The Angry Darren Mullins

Today I went to Children's Park in Shenzhen's Luohu district. Shenzhen is a city on the border with Hong Kong. There are two Children's Parks in Shenzhen. One is near Happy Valley and is called Shenzhen Children's Park while the one I visited today is simply called Children's Park. This park was also the first Children's Park in Shenzhen. Children's Park had a couple of off years recently due to the fact that most, if not all of the rides were removed. There used to be a powered coaster here. It was removed and recently, a new family coaster called Space Car was built in it's place. There is also a new mouse coaster here that is like many others I have ridden in China. I was here a week and a half ago and denied a ride on both coasters. I was told that the adults could only ride if they were accompanied by children. I thought that was strange for a mouse coaster to have that requirement. As it turns out, the idiot selling tickets that day was either A. wrong or B. a liar. I rode the mouse (coaster #902 for me) and Space Car (coaster #903 for me). Space Car is one of 262 roller coasters I have found before RCDB or ACE. I took some photos and then left. If you visit Shenzhen, Children's Park is close to the Shaibu subway station. You go out exit C, turn to your left and walk for about five minutes. You will see a Ferris Wheel and a pirate ship to your left before arriving at the entrance. This is my park of the day. It is Children's Park in Shenzhen's Luohu district. It was Shenzhen's first children's park when it opened. Here is the Carousel shot for this TR. There is a nice little train ride for families to enjoy together. It is pretty long for a kiddie ride. The lift hills on the flume are new. The concrete sections of the flume are from the original flume ride that used to be here. A new mouse coaster has been built here. It is just like many others in China. I am very used to seeing this in China. Yep! Very common mouse coaster... Here are footers from the now gone Golden Dragon Tackle. A new family coaster called Space Car has replaced the Golden Dragon Tackle. This is also a very common sight in China. This on ride shot of Space Car will finish the TR.

I woke up in Hangzhou this morning. I had a few hours before I had to catch a train to Ningbo, so I decided to see a few parks here. I met with Xi Pai and Candice Fu who are both Chinese roller coaster enthusiasts. We met at Hangzhou Youth & Children's Center before going to Hangzhou Children's Park. After meeting them and going to the two parks in Hangzhou, I went to Ningbo and visited NIngbo Children's Park, which is across the street from my motel. As a side note, I was going to visit Hangzhou Amusement Park and Roman U Park, but Roman U Park is not yet open and Hangzhou Amusement Park is closed for the winter. Hangzhou Youth & Children's Center: This park is across the street from Hangzhou's famous West Lake. There are several rides here. There are some Zamperla kiddie rides, including a Happy Swing. I had not been one of these before. I tried the one here and I liked it. It provides an intense ride despite being a "kiddie" ride. There is a small kiddie coaster here that was not open today. It seems that the ride ops were using the overnight rain showers as an excuse. The ride is only about 9 feet tall and the highest point of the coaster can be reached via a walkway. Much of the coaster is only 4 feet tall and the track could have been wiped clean in about 10 minutes. I think some Chinese parks will be hurting when Shanghai Disneyland shows the Chinese people how a park should operate. Hangzhou Children's Park: The second park of the day was Hangzhou Children's Park. There have been six coasters known to operate here, but four of them have been removed. I have wanted to come here for about 5 years to ride the suspended coaster, but it was removed about three years ago. Some footers and the loading platform from the suspended coaster remain. The two coasters here are Roller Coaster, which is a mouse ride, and Fruit Worm Coaster (my 800th steel coaster), a Golden Horse kiddie coaster. Many parks will not let adults ride the Fruit Worm coaster, but adults who visit Hangzhou Children's Park can ride this particular installation. Hangzhou Children's Park has a rapids ride. This was a surprise to find in a non-theme park. It was closed for the winter. On the way to and from this park, the taxi crossed three bridges that were like camelback hills on a roller coaster. This would nice in itself. Ningbo Children's Park: This park is located in Ningbo and it was here that I would ride my 900th coaster. The park is a basic Chinese park. There is a lake with boats and about a dozen rides. The coaster here is a Wacky Worm knock off called Junior Coaster. I think it is strange to have a wacky worm type ride as a milestone coaster, but with Hangzhou Paradise being closed and Roman U Park not open yet, I had to go with this one. Ningbo Children's Park is very nice and I like the layout of the park. There used to be a mouse coaster here, but it is gone now. In all, I had a great day and I hope to visit other parks in Ningbo and Hangzhou very soon. This is my first park of the day. It is the Hangzhou Youth & Children's Center This is the park's biggest ride. Here is the Carousel shot for this park. A Space Car coaster is here. It was not working today because there was some moisture on the track. There was not much moisture. The ride ops were being lazy cunts and didn't want to open the ride. The let me in the station to take photos. Here is some of the track. They have clearly knocked off the Tivoli coasters. Here is a view of the coaster from the Ferris Wheel. I got to ride my first Zamperla Happy Swing today. That is right-Zamperla-not a knock off Asian POS. A taxi ride brought me to Hangzhou Children's Park. A mouse coaster has been added here recently. Here is an on ride shot. I see these all over China. The Chinese love their wave swingers. A Fruit Worm coaster is here. This would be come my 800th steel coaster. This has to be the world's shortest lift hill. Here we are going through the apple. I was surprised to see a rapids ride in this park. It was closed for the winter. This is the loading platform for the the now defunct Bat Driving Speedy Car suspended coaster. In addition to the loading platform, the footers from the suspended coaster are still there. A one hour train ride and a 20 minute taxi ride has brought me to the city of Ningbo and Ningbo Children's Park. I have just entered the west gate of the park. Ningbo Children's Park has a small lake and boating is very popular on it. No park should be without one of these. There is this little rocket ships ride at Ningbo Children's Park. A Wacky Worm knockoff is here. This would become my 900th coaster. Here is the big drop on the coaster. The coaster is called Junior Coaster. I took this photo while I was waiting on someone to come and operate the coaster for me. Here is part of the layout. Here is a photo I took while riding to finish off the TR.

There does seem to be a lot of parks here. Keep in mind that China has 1/5 of the world's population. The parks in China are much like parks in America 100 years ago. Most of them seem to be part of a larger complex with swimming pools and other things. Also, like parks 100 years ago, many of China's parks (at least the ride areas) are very short lived. If you research parks on RCDB, you will find that parks from 100 years ago maybe last 5 or 6 years. I think the Chinese are going to have to be more original in building rides. I think that most people will notice that the powered coaster or jungle mouse at this park is the same as the one at the park down the street.

I stopped in the city of Yiwu last week on the way to Shanghai. I got there on the train at 4:20am and waited inside a very cold train station until about 8am before venturing out to see the parks of Yiwu. There are two parks that have coasters in Yiwu. They are Yiwu Paradise (3 coasters) and Chouzhou Park (1 coaster). Both parks are a five minute walk away from each other. Although the weather was very cold, all of the coasters were open. I first went to Chouzhou Park and rode the mouse coaster there. It was the standard Chinese mouse design. Chouzhou Park only has one entrance and a fee of 2 RMB (about 30 cents US) is charged for entry. After riding the coaster (#891), I took some photos and went to a reptile zoo. The reptile zoo was in poor shape. The aquarium housing the reptiles food had a big hole in it and the food was scampering about at my feet. I truly hate rats. After Chouzhou Park, I took a five minute walk to Yiwu Paradise, which is a large park. I paid less than $1 USD to enter the park. There are three coasters here and two of them are new coasters. RCDB lists a looping coaster, mouse and powered coaster. The powered coaster has been replaced by a gravity powered kiddie coaster and a new mouse coaster has replaced the old mouse coaster. The looping coaster is still here. I paid 50 RMB (about $8 USD) for my ticket on Single Loop Roller Coaster. I initially thought this was too costly, but then found out that the price of a ticket included two rides on the coaster. The coaster is a bit rough. It is one of three of this design. The mouse coaster cost 30 RMB ($5 USD) for one ride. I thought that was way too much as other parks in China charge 10-15 RMB for the same type of coaster. The kiddie coaster was 15 RMB and I got three circuits on it. With the four coasters I rode in Yiwu, my coaster count is up to 894 coasters. The two new coasters added to Yiwu Paradise have not been added to RCDB yet and are coasters # 259 and #260 that I have found before RCDB or ACE. Both of Yiwu's parks are a bit faded, but still very much open. They make for four easy credits and again, the five minute walk between the parks is a huge selling point for a visit to Yiwu. My first park in Yiwu is Chouzhou Park. This is the only entrance. This is just inside. It is a very common design here in China. It has cars that look like mice. It also has a name. This was the test run before my ride. Here is a midway shot. All parks must have one of these. There is a small lake at Chouzhou Park. Yiwu Paradise is a 5 minute walk from Chouzhou Park. Here is the carousel at Yiwu Paradise. A Chinese Paratrooper is here. A colorful Breakdancer is here. A Space Car kiddie coaster has replaced the powered coaster listed on RCDB. It became coaster # 259 that I have found before ACE or RCDB. Here is the highest point on the ride. Here is a shot of it as you approach the ride. In front of the station, there are these rainbow colored penises. Just look at them. What do you think they look like? The flume is out of service. Maybe because of the winter or maybe for good. It is hard to tell in China. A mouse coaster is here. These are all over China. It is a good thing I like them. Here is another mouse shot from the station. One more look at the mouse. This is not the first mouse coaster at Yiwu Paradise. You can see footers here from a former coaster. This mouse is coaster #260 I have found before ACE or RCDB. Single Loop Roller Coaster is one of three known to exist in China. Here is the car that I rode in. They give double rides for about $8 USD. Here is one more shot of Single Loop Roller Coaster to finish up my visit to Yiwu.

On busy days you will wait hours and hours for that one wonderful moment. Rides and Attractions I would like to see built here: Orgasma-The Speed of Sperm, a launced roller coaster with a car that looks like penis that launches into a tunnel that looks like a woman's vagina. The ride could end with a special "splashdown" area Foreplay, a rock climbing attraction where you have to grip boobs to climb the wall The Brothel Adventure, a dark ride through an old brothel where scantily clad women try to beckon men to come into their rooms. BiSexual, a racing coaster where you can choose to ride in the male or female themed trains Threesome, a triple armed Ferris Wheel Dildo Drop, a giant, penis shaped, freefall tower Cowboy Style, a carousel that has hand carved men laying on their backs (instead of horses) to ride on

I have sent the photos to Duane at RCDB.

I got up this morning and prepared to leave Guilin. I had one more thing to do here and that was to go to 1001 Fairyland. It is located behind Too Plaza, which is a giant shopping center. There are two coasters here. only one, the mouse, is listed on RCDB. The other coaster is a spinning coaster with an oval layout. This became coaster #258 that I have found before ACE or RCDB. I rode this coaster first and then went to the aquarium. The aquarium featured a crocodile, sharks, a snake, salamanders and different types of fish. Although you can walk through it in 3 minutes, it worth seeing. I rode the mouse coaster next and it became coaster #890 for me. Admission here is free and most rides cost about $1.60 USD. There is nothing spectacular here (although the aquarium is nice), but if you are in Guilin and are looking to add to your track record, you can add two coasters here and have a good time on the rides. Today I went to 1001 Fairyland in Guilin. These carousels are popular all over China. The waver swingers are also everywhere. You will not see this in the Lawsuit States of America. I have only seen these in China. This looks like it came from a cartoon. This is not on RCDB yet. A coaster called Crazy Mouse is here. It is a good thing that I like these. Here is some more Crazy Mouse porn for you. This was taken during my ride on the Crazy Mouse. I will finish the TR with this shot of the park's Ferris Wheel.

Yesterday, I work up in Guilin. It is one of the most popular tourist cities in China. I went to Seven Star Park. I knew there were two coasters there. When I got there, I looked at the map and found that there was an amusement park located in one corner of the park. I went to that part of the park and went on some of the rides. One of the coasters I rode was the bog standard jungle mouse that was like so many others I have ridden here in China. The other coaster followed the same layout as a wacky worm, but had a much steeper lift hill, no shallow dips after the lift and was partially enclosed. I left the park after taking pictures and enjoying the rides. When I got back to my motel, I learned that the two coasters listed on RCDB for Seven Star Park were not the coaster I rode. It seems there are or were two amusement areas at Seven Star Park. The area I visited featured coasters not listed on RCDB. The two coasters featured on RCDB are another mouse coaster and powered coaster. I walked very near to where these coasters were supposed to be. There was no amusement area listed on the current park maps where they should have been. I am not sure if I just simply missed this area or if the rides in that area have been removed. With the two coasters I rode here, I have now discovered 257 coasters before ACE or RCDB could find them. These two coasters bring my track record up to 888 coasters. I have arrived at Seven Star Park. This is near the center of the park. This mountain is inside the park. This waterfall is beautiful This nice carousel is near the zoo in Seven Star Park. I like the design on the outside of the Haunted House. A mouse coaster is here. This is very common in China. This gives you a good view of the layout. This was from my ride. This was taken from the highest point on the ride. This was one of the newer rides here. People were riding the wave swinger even though the weather was very cold. This coaster that goes in and out of a building is here. Here is another look at the building. A view inside the station. This coaster was being repaired when I arrived. This was during a test run. Here is another test run shot. Here is one more test run photo for you. This was during my ride on the coaster.

http://news.yahoo.com/afghanistans-first-fun-park-brings-joy-amid-war-062442127.html I do not know if this has been posted or not, but a new park has opened in Afghanistan. It is the first park in that country. It has what appears to be a shuttle coaster.

I got out of bed early today to go buy train tickets to go to the city of Zhangzhou over 3 hours away. I went to a place called Jiaomei, which is a suburb of Zhangzhou and is about halfway between the Zhangzhou city center and the beach city of Xiamen. I went to Longjia Amusement Park. Longjia Amusement Park is part of the Longjia Hot Spring Resort. I saw this park on the way to Xiamen three months ago. As it is next to Jiaomei railway station, I figured I could easily visit this park as I would not need to rely on transportation other than the train ride to Jiaomei. The amusement park sits on the opposite side of the train tracks from the rest of the resort and no tickets are required to enter the amusement park. Tickets are required for the main part of the resort. There are about a dozen rides here. The biggest ride is a large Ferris Wheel. Seeing this wheel from the train three months ago is how I knew this park existed. Other rides include a powered coaster, wave swinger and a merry go round. There is a water park here, but it closed a long time ago. There are paddle boats, but they have been out of service for a while. The powered coaster was put into service in March of 2013 and a few other rides were new, but some parts of this park, like the water park, were very faded. The park had a small crowd today. The amusement park, despite being part of a tourist resort, is basically a typical Chinese park. Nothing special is here in regards to rides, but I am sure that locals enjoy it. I happen to like the park here. It is very small and yet feels like a fun place. Amusement parks are about fun. Not being several hundred acres or multi-million dollar rides. They are simply about entertainment and, if you like parks, Longjia Amusement Park can be a fun outing for you. I have arrived at Longjia Amusement Park in Jiaomei, Zhangzhou. A little merry go round is one of the approximately dozen rides here. A small powered coaster is here. I see this often here in China. Here is a shot from my ride on the powered coaster. Here is the dragon coaster entertaining other guests. An old water park is here, but it closed sometime ago. This sign means do not enter the water park. These boats have not entertained anyone in a long time. Although I didn't see the phone, I wonder what it was complaining about. Back to the rides. This is one of the newest rides here. Here is the waver swinger in action. Chinese people love these. The biggest ride here is this Ferris wheel. This will finish off the TR.

Parrot Coaster is very smooth and intense. I consider it to be one of the best B&Ms.

I got to visit two parks this weekend (November 1&2) and I reached an incredible milestone. I will get to the milestone in a bit, but I would like to tell you about the parks. November 1, 2014: Shaxi Park (Zhongshan, Guangdong, China) This park is in the western suburbs of Zhongshan city in Guangdong. It is a small park with free admission. There is not much to do here other than a small collection of rides, including a powered Dragon coaster. I arrived late in the afternoon, rode the coaster, took some photos and left. This is a typical Chinese park. It is meant for the locals. I discovered it recently and told RCDB about it. Shaxi Park became the 413th park I have visited., November 2, 2014: Chimelong Ocean Kingdom This park is located in Zhuhai and it just opened earlier this year. I got there early this morning and paid the 350 RMB admission ($56 USD) and went in. I must say that this park seems a bit over priced when you look at the 150-200 RMB for admission to other parks in China. There are nine rides, including three coasters and some animal exhibits. One exhibit is the Whale Shark Aquarium. It is the largest aquarium in the world and features a bunch of animals, including whale sharks. None of the animal exhibits and most of the rides did not open until 11am, despite the fact that the park opens its gates at 10am. My first ride was Walrus Splash. This is a water coaster. It is less of a coaster than Ocean Kingdom's other two coasters, but still has enough coaster sections to count as a coaster. I was on the first boat/car/train out of the station. It is a fun ride and perfect for most of the family. I did not get very wet, but I did get wet enough to make it fun. Walrus Splash became coaster #883 for me. Next up was Parrot Coaster. This would be my first experience with a wing rider coaster ( I guess the Dinoconda at Dinosaur Land doesn't count, although it would be somewhat similar, except the seats flip on Dinoconda). I truly love this coaster. It has a great first drop. I wish the original name Flying Over The Rainforest had not been dropped in favor of Parrot Coaster, but it is a world class ride. It became coaster #884 for me. The last coaster I would ride today would Polar Explorer. This coaster is very similar to Walrus Splash, except that it has more coaster track. It is a fun ride and again, like Walrus Splash, I didn't get too wet. I just got wet enough to make the ride enjoyable. It would become coaster #885 for me. After Polar Explorer, I went through some animal exhibits and took another spin on Parrot Coaster. In all, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom is a great park, but it needs more rides. I think that it was too overprice considering how much more can be found at Chimelong Paradise. This park is also not that big. It could best be described as a mid-sized park. With that being said, park operations are efficient. Several boats/cars were in service on both water coasters and neither of them had any wait. Parrot Coaster had a one train operation with a 30 minute wait. The ride ops were loading and unloading the ride as fast as possible. Chimelong Ocean Kingdom became park #414 for me today...and that is what brings me to my milestone that I mention earlier. My first park came when I was less than a year old. For 40 years now, I have been visiting parks and I have visited 414 parks. Some of these parks I have visited dozens of times (Kings Island, Cedar Point, Gyeongju Word, Everland), some I have visited two or three times (Knoebles, Six flags New England, Hong Kong Disneyland, Nagashima Spaland) and some I have visited only once (Chimelong Paradise, Space World, Dorney Park and so on), but if you add up all of my park visites (and I have), you will find that today's visit to Chimelong Ocean Kingdom became my 1000th park outing. That is correct. As of today (November 2, 2014), I have made 1000 visits to 414 different amusement parks. I look forward to the next 1000. My first park of the weekend-Shaxi Park in Zhongshan city. This is right inside of Shaxi Park. This is some of the scenery in Shaxi Park. A few basic rides can be found here. This merry go round is here. Bumper cars are always a favorite with park guests. A powered coaster is here. Open wide... This was during my ride. I have arrived for my long awaited visit to Ocean Kingdom. This is a landmark for the park. It is on top of the Whale Shark Aquarium. Here is a real whale shark. The lake at Ocean Kingdom is called Hengqin Ocean. The park is located on Hengqin Island. This is Walrus Splash-my first coaster of the day. Here is Walrus Splash during splashdown. This is Walrus Splash from just outside the park entrance. This mountain houses most of Polar Explorer. Here is Polar Explorer's big drop. A Polar Explorer car enters final splashdown. Here is the star of Ocean Kingdom. This is Parrot Coaster. Here is one of the lead cars. Look at how tall that lift is. This is not your standard Chinese powered Dragon or jungle mouse. Here is Parrot Coaster in action. Here is one final shot of Parrot Coaster to close out my TR.

With Golden Horse, They have done so many spinning mouse coasters, kiddie coasters and mine trains(Happy World's is from Golden Horse) and some SLCs, I doubt they would go out of business, but then again, they are going to have to stop offering the same four layouts over and over if they are going to continue to do business because sooner or later parks are going to have either everything Golden Horse makes or like attractions made from a company like Jiuhua.

Golden Horse in Zhongshan also makes SLCs. This makes four companies to offer the SLC in China.

I am glad to see that someone agrees with me that Happy World's version is smoother. It is listed as version 2 on RCDB. I think they took the original design and knew they needed to improve it. By the way, I think Happy World's SLC may be the second best SLC I have ridden. Serial Thriller or whatever they call it at Geauga Lake (relocated to another park) is #1 on my list of SLCs.

I got a kick out of seeing the tall buildings near what was supposed to be a town from more than 100 years ago. The SLC knockoff is an updated version of a Chinese designed SLC that can be found at parks all over China. The modifications to this one include a more gradual drop and the height of some of the inversions being lowered. Having ridden one of the original designs in Dalian, China, I can say that the modifications make a much better ride. For one, the train does not look like it will stall when going through the inversions.

Today, October 4, 2014, I went to six parks in the city of Fuzhou in Fujian Province in China. I have several photos to share, but before that, I will give you a brief rundown of each of the six parks I visited. Please not that all photos were taken on October 4, 2014. The first couple of photos have the wrong date due to me resetting my camera and forgetting to turn off the date and time option. Zuohai Park: This park is a large park with rides scattered throughout the whole park. There is one coaster here. It has been SBNO for some time. It is a composite of the old Japanese shuttle loops. I wanted to ride it, but as it was closed, I didn't get to. It has a short drop, loop and reverse point after the station like the Senyo shuttle loops do, but the lift is like the Meisho shuttle loops. This coaster was built by a company in Shanghai. West Lake Park: This park is very famous. It is 1700 years old and has a nice lake with boats. There is a small collection of kiddie rides here. If you only want rides, this place is not for you. There are no adult rides and no coaster is here for credit whores. Children's Park: This park is located in the northern part of Fuzhou. It is a new park and despite info on the internet that says it has a coaster, there is no coaster here. One photo shows a Golden Horse spinning coaster, but it is not from Fuzhou's Children's Park. Maybe this park is planning to add a coaster soon. It is still a new park. Forest Park: This park is a short walk from Children's Park. This is a very beautiful park. There is a small collection of rides here. The log flume is the only ride open. The rest of the rides were under different management.The other rides are currently closed while the park looks for someone to manage them. They have been closed for a while. There is a small spinning coaster here, but it is SBNO. As a side note, this coaster is the 250th coaster I have found that ACE or RCDB did not know about. Happy World: This is a new theme park that opened in October of 2013. There are many rides here. There are four coasters. There is a spinning coaster called Spinning Coaster, a really good, Chinese designed SLC that I enjoyed. The sign said it's English name is Roller Coaster. Children's Coaster is just like the ones at Shenzhen Children's Park and Sun Park in Beijing. The posted rules say only one adult per car on this one, but the ride op would not let any adults on. He will burn in hell for this as far as I am concerned. The other coaster here is called Gold Mine Train. It is like the mine trains at the Happy Valley and Fantawild parks. Both the mine train and the SLC broke down, but I managed to ride them at different points in the day. I have now ridden 881 different coasters. Kika World: This park is located across the street from Happy World. It is a park for children. There are bumper cars here that seem to be very popular with park guest. I had a good time on them. It actually felt like the car would tip over when I got bumped. They couldn't operate a bumper car ride like this in the USA. In closing this TR. I think the Chinese parks, while nice, should keep their rides up better. I went to five parks today before I got on a roller coaster. I have encountered many closed coasters in 2014 here in China. I have now ridden 881 different coasters and I have visited 411 different amusement parks. This is my first park in Fuzhou. It is Zuohai Park. The flume here is popular with guests. Zuohai's Ferris wheel is very tall. This is one of the rides that entertains visitors to Zuohai park. There is a large looping coaster here. It is a shuttle coaster. It has a big loop. Here is the reverse end of the coaster. Nothing says SBNO like weeds growing on the coaster's track. West Lake park has boats and a small collection of kiddie rides that were not open. I didn't spend much time here. Fuzhou Children's Park has a nice carousel. Forest Park is a short walk from Children's Park and has a nice flume. A small spinning coaster is here, but it is waiting for new management, along with most of the other rides, to reopen it. My 5th park of the day was Happy World. This lake is in the center of Happy World. The Ferris Wheel here gives a good view of the entire park. This big ride is very popular with park guests. A small kiddie coaster is at Happy World and depsite what the posted rules are about adults being allowed to ride, it is all BS. They will not let adults on this ride. Just look at that face. It says ADULTS CAN'T RIDE ME BITCHES! An inverted coaster is here. It is called Roller Coaster. It actually wasn't a bad ride either. Here is the top of the lift on Roller Coaster. Here is Happy World's Spinning Coaster. This is the mining town themed area of Happy World. Happy World's Gold Mine Train is here. The mine train head up the second lift. Here is Gold Mine Train's lead car. Kika World is part of a complex for children right across the street from Happy World. This small carousel is one of the many rides there. Kika World's bumper cars are some of the best ones I have experienced. This will finish off the TR.

My "open letter" was just a joke. That is the problem with people. No sense of humor. As for Cedar Point having a standup coaster in the future, I heard a banshee sound off on this like she was a Korean woman having sex. I really think CP should use a banshee somehow in their plans for Mantis. They could have a banshee scream over the PA right before Mantis closes as part of the announcement.

An Open Letter To Cedar Point (From An Entitled Little Brat) Dear Cedar Point, I was very disappointed at your "big announcement" this week. You see, I am an entitled little brat who deserved a new ride announcement. You could have given us news of a new roller coaster or a new dark ride or maybe a Soak City expansion. Did you do that for us? No. You announce your involvement in a charity. Helping kids and families? How dare you! Don't you know that you are supposed to be building up your park for people who like roller coasters? Do you understand what emotional damage this has done to me? You ruined my whole year. Sincerely, An Entitled Little Brat On a more serious note, I know how some people live in Ohio and helping children who are underprivileged is a wonderful thing. In many ways, this news is even better than a new ride. It shows a very successful business lending a helping hand.

I went to Xiamen in Fujian province last weekend for two days. I was fortunate enough to visit four parks there. Haiwan Park: This park is by the sea. There is a small collection of rides here that includes a mouse coaster. It is a pleasant little park. Dream World: It was dark when I visited, so I didn't get many good photos. There are two coasters here. Soaring In The Sky is a double loop and Corkscrew coaster like the one I rode at Yingze Park in Taiyuan back in 2011. This one required riders to wear neck braces-yes, neck braces. It was painful going through the corkscrew element. The motorbike launch coaster was closed. Dream World is a very nice park and there is a nice beach behind the park. In the evenings, the admission is only 80 RMB (about $13 USD) after 6pm. Zhongshan Park: This park has a small collection of rides, including a kiddie coaster with a custom layout. It is not on RCDB yet. Huli Park: This is a somewhat faded park in the north of Xiamen island. There are two areas of rides. The kiddie rides, including the kiddie coaster are open. The adult rides are closed, except for the alpine slide. Some parts of Huli Park are very nice and other parts are very faded. I have now ridden 878 coasters and found 246 coasters before ACE or RCDB could find them. I have also visited 405 parks. I have arrived at Haiwan Park to being my exploration of parks in Xiamen. There are a few rides here. Here is one of the rides that entertains families visiting the park. A mouse coaster is here. A quick stop at Dream World allowed me to ride the looping coaster there. Too bad it was at night and the photos I took were not any good. The next morning, I went to Zhongshan Park. This is right inside the entrance. This is a very typical scene in Chinese parks. There is a custom designed powered coaster at Zhongshan Park. A carousel is one of the few other rides here. This lovely little Y Bridge is in Zhongshan Park. Here is another shot of Zhongshan's Golden Dragon. My last park of the trip was Huli Park. This small carousel is at Huli Park. A small coaster called Golden Dragon Pulley is here. Here is part of the coaster's layout. An alpine slide is here. I count these as coasters. This is my version of the Jeff Johnson credit. It even has a lift. A SBNO flume ride is at Huli Park. The bumper cars are also SBNO. A Chinese Tilt A Whirl is also SBNO. Forget the money...show me the titties. With that, the TR has come to an end.

The family inverted coaster just opened a month ago. I do not know who made the Frisbee.

On August 6, 2014, I visited Happy Valley in Shanghai. This was my second visit to this park. The first happened in February of 2011. My reason for going here was the new B&M inverted coaster. I had ridden all of the other coasters on my first visit, but I was curious about B&M's first family coaster. As it turns out, after four rides on Family Inverted Coaster(the Chinese are clever at names aren't they?), I have decided that I like the Vekoma family inverted coasters better. The B&M is ok and I didn't expect much from it as it was built for families. My favorite ride here is Mega Lite(another clever name). I took six rides on it. I rode Fireball twice. The first time I waited two hours to ride it. The best way to ride Fireball is to wait until about 4pm when the line is about 30 minutes long. I took two spins on Diving Coaster, which is a lot of fun. The Intamin mine train here is very enjoyable too. Happy Valley in Shanghai is a nice park with a great collection of coasters, but there are a few problems. The problems are: 1. Opening times: Fireball opens with the park, but the rest of the coasters open anywhere from 10am to 1pm(Diving Coaster and Crazy Elves). 1pm is too late to open a ride like Diving Coaster. 2. Closing times: The major coasters close at 5pm and the park is open until 9:30pm. Other rides close at 5pm too. All that is open after 5pm are the family rides, including three family coasters. 3. One train operation on Fireball: This ride regularly has a two hour wait each day. There are two trains, but they only use one. Why not speed things up by putting a second train on the coaster. In all, I did have a good time. I wish operations would be a little bit better. I have arrived at Happy Valley in Shanghai. This will be my second visit to this park. After a short wait to buy a ticket I am inside the park. This view greets you shortly after you enter the park. Here is a test run of the Fireball. Here is another look at the Fireball. Diving Coaster is a short walk from the Fireball. This ride is located near Diving Coaster. The Intamin mine train is a lot of fun. This is my favorite ride at Happy Valley in Shanghai. Why haven't the American parks built one of these? This waterfall is near Mega Lite. This was my first look at the world's first B&M family inverted coaster. Here is what the train looks like. Here is the lift. Here is a look at a test run to finish off the trip report.

On July 9, 2014, I visited the city of Loudi in Hunan province. This city is roughly in the center of China and does not get a lot of foreign visitors. I went there to visit Shima Park, which, according to RCDB, has two coasters. I got there to discover that there are three coasters. A kiddie coaster is there that is not on RCDB. I have now discovered 240 coasters before RCDB or ACE could find them. A mouse coaster and a spinning coaster, with a car that is a knock of of the Zamperla Disko coaster cars were also here, although the spinning coaster doesn't operate anymore. I rode the mouse and the kiddie coaster and then left. This was actually a nice park for what it was. It is certainly a park that most non-Chinese will never get to visit. The two coasters I rode here brought my track record up to 869 coasters. Shima Park became the 392 park I have visited. Today I am going to visit Shima Park in Loudi. Not too many non-Chinese go to this city or this park. This is right inside the entrance. There is a small lake in Shima Park. This nice carousel calls Shima Park home. These can't operate in the USA. This coaster is not yet on RCDB or the ACE census. Here is the station for the kiddie coaster. The kiddie coaster has some nice landscaping. A mouse coaster is here. It is a little bit different from the others I have ridden in China. This is the first mouse of this type I have ridden. A spinning coaster is here. Although the spinning coaster was not open, the cars look like the cars on the Disko coasters.

On July 10, 2014, I went to Ziyang Park while I was in Wuhan. I knew this park has some rides, so I went to check if there was a coaster there. There is a powered kiddie coaster at Ziyang Park, but it was not open when I went. All of the rides here are family and kiddie rides. It is a pretty park and a great place to spend a few hours. Ziyang Park became park #393 for me. I have arrived at Ziyang Park in Wuhan. This is just inside the gate. This little gazebo is inside the park. Several kiddie rides are here. A powered kiddie coaster is here. Here is a good look at the coaster's train. The coaster was not open today. Here is part of the layout. It was a pretty basic powered coaster, but to the locals, it is probably a lot of fun.

Today, despite a back injury, I went to the eastern part of Huizhou in Guangdong province. The place I visited was Huidong. Huidong just means eastern Huizhou and despite being a stop on the high speed railway, Huidong doesn't get a lot of foreigners. I didn't see a single McDonald's or KFC in the town, but it is possible they had one or two. Upon reaching Huidong on the train, I took note that the parking lot of the train station had not been completed yet. It was one big apocalyptic war zone with a newly opened train station in the middle of it. I boarded the bus (H1) to Nanhu Park. Nanhu means South Lake. I got to the park 30 minutes later as the bus didn't make many stops on the way into town. Nobody was riding the bus into town. I initially tried to take a taxi into town and what should have been a relatively inexpensive taxi ride was going to be expensive due to the driver wanting to play F*** the Foreigner. I skipped on that little game. Anyway, I got to the park and immediately found the rides area. There were two areas with rides, but one is defunct and only pieces of rides remain. The other area is in a corner of the park and features a mouse coaster, which is of a design I have never seen before, a flume, large Ferris Wheel and other rides. The mouse coaster is simply called Roller Coaster. It is very smooth and a swooping drop towards the end of the ride made for some excessive speed before the ride hit the brake run. I really liked this coaster. I rode it twice and it became coaster #867 for me. The park is a small, average Chinese city park. The lake is a bit dirty and some parts of this park were fade, while other parts were new. Many of the rides were old, but the coaster appears to be a recent addition as it looked newer than the flume. I saw no other foreigners in this town and people spoke a different dialect of Chinese, so I had trouble communicating with the exception of a few people who could speak a little bit of English. The park would be an average park for us, but for the locals it is the only park in that immediate area. The park seemed to get busy around 4pm, but I had to leave and catch a train back home. It also started to rain shortly after I left the park, so I got very lucky today as I was able to complete my visit before the rain set in. I have now ridden 867 coasters and I have visited 390 parks. I have arrived at Nanhu Park in Huidong, Huizhou. Here is the lake that gives the park its name. A Jeff Johnson credit is here. As this had small changes in elevation throughout the track, it may be a credit for others as well. The merry-go-round sits beside the drop on the flume ride. The Ferris wheel is the tallest ride in the park. There is a walk through haunted house, but I didn't go in. There were parts of old rides in another area of the park. Nanhu Park has one of these. It is a mouse coaster named Roller Coaster. Here is one of the cars on it. Here is the front of the station. The Chinese writing says Guo Shan Che, which stands for flying mountain car. It is actually bad translation that caught on. We call it a roller coaster. This is from my first ride on it. The lift hill is sort of steep. Here you can see that this is not one of China's typical mouse coasters. This is the area outside of Huidong's train station. The station opened before the parking lot. This should give you a clue how closed off Huidong is from the rest of civilization.