Intamin water coaster yet though. Source

These images appeared on RCD the other day showing the layouts of the 3 coasters at Wanda Nanchang. GCI Woodie We've seen this before but part of the plans for the woodie. Intamin Mega Coaster We've seen most of this layout before but heres a better view Unknown Inverted Coaster The third coaster from an unknown manufacturer. Looks like a B&M but it could really be anyone. If it is a Chinese built SLC at least it has its own layout. Source

The Wuhu Cultural Park is coming along nicely. The M&V / Gravity Group Wooden coaster looks almost done now too.

Hey Larry. I can try and help out for 2015 in China but its complicated. The ones below are the ones that are definitely under construction for 2015. New Parks Fantawild Adventure - Jiayuguan Hello Kitty World - Hangzhou New Rides Sun Tzu Culture Park - S&S Launched Coaster There are 4 new gravity group woodies. You have the Wuhu one listed. all 4 are also new parks. Wuhu Cultural Intangible Park - Gravity Group Woodie With Inversion Jinan Cultural Intangible Park - Gravity Group Woodie With Inversion Fantawild Dreamworld Zhengzhou - Gravity Group Woodie Fantawild Dreamworld Zhuzhou - Gravity Group Woodie (Fjord Dragon Clone)

I know i promised Thunder Dolphin and that will come I just felt this day was too weird not to put up. It may not be coaster related but its a good example of Tokyo#s maddness. Tokyo and other Asian cities are well known for their animal cafes. I've visited a Cat Cafe in Seoul before and now one has even opened in London. The main reason for them is that with sky high property prices in city centres many people can't afford their own flat and rent. Landlords don't allow pets in the flats so a variety of pet cafes have popped up to provide some sort of solution. It's a little weird to go and see cats in a starbucks environment but at least with the one i visited the cats were well looked after (somewhat better than the humans it seemed) and it was an interesting concept. Tokyo has taken this concept further and within the city you can find Cat, Dog, Goat, Reptile and even a Penguin cafe (you can't pet the Penguins ) However the star of the show was the wonderfully weird Owl Cafe. Some people will obviously have issues here with keeping animals in captivity. Especially animals such as owls. And it does seem a bit weird. Although I didn't/couldn't get into detail with the staff about how the owls are looked after due to my lack of Japanese the staff did seem very caring and careful with the owls themselves. Beyond that I can't say much. However putting that aside here are some pictures of the deliciously weird Tokyo Owl Cafe. The owl cafe is exactly what it says. It is a cafe with Owls. There are many owls. Some of them look like Pixar characters. To get in you have to turn up early and book a slot later in the day. Each slot is an hour long. Some of the Owls are huge. The long sighted owls seem more concerned with the larger owls than you. The owls are rotated so only certain ones are in the cafe and available to hold each day. Staring contests are tough with owls. You hold a small rope attached to a leg. We didnt have any trouble with them if they seem agitated the staff are their quickly to either put them down or show you what your doing wrong. They all seemed pretty curious. And perpetually surprised. This one liked Oli's Viking style hair I think. I'm not sure if they are trained to deliver letters. I am convinced this one is plotting against humanity. There are plenty of owls to go around of all sizes. The staff will help you pick up and put down different owls. Some of them are stupidly cute. Stare into my eyes. their freakishly large head rotation is very odd. I see you there. James does a good impression of his Owl This was my owl for a while. See... Plotting... Downfall. These 2 were pretty inseparable. And so so soft too. Our hour was coming to an end. Awwwwwwwwwwww I will kill you ALL!... MWHAHAHAHAHA

Holey Moley those are bright supports. I'll put my vote in for the mega coaster at Lewa World in China. The foundations just went in so it must be about time to get the track over there. Although those supports are all awfully short.

After Shanghai I had plans to spend 10 days in Tokyo with 6 friends. This wasn't going to be theme park heavy but as I arrived a day earlier than everyone else I decided to treat myself and book myself into the Mira Costa hotel at DisneySea and visit the 2 Disney parks. I've visited DisneySea before but I'd missed Tokyo Disney Land last time I was in Tokyo. I had a friend joining me the day after and as he'd never been to either park I decided to do Disney on the first day and DisneySea the second. So once I'd checked into Mira Costa I headed to Disney for the evening. The entrance to Mira Costa is impressive. The view from my room. I'd never stayed at a Disney hotel before. I was impressed. The level of service was impeccable. My room was a decent size for one person. And best of all. JAPANESE TOILETS. I headed out to catch the monorail to the other park. Love the monorails here. The entrance to Tokyo DisneyLand The main street is under cover. I headed to Space Mountain first. Queues were variable. Space Mountain was an hour and a half but some rides were less than 15mins. It got dark pretty quickly. The view from Space Mountains queue. I like the escalator halfway through the queue. Almost there now. Inside the Space Mountain station. The space ship. I enjoyed the ride but missed the music you find on the Hong Kong version. The ride looks great at night. Star Tours was a walk on so I headed there next. Lots of cool details in the queue. I've not ridden a Star Tours since I was a kid in Florida. Good ride and an excellent queue. The park is stunning at night. And like China had the Halloween stuff out. Heading into Adventure Land. Gorgeous. The river boats were packed so I skipped them today. The treehouse. Heading into Frontier Land. The castle also looks stunning lit up. Thunder Mountain was down for rehab. But I knew this in advance. They go all out for Halloween. More shiny things. Small World was also closed. But I was less fussed about this. The Seven Dwarfs ride was interesting but not great. There was a good parade going on when I came across. I didnt stay too long as I had more rides to do. I hit Whinnie The Pooh while It finished but I dont seem to have any pictures. It is however arguably the best ride here. Up there with Mystic Manor for awesomeness. Love the Halloween stuff everywhere. Dumbo and the Castle. next up was the haunted mansion. These rides are a Disney favorite of mine. These things gave me nightmares as kids. They had the Christmas theme going on. I can't believe the refit the whole ride for this. And its epic. Even more Haloween stuff than usual. The ride system. The last coaster which I had to get. Was also a walk on. You know what to expect with a roller skater. More Halloween. I missed the fireworks while heading to Monsters Inc. Toon Town looked nice but was pretty quiet. A soon to be closed raceway. Monsters Inc was good fun. Really enjoyed it. The queue being in English and Japanese was a nice touch. Heading out here is the other major hotel on site. I had the choice of the 2. And while I hear good things about both I just had to stay in Mira Costa for the view. Heading back to the hotel. One thing I love about Disney here is the ice cubes in the Scotch. A whole massive globe every time. Its a small touch but its amazing. And a nice Manly (cough) cocktail to end the night on. See you tomorrow DisneySea. As I was treating myself I had breakfast delivered in the morning. It was ok but Japan never really got the hang of European breakfasts. I met my friend James who being 6ft 4 and blonde was fairly easy to find. And headed into Disney Sea. As I was with a friend I didnt take too many pictures today but we hit all the main rides. Queues were pretty long all day though. However Japanese riders haven't mastered the single rider so we walked right to the front on a few rides. Including this. Its an OK ride but I don't feel it rates anywhere near as well as any other ride in the park. Indiana Jones is an awesome ride though. As is this. It may be in Japanese but it's just a great ride. I still don't know how they make the statue do what it does. Street Performance. After Journey we headed to the Roosevelt Bar on the ship and had more Whisky At night this thing looks amazing but we had to head off to meet the rest of the group in Tokyo. The liner from the other side of the lake. Heading out. Goodbye Mira Costa. I enjoyed my stay. Next up LaQua

It doesn't mention a manufacturer I notice but the concept art looks B&Mish I guess. It looks like an Inverted drop. This park isn't due until 2016/17 though If I remember correctly? It's cool Wanda are keeping their parks different though.

The last few files. Didn't realise i had so many pictures. But the park is HUGE. Heading back towards the entrance I had one last major ride to hit. Yup this thing. And my favorite ride in the park. It's up there as possibly my number one woodie (I cant chose between this and White Lightning) Plenty of airtime all over. Arggggggggggg That doesn't look like fireball to me. This sign is more accurate. The parks shot towers sit here too. The Happy Time begins. The ride had about a 40minute queue making it the most popular in the park I think. Although they did only run the one train. It was riding as well as if not better than in 2012. The ubiquitous double decker. Hey there. Sweet ride. The soarin knock off was actually open. Its pretty cool but they go a bit overboard with the Chinese landmarks. They really stuff them in. A last look over the lake towards Fireball and time for some food. The early Happy Valley parks have KFC's. But after 2 weeks in China with tons of great Chinese food I was still craving one thing. PIZZA... Glorious Pizza. - Next up a side trip to Tokyo and a bit of Disney.

Sorry for the slight delay in getting the next update out. This updates huge too :S Happy Valley Shanghai was my last park on this leg of the trip and It’s one I've visited before. The park is easy to get to and can be reached on the Shanghai Metro Line 9. There is a shuttle bus from the park that leaves from outside Sheshan station (You have to cross over the foot bridge to the other side of the road) and the bus takes about 5 minutes to reach the park entrance. Shanghai’s Happy Valley is one of the best in the chain and is truly colossal in size. The ride line up is also second to none in China with a B&M Dive Machine. Intamin Mega Lite and Gravity Group Wooden Coaster just to start things off. But the real reason for my second visit here was the brand new and unique B&M family suspended coaster. Some people might say B&M have been in the practice of building family rides for some time but this is the first one advertised as such and using a new track and train system. The track is smaller than traditional B&M track and uses new 2 across trains not seen on any B&M so far. This is in stark contrast to the huge track used on the Dive Machine on the other side of the park. The Dive Machine was closed on this visit but as I've ridden it before it wasn't too much of a let down. The Mega Lite and Fireball are both world class rides and Fireball especially is an incredible ride. Arguably one of the best wooden coasters in the world Happy Valley have managed to keep it running smoothly and it seemed to be running even better than my visit 3 years previously. The new kids area is excellent and themed to an undersea world which fits in well with the indoor area behind the suspended coaster. There are new jumping fountains and a selection of new flat rides to go with the coaster and it was easily the busiest area of the park today. Another ride of note is the parks Intamin mine train. A rare ride in itself it is miles ahead of any other mine train in China with a much better more intense layout and excellent themeing to go with it. The only downside of this park is due to its size the themeing doesn't always feel as cohesive and as connected as it does at some of the smaller Happy Valleys. But when the park is this good its only a minor niggle. If you happen to be in Shanghai then this park has to be worth a visit. And will provide a nice accompaniment to the up and coming Shanghai Disney providing a solid collection of thrilling coasters to go with Disney’s more family orientated park. My flight from Zhangjiajie took just over 2 hours. Arriving in Shanghai, The flight was late and I almost missed my connection on the metro. The next day I got up and headed to my final H Halloween decorations were out. They had some nice touches around. This was in the Wild West Area. But my first port of call was the new Happy Ocean area. From the bridge you get a Aha this is what I wanted to see. It's almost a Chinese knock off coaster. But It's not. I've long had a theory that since Vekoma's rides started appearing in knock off form after selling rides to Happy Valley that they refuse to build rides for them anymore and B&M were asked instead. That's pure conjecture but it explains the lack of any Vekoma's in the new parks. The ride itself was quite enjoyable. It's pretty much what you expect from a suspended family coaster. It seems smoother than the Vekoma SFC. And arguably a bit better. The small B&M track is a little odd. The whole area is very nicely done. B&M's new 2 seater cars. A first for one of their own rides I think. The ride isn't particularly intense But that's what you expect from a family ride. I felt the helix was a little less powerful on this version but the outward leg is better with the up and over crossovers. Jumping fountains. They've used a Vekoma SLC on the logo. Not only that it's the same image used on the Dive Machine Logo. This is the main difference between the Vekoma and B&M rides. The B&M one dives under the return leg where as the Vekoma one stays above. Close up of the new trains. The final helix. The ride was quite popular and took about 20 mins to get through the queue. One for the lift hill geeks. Down the first drop. People certainly seemed to enjoy the ride. And it does look gorgeous in it's setting. The indoor area seems to have been re-themed to be under the sea. But I cant really remember it from last time. But it's very nice anyway. The famous shoot the Elves santa ride can be found in here. Its brilliant. And there are plenty of flats for the kids in here too. Back outside I took another ride on this. It seems an odd choice for B&M who seem really busy at the moment anyway but I guess why not. After my second ride I headed off down the back of the park for some more rides. Crazy Elves is the parks wild mouse. It has a shiny new sign too. Thankfully not another Golden Horse model. But a proper real life Zamperla I had the credit already so I skipped it this time. Although the queue was pretty short. Round the back of the ride is the bridge back to the Wild West area. From that bridge there's a view with something we all like to see. I see you over there. But first your Intamin brother. Approaching from the back of the mine train you can see it tunnels all around the themeing. Its a damn good ride too. One of the best mine trains out there. So much better than the Vekoma one's in the other parks. Great first drop. I next took a ride in the Flying Island which was closed last time I was here. This is one of the best rides in the country but more on that later. There is a great view of the mine train from up here. The outskirts of Shanghai in the background Some of the mine trains many helix's I do really like this ride and wish they'd build more. This thing was closed today but I've already got the credit so not the end of the world. The Mega Lite was calling me so I was going to head their next. Despite looking like it has awesome themeing it is actually behind those rocks. The wild mouse. Looking down on B&M's mini creation. An overview of the area. And that final helix again. Heading round to the Mega Lite there are a few more rides. And the entrance to the currently closed water park. The Coastal Ant is the parks tiny kiddie ride and its hidden in the trees. Chinese Credit Whore? Nice view over the bridge to the mega lite. Some riders get a taste of Fireballs yummy M&V and Gravity Group goodness. Love this ride a lot too. Some of the rockwork themeing on the way to the Mega Lite. There is a small stage in this area. Finally arrived. This is a great ride. I'm not really a massive airtime guy but I do like the quick changes in direction. Walk on mega lites. The world needs these. The cable lift is amazingly fast. Train 2 hasn't been used in some time I feel. This is a lot of fun. Up we go. And over the first air time spot. This ride has a lot of fun packed into a very small space. And breathe... Some interesting merchandise available. Guns and guitars. Some more weird flats. Ah hello Mrs Beckham. The rapids. I again missed it today. It may be shut but it looks good. The ride is a clone of Shiekra. And just as good. It lacks the themeing but I felt this one goes over the second drop a bit quicker. The view across the lake is excellent. The track is MUCH bigger than the rides little sister across the park. The fan curve before the splash down. Not one but 2 vertical drops. (yes i know the 2nd one probably isnt quite vertical) The one and only inversion. A view into the lake. Wobbly coaster. This ride seems tiny next to the Dive Machine. This park has a Gyro Swing and its bloody brilliant. I don't know why Wuhan went with the Frisbee because this is miles better in every way. More wobbly rides. More pictures after the break. (sorry for the massiveness of the update)

That is one gorgeous ride. The park must be pretty close to opening now. Source

Thanks for all the comments. Much appreciated. The second day in Zhangjiajie was spent at the other national park. It's about a 40min bus trip from the central bus station. There are mini buses about every 10mins and its about 3 dollars each way. Here is the best map I could find online of the area (I had a much better one from my hostel though) yellow routes are buses It's a massive place and you could take several days here (A ticket lasts 3 days). This is also a decent map showing more of the trekking routes Again I'll let the pictures do the talking. Arriving at the front gate. You have to buy a pass from the entrance which lasts 3 days. There are many routes up to to the top all accessible by a shuttle bus from the entrance. I got off at the first stop and took the cable car up. Another massive cable car route. While not as long it is certainly impressive. They say the mountains round here are where the inspiration for Avatars flying mountains came from. And you can see why. Especially later on. Another impressive feat of engineering. The views from the top. Again very foggy. At the top of the cable car there are free shuttle buses that run to various points in the park. You could easily spend 3 or 4 days up here and not see everything. There are hiking routes, River trips, caves and a ton of viewing points. My first stop was a series of viewing points in an area known as the West Sea Scenic Area according to the map. A pagoda sits atop one of the cliffs. Some of the Limestone Karsts are massive. There are pretty impressive views from everywhere up here. And in the middle of nowhere in a National Park on top of a mountain. A McDonalds. Impressive Statue. I took note and went that way. Lovely walk down to the cliff edge. And the sign was right. It was impressive. I just wish it was a clearer day. But it was still pretty epic. I jumped on the shuttle to the next stop where down about 100 steps was a nice cafe. Time for a beer. Not a bad view from the cage either. I went for a little wander down one of the tracks. More Karsts seen through the trees. The next stop on the shuttle had another one of these. There are a ton of viewing points near the area known as The Greatest Natural Bridge. It's a long long way down. As i walked round the views never got any worse. Thankfully it wasn't too busy. The walkways are nowhere near as terrifying as Tianmen mountain so this park is better for the less adventurous. There's still some pretty big drops though The classic padlocks to symbolism a relationship. Maybe i went a bit overboard on the pictures. But it's a gorgeous place. And like nothing I've ever really experienced. I stopped at one viewing point and to my surprise saw.... .... some nutter hanging off the cliff by a chain. He did some tricks and ran along the cliff side. If you look closely you can see the banner from the previous picture. He was a long way up. Wouldn't do that in a million years. While most of the park is nice and clean there are some issues with rubbish where the cleaners clearly can't reach. Almost at the Greatest Natural Bridge. There are lots of areas within walking distance but be prepared for a long day. More locks. And the Greatest Natural Bridge (Their words) itself. You can walk all around the Karst on the left. Not a sign you really want to see when in a forest. Noted! More and more viewing points. More and more pictures from said viewing points. At this point you can throw money at turtles. Both fake ones. And real ones who don't seem to phased by the shower of coins. It does seem quite odd though. Next up was a famous tree. I'm not sure why it's immortal as the sign wasn't in English. (most of them are) A bridge over a chasm was my next challenge. It's not a small drop either. Gulp! No one wants lifelong regret! I caught the shuttle bus to the elevator next as it was getting late. The view from the bottom of the elevator. And what an elevator it is. I suppose if you are going to build an elevator in a forest on a cliff you might as well go all out. I caught the mini bus back to the city and spotted this slightly disturbing statue. The view from my hostel was not great but it was a nice enough place. Next up back to the Theme Parks and Happy Valley Shanghai.

Cheers guys. It's interesting to see how much is going on in Vietnam. But Vietnam has a history of making announcements and then nothing happening. Mack reported they'd sold a Euro Mir clone to a new park in Vietnam about 10 years ago and nothing ever came of it. I'd like to think these parks will all happen but I'm not that hopeful. The VinPearl ones at least appear to be aiming for small family resorts in already popular holiday areas. Happyland has a history of failing to build anything. Asia Park seems to be going ahead though. But no sign of any track yet.

Hi guys. Spent the day yesterday hunting for a possible park for the rumoured Freestyle Music Park ride relocation. I opened a bit of a can of worms when it came to new Vietnamese parks so I wrote a bit of an article which I have adapted for Forum consumption here. Thought it might interest people even if I can't draw any definitive conclusions. Over the summer the rides at the failed Hard Rock Park/Freestyle Music Park have been slowly taken down and shipped off. Rumor’s have been strong that they are heading to Vietnam but with no Vietnamese park making an announcement they have disappeared off the map for now. So I decided to start looking into likely places that these rides could end up. Vietnam doesn't have a thriving theme park culture so a park building a B&M coaster should be pretty big news. Once I started looking into it though I discovered a whole raft of planned parks. Some of these have started construction while some are still in the planning stages. Below I shall go through a list of the parks I found in the order of least to most likely destination for the Freestyle Music Park rides. Son Tra Ocean Park For me this is the least likely place the rides will end up. But for sake of completeness I shall include it. Son Tra Ocean Park is a proposed park in the city of Da Nang on the east coast of Vietnam. The park isn't large and is planned for the small Son Tra Peninsula to the east of the city. There aren't many concrete details on the park and it’s possible the plans have been abandoned already. The main problem with this park is the fact the park is due to be built on reclaimed land that hasn't yet been reclaimed. A lot of Da Nang is already built on reclaimed land, A look at Google Earths timeline feature shows how much the city has expanded out into the ocean over the last 10 years. But unless the rides are going to be put in storage for a few years I can’t see them going here. This is the area the park is supposed to be built. Apparently it's still water. The concept art looks nice and there is a coaster there. But unless Vietnam have perfected the underwater amusement park I don't see it happening. Vinpearl Land Phu Quoc Vinpearl are a company that own several entertainment venues in Vietnam including a couple of water parks and their main Vinpearl Land in Nha Trang (see below for more on that one). They have recently completed construction of phase one of a new resort on the Southern Island of Phu Quoc. The resort on Phu Quoc appears to have opened with a hotel, water park and a collection of small rides such as a wave swinger. But although the planned park map shows 2 roller coasters there are as of yet none on site. Strangely the resort has been built quickly enough that the latest Google Satellite images of the area don’t even show construction work. (I’ve checked the whole island). But a Google search brings up the location easily enough. The problem here is that the resort appears to be mostly built already and it’s too small to house the rides from Freestyle Music Park. On top of that the rides on the park map are too small to be the same rides. But it’s worth keeping an eye on just in case they have changed their plans for phase 2. The park map for the new park has 2 coasters on it. But I don't believe the ride's part is complete. Google says it's here but the maps haven't been updated for some time. However the water park is open along with a hotel. And at least some rides. Vinpearl Land Nha Trang As mentioned above Vinpearl already have an existing park in Nha Trang which is currently home to a number of rides including a L&T Systems Compact Coaster model. The park is on an Island to the east of the city and is linked to the mainland by an impressive cable car over the water. It appears the park has plans to expand and Vietnamese news sites have referenced new rides and a hotel. Google Maps shows an area near to the Alpine Coaster which appears to have been cleared but it doesn't appear to be big enough for the rides from Freestyle Music Park. There is also a large area of land cleared for something on the other side of the Island but it is unclear if this is for part of Vinpearl or something completely unrelated. The lack of concrete info doesn't help here but if the rides have already shipped I’d expect there to be some more ground work done. But this is the first one on the list I’d consider a proper possibility. Vinpearl Land with the clearing near the alpine coaster The park is the only already established one on this list. A park map of the existing resort (appears to be a couple of years old) The clearing on the other side of the island next to the Vinpearl Golf Course. Vinpearl Land Quy Nhơn Yet another Vinpearl Land and this time one that is being built from scratch and looks big enough to house at least some of the Freestyle Music park rides. The park is being built on an Island to the East of the city which will again be linked by a cable car from the mainland. The park has a very active Facebook page which gives a look at the planned site and construction is under way but at a very early stage. The problem is again a lack of concrete info. The resort is certainly happening but there is no indication of a large park with roller coasters. The first Vinpearl land has a park but it’s a small part of the whole resort overall with hotels, a water park and a golf course taking up much of the room. This doesn't mean the ride’s aren't going here but I think it’s less likely that the next two parks. A piece of concept art showing the proposed site. Land clearing already under way. But not that far gone yet. More concept art. Suggests no large park. Happy Land Happy Land has been a bit of an enigma for years. The park was originally announced in 2011 and was due for a 2014 opening. However after financial trouble the park vanished off the radar. However recent reports suggest the park is now back on track for a 2015 opening. Bing Maps shows the park has already had a lot of the ground work done and they even built the entrance after the original announcement. But the company building the park haven’t updated their page in over a year so it’s pretty tough to track progress. With the previous issues with funding i find it hard to believe Happy Land could afford the rides from Freestyle Music Park. But the park site is certainly large enough to accommodate them and if the park is back on track for a 2015 opening the time frame fits. The problem is without any recent updates beyond a few news articles there is no concrete info to say either way. Bing Maps shows the land clearing. Google maps hasn't been updated since 2006 here. An aerial view of the site. The concept art certainly looks big enough. But the plans show a massive resort that never seems to have got off the ground. Some of the resorts concept art. Asia Park For Asia Park we are back in the city of Da Nang where we started. Asia Park is a planned park surrounding the already complete Sun Wheel in central Da Nang. The park has a busy Facebook Page which talks about new rides and even talks about plans to build at least one roller coaster. Different news articles around the web use pictures of Eurofighters, Kumba and Battlestar Galactica which suggests they've just used stock images but at least make me think the coasters will be of decent size. Construction is already under way and the park recently built a monorail around the site. The site is also big enough to accommodate the rides from Freestyle Music Park without too much trouble. Of the 6 parks here I certainly feel this is most likely to house the rides just because it’s already being built and it’s got the space. But again the question is do they have the money to do it and if so where are the rides now? The parks monorail has just finished construction. The park doesn't have anything else up yet. But some buildings appear under way. There some rubbish concept art around. The site is certainly large enough though. Thoughts It’s certainly possible (if not actually pretty likely) that none of these parks will get the rides from Freestyle Music Park. But if not at least a couple of them will be getting roller coasters in the next year or so, so it’s worth keeping an eye on them anyway. Before i started looking into this I had no idea there were plans for so many parks in Vietnam. It’s true none of them are massive groundbreaking parks but some of them certainly look worth a visit if I ever make my way to Vietnam. There are also a number of other existing parks in Vietnam which could in theory be the Freestyle Music Park rides destination. However none of them seemed big enough to take on such a project. If there is a brand new park big enough to house the rides and not on this list being built somewhere in Vietnam, I’d expect there to be at least some news articles about it. But I wasn't able to find any news on them. So for now these are my best bets. I’m sure we will find out soon enough as a B&M looper is a fairly difficult thing to keep quiet. Either way I’ll be certain to keep you updated when and if they do show up properly. It's worth mentioning that all the research here was done by myself so any mistakes or issues are my fault alone. There's a couple more pictures in the original article but this post contains the best ones. If you know I've made an error then please let me know It's pretty tough digging up info about Vietnamese parks when you don't know the language.

Wanda have released this image for the new trains on that monster GCI called Viper going to Nanchang Source Got to admit it looks pretty good and surprisingly like the source image.

So the next 2 updates won't be about coasters but they were so good I felt that they were well worth sharing. After my visit to Window Of The World i caught a taxi to Changsha airport and took the short 50min hop to the mountain city of Jiangjiajie. The city is famous for it's national parks, 2 of which I had the pleasure of visiting. The area is also famous for being the inspiration behind the floating mountains in Avatar. That park comes tomorrow. On the first day I visited the awesome Tianmen mountain. Which for us thrill seekers has a few things to offer. I was lucky to find a group in my hostel heading up that way so I joined the group and we caught the cable car to the mountain. The cable car leaves right from the city center near the station and it's pretty tough to miss. However for this one I'll let the pictures do the talking. The day started with a walk to the cable car station. Today was a public holiday for the locals (Again) so the queue for this was over 2 hours. The cable car heads out over the outskirts of the city. But quickly starts to head into the mountains. The views start to get more and more impressive. Pity it was so smoggy/foggy today. Carrying people 7.5km it takes a bit over 30mins to get there. Some of the guys from the hostel i spent the day with today. The vertical travel is over 4000ft It costs about $15 for a return but it's well worth it. As you pass the first ridge you'll come across one of the most impressive roads in the world. It looks innocuous enough to start with. The hole in the mountain. we will return here later. The road up the mountain to the hole is insane. It winds its way up the hill in a seemingly never ending series of hairpins. These little buses take you up the road to the hole. To get there you have to stop at the middway station on the cable car. (You can only stop on the way down not on the way up) The cable car reaches an impressive 37degrees on its steepest section. Top Gear could have fun here. My favorite part of the whole road. Still going. Once you reach the top you can start to head off round the plateau. Noted! The cliff walks here are actually insane. The first section is stone. But round the corner there is the first of two optional glass walkway. That thing is REALLY high too. It costs about 20 cents to walk the glass sections. One of the girls from the hostel bugged out here and took the other path round. I have NO idea how they built this. To be honest it wasn't even on my mind. A couple of friends from my group. There were still plenty of decorations left over from national day. Red is a lucky colour in China. The walk continues round the plateau The way its bolted onto the cliff all the way round is seriously impressive. Here you can see one of the other chairlifts on the mountain which will get you between various walkways. In and out of a fault in the rocks. You'll need a few hours to walk around the top but you'll spend most of it in awe. The fault from the other side. Shark Top Mountain. More glass for you to have a go at. This was closed today unfortunately. A seriously impressive feat of engineering. Part of the way is taken by this rope bridge over a valley. It was pretty busy at times today but nothing too much. Laura doesn't like heights. This is the only way across. It's a long way down. It's a long bridge too. Once across we stopped for some food at one of the many little food stops along the way. There are signs around with the possible routes in Chinese and English Although not always in great English. The views would be more impressive without the fog but it was still awesome. Carrying on round the cliff top. The drops seem to get bigger. I can see why this area is popular with base jumpers. The mountains loom out of the fog. The whole in the mountain as seen from above. Next up was the 2nd glass walkway. You have to wear these stylish booties over your shoes to protect the glass. This one is the newer of the 2 walkways. Me larking around. Not concerned at all. This gives some idea of how far down it is. Me and my group for the day. Laura overcame her fear for this bit. Possibly thanks to the safety walkway to the side. This walkway is also about 20 cents. The mad road up to the hole. Would love to throw a good car round these corner. Again wasn't really planning on it. By sheer chance the world wing suit championships were meant to be on today but the windy weather postponed the jumps Looking down the valley from over the top of the hole. Another impressive feat of engineering. The latest mental project here is a set of escalators inside the cliff from the base of the hole to the top of the plateau. They are however not open quite yet. Tunnel back to the cable car station. Heading back to the middway point. From there you get one of these buses to the hole in the mountain. Forgot how steep it was. Next stop here. There are 999 steps to the top. We were shattered however and didn't climb them. Standard tourist pose. There's a video online somewhere of people flying through here. There is a big plaza and it appears an eco hotel (underneath the plaza) being built. Do the Chinese fingers. That was us for the day. You can catch the bus all the way down to the city so we too this route back. It was a hell of a day. Tomorrow is the Avatar Mountains.

Not been much Chinese news at IAAPA this year which is a shame. But M&V did quietly confirm a 4th Fantawild Woodie as expected for Zhengzhou. (see the bottom of the picture below) Typically the year after I visited too. Doh! Picture Credit: Brian Andrelczyk

I didn't I'm afraid. I didn't even see it. I did go through the haunted walk through they had there. Which was pretty terrible but was kind of funny to see the reactions of the Chinese girls. I found in the other Happy Valley parks they had stopped adults riding the kids ride unless accompanied by a child. Which was pretty annoying when it came to the shooting rides at Tianjin and Shanghai. This one was a more acceptable 30mins or so. It remained pretty much the same all day. As usual they only ran with on train though. Grrrrr So the next day for me started really early with an early train to Changsha. The metro wasn't running yet so I got the hotel to call me a taxi which was about 5mins to Wuhan East station. The journey was quick and easy as always on the Chinese Bullets. My chariot arrives for the trip down to Changsha. I was really impressed by the efficiency of the whole Bullet Train system and would highly recommend it. The trip took about an hour and a half and I arrived at Changsha East station. My original plan had to be goto the new Fantawild opening just south near Zhuzhou. But the 2nd park was delayed and with it the new Gravity Group woodie. So i decided to leave this for another trip and instead went to the Window Of The World park in central Changsha. WOW was further north than Changsha East station and like Wuhan and Zhengzhou Changsha now has a shiny new metro line. So I caught the line up to Changsha central station and got a cab from there. As I wasn't staying in Changsha i dropped my bag off at the baggage drop in the station for about $2 for the day. Most stations in China have these handy baggage drops but Changsha East does not (another reason no to go all the way to Fantawild that day) Changsha central station. The cab from central station took about 15mins. Changsha uses a cool electronic system in it's cabs which meant they were the only cabs on the whole trip where taxi drivers didnt try and not use the meter. In being decent honest cabbies I even felt more inclined to leave a better tip. I wish all cabs in China used this system. Anyway I arrived at WOW in good time and headed in. First impressions weren't great but the park won me over with it's charm. A lot of themeing needs some tender love and care but the landscape is excellent and all the rides are pretty good. The main draw is a new Zamperla moto coaster which shares the layout with the indoor one at China Dinosaur Park nearer Shanghai. Its a nice ride, a bit like a giant roller skater. Nothing amazing but a solid addition for a small park. The other 2 coasters were cookie cutter clones but both rode ok enough. WOW is a small but likeable park with some quirky charm. Some of the merchandise was mad (Branded power adapter anyone?) and I ended up really liking the park despite it's mediocre ride collection. The park needs some TLC to bring it up to scratch but it's got a good start. The entrance to WOW is similar to the one in Shenzhen. Upon entering the themeing is starting to look dated. The landscaping in the park is lovely though. Even if the lake could do with a clean. There's a large castle on the hill visible from the entrance. This was the main reason for coming so i headed that way. The ride is a proper Zamperla and everything. It's one of only 2 which uses a lift hill and not a launch. The motor bike style cars are comfortable enough. The colours of the ride really make it stand out. The long swooping drops are more Roller Skater than anything else. The positioning of the shot tower on the hill was excellent and gave awesome views. This ride opened last year and is easily the best thing in the park. This fella sits nearby keeping a wonky eye on you. The queue was about 20mins. Easily the longest in the park today. As usual one train operation made me sad. The second and main drop. The ride has some good speed but theres a slower section in the middle which seemed a bit unnecessary. The ride is a great little family ride though. No chain lifts here. I guess tires do fit in better with the motorbike theme. Train number 2 looking lonely. The bottom of the second drop into the helix. The first drop reminds me a bit of the first drop on Spinball at Alton Towers. A forest of supports. I like these rides and they would make a good addition to many smaller parks out here. That is if they get real ones and not the knock offs. The climb to the castle gives good views from the back of the ride. Another train finishes its cycle... (pun intended) One last look before I go hunting for the other rides. The castle on the hill. The new Swan Castle of Germany apparently. I didnt see any swans. The amusingly named High Altitude Rolling Sliding Coaster can appropriately be found at the top of the hill. It looks closed. It wasn't. But I was the only person I saw ride it all day. They've changed the colour's round recently. It used to be blue with yellow supports and red corkscrew braces. They appear to have used the same paint in a new order. Not sure what these were but there were lots of them It was pretty rough to be honest. And I didnt fancy riding again. But it was just about passable. The park is gorgeous in places with some good woodland areas towards the back. One of the parks many flatrides. Including one of these... again. Coaster number three was of course a spinning mouse. But for once NOT a Golden Horse. The weird climb from up to the second set of hairpins. The ride is a Beijing Jiuhua coaster and while pretty lame was at least different to all the other spinning coasters so far. Seems to be very similar to the Zamperla versions found around the world. It spun quite a bit and was hugely popular with the many groups of school kids around. One ride was enough for me though. I always wonder how a company like Zamperla feel when they build a new ride at a park which has a knock off of one of their rides. One last look before heading back down the hill. This park had another Bungee Jump. However it was closed. Considering the average age of people in the park seemed to be about 10 this was not that surprising. Yet another Nangang Sky Flyer. I hope these guys don't build any 420ft versions soon. Across the lake there was a bigger frisbee type ride and a log flume. WOW does have some of the signature scale models, But less so than Shenzhen's version. Not sure what was in here. I think it's just a monument. It's massive though. Fountains in the lake. A closer look at the log flume. I did go and take a look but decided against riding as the queue was fairly long. A chair swing ride that doesn't take you 100ft in the air. It's just like being in Venice. The parks merry go round. Again a double decker model. There was an Ice World outside. Obviously licensed characters abound.... cough!.... next up is Jiagjiajie National Park which is stunning and well worth a look.

Fantawild has begun construction of it's stage 2 parks recently and we already know of new parks being built in Jiayuguan,Jinan, Ningbo and Datong as well as second parks in Zhengzhou and Zhuzhou. They even have a third park being built in the city of Wuhu. However a quick browse of the site Fantawild uses for tender applications for construction work on new projects has revealed another new park which was until now unknown. Along with the previously mentioned parks tender documents reference a park labeled as Xiamen 2. Xiamen already has a park hence the designation of the number two. They have space already saved for a second park as can be seen in the satellite image below. However most interestingly this tender document in particular talks about the construction of footers for a new wooden coaster. Along with the confirmed and almost finished one's at Zhuzhou, Jinan and Wuhan and the semi confirmed (Mentions on news sites but no pictures yet) ones at Ningbo and Zhengzhou this makes 6 new Fantawild woodies in 2 years. As IAAPA proper starts tomorrow I would not be surprised to see M&V and Gravity Group announcing these 3 new rides during the week. On a side note this tender document confirms the installation of an SLC at the Jiayuguan Park too. So there will be plenty to keep you updated on over the next year.

I didn't I'm afraid. I could have done but at this point in the trip I needed a lie down and prioritised some rest over a Jungle Mouse. And I'm kind of sad the UFO ride was gone. I did however avoid the toilets there. Which I am now glad about. That evening I made it back to my hotel and after a nap had a little look around. The hotel really was right outside Happy Valley so it had some nice views of the park. The view from my window was over the massive Happy Valley sign The hotel has a Maya theme to go with the water park behind it. The corridors play weird bird and jungle sounds. The view from one of the balconies. Looking forwards to this tomorrow. The water park out the back I got a good nights rest and walked over to the main park at about 10am. As anyone who's been to a Happy Valley park knows many of the rides open pretty late so I had a lie in instead of going for the 8am opening. And when I got there as expected many of the rides were still testing. I'll keep my reviews of the rides for the pictures but this park gave me my biggest miss off the trip I was expecting one side of Dauling Dragons to be closed as usual but it turned out that both sides were down for maintenance all day. While I am glad they are looking after their woodies I am sad it had to be the day I was there. As a park the Wuhan Happy Valley sits fairly low on the Happy Valley list for me. The rides are great but it lacks the atmosphere of Tianjin and the scale of Shanghai. I'd probably place it around the same level as Shenzhens though. it's still a good park and well worth the visit for the S&S alone and if Dauling Dragons was open I'm sure I'd have had a better opinion of it. The first ride i encountered was the bumper cars under the Frisbee. But while riding the Gyro Swing I noticed this was testing. However it still wasn't open. And nor was this. I've only ridden a few X-Cars and was looking forwards to this. It is thankfully a lot better than the god awful G-Force at Drayton Manor. But not open until 1. The park had its Halloween decorations out in force. In my opinion that hill under the first drop is one of the best looking hills in the coaster world. This was open but only the one in Shot mode. Is that some hair time i see? it must be open. The first drop dives into this glass tunnel entrance. It really is an excellent first drop. As i mentioned in my Beijing Happy Valley TR I do this and the Shenzhen ride are two of the best rides in China at the moment, This one was a little rough in the helix which I don't remember in Shenzhen but its still a top class ride. Before the S&S though i took a ride on the parks mine train.... if you can call it a mine train. Themed to racing trucks it's not really a mine train anymore. In my opinion the theme doesn't make much sense and the ride is a lot poorer for it. This was probably the worst of the mine trains I rode this trip. Time to try this out. This turn/hill is good fun too. The helix had a jolt in it I don't recall the Shenzhen one having but it's still easily re rideable thanks to the lap bars. The Truck Train ride. I don't recall a Truck race being held in Monte Carlo. But whatever at least it's original I guess. For all the equipment geeks out there. I rode this front row thanks again to a group of three taking the front seat. The girl next to me was terrified and grabbed my arm for the whole thing. However when she got off she was covered in blood. It appears she got a nose bleed half way round (Cause unknown to me). That freaked me out a bit. You can get some excellent views of that first drop. No idea what these are. Despite it only being 12 this ride was now open. This is essentially the parks family ride. And good fun it is too. Some weird changes of direction and a nice little launch. It's partly under cover too. The elements are similar to G-Force but oh so much better. It's just so oddly shaped. The single car trains decrease capacity I guess but it wasn't too busy. The ride finale. Still only the shot tower running. Possibly not the greatest name choice in the world. Closed... I skipped this today. But it looked very similar to other Happy Valley versions. I headed to the back of the park to check out the other 2 coasters. I had noticed there were no trains running but I held out hope it was just a late opening. But no such luck. The ride was shut all day. And it looks so good too The other ride at the back of the park was open however. And It's a real one again. I do like these rides but I hope they don't become to common. This one didn't seem to climb as high back up the rear drop as the one at Fantawild. Not sure why. Terrified faces. Damn You! No high fiving will be done today. There were plenty of men hitting it with hammers. I just wish they could have done one side at a time. The name Hidden Anaconda couldn't be more wrong. Grrrrrr. This was one of my big hopes for the trip too. Oh well I guess it means I can come back. More men, more hammers. One last look at the Sky loop before i walked back to the front of the park. So So Close! The Giant Frisbee was OK but I much prefer the Intamin Gyro Swing at Shanghai. The Halloween stage is all set up. The park has a massive plot of land in the middle with nothing but a rapids on part of it. I could see this being used for a new land at a later date. The entrance area was nice. Not a giant soul consuming casino. I took another couple of rides on this. I really hope one of these gets built in Europe some time soon. Good pop of airtime over here. I'd place it below Shenzhen's but above Beijing's. This is my hotel just outside the gate. This evening I tried the Buffet. And after some frantic arm waving and general misunderstanding I discovered I got a free Crab in a box to take to my room. Next up Window On The World in Changsha.

The next day I was up early for a short bullet train to Wuhan. The journey was under two hours and I arrived at the station about 8am to find smog actually inside the station itself. The stations big enough for it to be smoggy inside. The Highspeed rail network in China is all very shiny and new and the trains were always on time. It's depressing to get back to the UK and to have to pay the same amount for a slow stopping train which goes 1/10th of the distance. Sleek bullet trains pulled in and out of Zhengzhou all morning. Zhengzhou is a big junction on the Chinese high speed main lines. When planning my trip I used this excellent zoomable map of the Chinese High Speed Network http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Rail_map_of_China.svg I've already planned a trip down the eastern line between Beijing and Shanghai to hit up some of the new Gravity Group woodies in a couple of years time. When I arrived in Wuhan I caught the excellent metro system a few stops from Wuhan East station to Yualin Road station and took the 15minute walk to my hotel. I had booked into the Maya Playa hotel which is the Hotel owned by OCT and found directly outside the entrance to Happy Valley Wuhan. However Happy Valley was in my plans for the day after so I took the walk back to the Metro and caught the train to Zhongshan Park station. Zhongshan Park station is as the name suggests home to Wuhan's Zhongshan Park. The park is another city park with a few rides thrown in. There are 4 roller coasters here but I was saddened to find the new knock off Motor Coaster was closed when I got there. The other coasters were all pretty standard but I found the Jungle Mouse to be the pick of the bunch as it wound through the trees. The Loop Screw was a pretty average version of the ride with some head banging in the corkscrews but not much else. Zhongshan is a nice enough park and is open till around 8 or 9 depending it seems on the whim of the operators. But it's so easy to get to on the Metro it's worth a visit. This may be part of the reason this area was so so smoggy. Arriving at Wuhan Zhongshan Park I found the main ride closed. The ride is pretty much identical to the Zamperla motor coasters out there. The park uses an interesting card top up system. You get a credit sized card when you goto a booth and you can top it up with as much money as you like. Then at each ride you swipe the card over a pad to pay for your ride. A pretty sophisticated system for such a small park. I can't believe they even copied the mis matched support colours. The 2nd coaster was this Jungle Mouse. A good fun ride that managed to feel quite out of control. The cars are terrifying though. There are some good near misses with trees. The ride rattles a bit but it adds to the charm. The lack of any obvious block brake system slowed things down though. The other main coaster here is a loop screw knock off. And not a very good one. The entry into the corkscrews was pretty bad but not as bad as the one in Zhengzhou. The setting is at least nice. But it does make it tough to get a clear view. The ride was fairly popular and as soon as they saw a westerner get on loads of teenagers followed. The point the pain ends. As always the Chinese could do with a bit more creativity in their ride layouts. I'd rate this somewhere in the middle of the Loop Screws I've ridden this trip The final coaster was this beast. And they actually let me ride it. Despite not letting a friend of mine ride it earlier in the year. Top Scan knock off once again. These are also everywhere now. The obligatory big wheel. I skipped this one. Back to the Jungle Mouse to spend the money I was going to use on the closed Motor Coaster. You can wander around the entire ride. The cars still creep me out. The ride will never be considered quality. But it's fun enough and I enjoyed it more than the looper. The near misses certainly add to it and i wonder if it or the trees came first. It certainly had a different layout to any other Jungle Mouse I rode. Last pic of the mouse before I headed back towards the entrance. Damn you! From a distance you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between the real ones and a fake one. The park had a nice log flume and a rapids ride too. All in all a pleasant enough park. Although this had seen better days. Next up is Happy Valley Wuhan

Perhaps Malaysian Airlines should hire you to find that plane! Weirdly I've just applied to some work on the ships doing the searching off the coast of Australia so maybe I will be. It is a real one It's weird to be happy about that. Of the 3 woodies we've seen so far only 2 are inverting. The one in Zhuzhou is a Fjord Dragon clone The one in Jinan unfortunatly looks like the same inversion. (I'm assuming the S bend on the left is the inversion) I'm 99% the new park in Zhengzhou will be getting a Gravity Group woodie too although its not official yet. But I bet there's a fair chance we will find out more on all of these at IAAPA next week.

Exciting news. Gravity Groups new woodie at the Fantawild Cultural Heritage Park in Wuhu is going up. Found some satellite images of the park under construction. The image of the new Gravity Group coaster clearly shows the footers plotting the rough layout and what appears to be the coasters inversion already built. (Both Jinan and Wuhu are confirmed to get inverting woodies with different layouts) This is the third Fantawild park in the city which makes the cities coaster line up pretty impressive. Also shown below are an image of the whole park, the new Vekoma Boomerang and an image of the building which has been built over the top of the parks mine train coaster. This is an interesting development in itself and it appears the Jinan version will also be enclosed. Without further ado here are the pictures. Source: VHCoasters Via Google Maps

The second park of the day was People's Park which is central Zhengzhou. The park was about 5mins down the road from my hotel on the bus. The park has entrances at either end and is essentially a city park with a few rides. I accidentally walked the entire length of the park round the edge before i found the entrance. But once in I headed for the parks 2 coasters. The park has a pretty standard loop screw and a spinning wild mouse, Neither ride is spectacular but it was weird to see them right in the middle of a city next to a busy main road. I also rode the large Ferris wheel at the park which revealed a Bungee Jump. I went to have a look since I've done a fair few but decided to give this one a miss. Overall if you ever find yourself in Zhengzhou then People's Park is worth a visit. It's easy to reach on several main bus lines and it's free to get in and walk around. The rides are perhaps a bit overpriced (The looper is nearly $5) but it's a pleasant Oasis out of the mad rush of the main city. Arriving at the park I accidentally wandered around the outside of the fence. It did however give some nice views of the parks main ride. The ride is about as rough as you would expect for an old loop screw knock off. But I'd ride worse the next day. This is the East entrance to the park. The first coaster I came across was the aptly named Spinning Coaster. This one is not however built by Golden Horse. But by the lesser known Yaqiao Machine Company. But for all intents and purposes it is exactly the same. According to the RCDB they only have 2 operating coasters so far. And they are both clones. It was an OK ride if you like that sort of thing. The park has a fairground kind of feel but with some nice foliage. There's a few old style flat rides around. The main attraction. Their imagination clearly went into overdrive and they named it Roller Coaster. It's a pretty bad ride all things told. This bit was acceptable The classic view of the Loop Screw. It's latest victims. Get ready for some pain. The pain starts somewhere around here. And carries on here. The brake run was a nice relief. Told you every park has one of these. Having ridden one earlier in the day I skipped this one. The parks ferris wheel was next up. Built by the same people who built the Meisho knock off across the city, Sameco. Showing that the Chinese were knocking off rides way before the SLC's. As mentioned this part of the ride is pretty good. Reaching the top of the ferris wheel. The Frisbee type ride was open for part of the evening too. The latest foolhardy Chinese locals brave the ride. Climbing the lift. They're doomed... ALL DOOMED. A view over the city. Surprising not as smoggy as yesterday. But still not healthy. I wonder by how much this ferris wheel trip shortened my lifespan. The spinning mouse is hidden away in the trees. The Bungee Jump. I decided to skip this one. Some more of the Zhengzhou skyline. All in all People's Park is pleasant enough. It's free to get in and you pay by the ride so It's worth a trip. The classic Sameco built ride station. The same style multi-coloured roof can be found all over China. One last look at the Corkscrews of pain. Next up is Wuhan Zhongshan Park.