Shawn's Worldwide Adventures! PTRs From My Travels

[packfanlv]

^The park in Guangzou that Jing Ying is located inside of is called Yuexiu Park. It also houses the famous Five Ram sculpture and Zhenhai Tower. It can be reached directly on line 2 at the Yuexi gongyuan stop which literally means Yuexi Park. I hope this helps!

[packfanlv]

Like so many amusement parks in China, today's amusement park is located within a small area of a much larger municipal park. Wuhan Zhongshan Park is located in the city of Wuhan in Central China.

 

Haven't heard of Wuhan? Don't worry, I recently heard that China has 90 cities with populations of one million or more. This city is the only one on the Yangtze River that has large population centers on both sides. The amusement park sits in the heart of the city and is a popular place for locals to hang out.

 

(Note: This park and area will not be visited on the TPR China trip! Haha an exclusive for me! )

On the way back to the hotel it started raining so hard that we missed our bus stop and ended up on the other side of the city. 2 hours, three buses and a taxi later we finally made it back. Like I said before, it was all worth it because we got to hang out at a Chinese park in a very cool city and in the end picked up three credits. How good is life?

From the ferris wheel.

And now a few random photos to finish off the TR.

But we got the credit!

It looked like a copy of the coaster in Guangzhou that we discovered in the rain. The car kept making noises and felt like it was going to fly right off of the track!

Thats right baby, victory is ours!

Finally after an hour at the shopping mall we returned to find the monorail running. Would the coaster be going as well?

Naturally Shawn Reece and I had to give it a try. Can anyone say oven?

Near the lake we came to these Zorb like things.

At this point the coaster was still not running for us, but it looked to be getting closer so we left the amusement section to walk around the park and adjacent shopping malls to kill some time.

Oh ok, there we go!

Where are all of the animals to shoot?

We were a little nervous going through this tunnel.

Ok then I guess its time to ride the shooting jeep ride through the jungle.

I said, "Hey is that a girl riding the coaster?" The ride op inferred, "Why yes it is Mr. White Man, but you can't ride the coaster and I don't speak English and you don't speak Mandarin so all I can do is very rudely shake my head and fists at you!"

And a ferris wheel.

Heck they even had a drop tower in this park.

Yes the legs did move as this went around the track. They looked like cheap vacuum tubes. It was quite the interesting sight!

At this point still no luck with the elusive coaster. It was running periodically but they never would let me ride. I was still determined, but went back to poking around the park.

Cool a UFO themed ride with dinosaurs!?!? This explains a lot.

Rides for both the old and young at heart.

For the most part the flats were in great condition!

At this point with the third coaster still not operating we decided to walk around the park and look at some of their many flat rides.

A view of the station.

As is normal with Chinese coasters I get a lot of knee banging with the decreased leg room.

The ride features a loop and double corkscrew. It was one of the smoother versions of this ride I have been on. It was built by Sameco.

A little disappointed in the missed credit we then headed to the park's third and final coaster aptly named Roller Coaster.

The next coaster we came to was the In The Woods Flying Mouse. We watched two people ride in front of us, but were then told it was closed. After a few minutes of arguing I left, but did not give up hope!

At least it was a credit!

The ride was quite rough at times, but not too bad.

It is an older style Spinning Wild Mouse.

The first coaster we came to was Flying Saucer.

What a pleasant place!

I was immediately impressed with the sight of the log flume. (Unfortunately the smell was quite a bit less impressive!)

Finally after twenty minutes of casually walking, we came to the amusement section.

As far as city parks go, China does pretty good!

Ok back to the park. In the front non amusement section they have a large lake with peddle boats for rent.

So you can see how along ago we visited!

The amusement park is located in the back corner of this lovely city park.

No chicken butts or pig snouts on the menu here!

Before heading over to the park we decided to get some lunch. If anyone tells you McDonalds isn't popular in China they are lying. I have never seen a McDonalds that wasn't busy!

[superman2]

Shawn

 

Thanks for info on Jing Ying park.

From the metro stop it should be walking distance.

Can you remember the exit?

I just want to save as much time as possible as i'm planning to hit three parks on that day including Nanhu and Chimelong.

Before you ask i have been to Chimelong before so only need to get the new B&M credit.

 

Did you do any parks in Zhuhai?

 

Your trip reports are great.

The saucer coaster looks really cramped.Haven't seen anything like this before.

[superman2]

Forgot to put this in the last post.

Do you know the opening and closing times for Jing Ying park or the best time in the day to visit them when all the coasters will be most likely operating?

[packfanlv]

^No problem. I don't remember what exit, but the signs are in English in the subway and it is about a one minute walk to the big park's entrance. You have to pay admission to the big park. Once inside walk straight towards the back for about five to ten minutes and you will see the amusement park. I don't know operation hours unfortunately. (We visited in the middle of the day.)

 

As for Zhuhai, we didn't make it over there, but are trying to squeeze it in before we fly out of Hong Kong on August 24th. I have seen pictures of Pearland and it doesn't look very nice and Mysterious Island is a bit far out so I just don't know at this point.

 

Thanks for the comments!

 

Shawn

[packfanlv]

Mostly because I won't have much time over the next two weeks and partly because TPR will be visiting these parks shortly, I have decided to combine all three of the major Beijing parks into this super update. (In 3 Parts) Since TPR will cover them in great detail I'm sure, I will try to stick to the major points and give my opinions of Sun Park, Beijing Shinjingshan Amusement Park & Happy Valley Beijing!

 

In a week or two look for a few more updates from China including a couple of parks in Shanghai and what remains of Mongolia's only roller coaster! Also look for an Olympic trip report including pictures from our patronage at seven of the Olympics finest events! After that it is on to Japan and a few of those parks that you have seen mentioned here numerous times before.

 

As always keep the comments coming. I really appreciate the feedback. (Please note that these pictures were taken several weeks apart during different visits to Beijing!)

 

______________________________________________

 

Part 1: Sun Park (Chaoyang Park)

 

This park is located in the eastern part of Beijing and in addition to be a huge public park, it has loads of amusement rides and even a science museum. The name may also be familiar to you since it also houses the Beach Volleyball venue for the 2008 Olympics.

 

We really enjoyed the atmosphere and rides at this park. While it doesn't have anything life shattering, it was quite an enjoyable place to spend the afternoon. Now on to the trip report. Enjoy!

Ok I'll close with the picture I know you wanted to see!

This day was the worst air quality I have ever seen anywhere. (It felt like breathing in cigarette smoke!)

The Bird's Nest is 10 times more impressive in person than on TV.

Also since we visited right after leaving, I'll throw in a couple of shots from our first visit to the Bird's Nest and Water Cube area.

I'll close part 1 with a few random shots from Chaoyang Park.

Here is the entrance to the Beach Volleyball ground pre olympics. (Check back later on our Olympic TR for the inside since we were lucky enough to see a few matches there!)

There was literally a team of 10 gardeners in this area working to keep the site looking nice.

The park is fantastic!

With all of the credits out of the way, we decided to explore the park further and check out the Beach Volleyball Olympic venue. (This was a couple of weeks before the Olympics started.)

Another China amusement park staple is the fireman game.

The theming is quite impressive.

Look its Tarzan's Treehouse!

Ok on to the sixth coaster. It is a family coaster that is themed to Tarzan.

Now call me silly, but this gave a great head chopping effect. (And we got to run 7 cycles on it!)

Ok credit whores... back to the coasters.

The lion head was my favorite animal to shoot.

If you guessed no then you are right. It is a powered shooting ride!

Moving on, I have a test. Do you think this is a credit or not?

The First Person Responsibility System is in place here.

The Disk-O is very popular in China. Every park has one!

Along the exit path a gate is left wide open that leads right under the coaster. (You wouldn't see this in the U.S.)

Another view.

Its your standard loop then two corkscrew layout.

Moving on we see the next coaster, which is coincidentally the same purple color as the other two.

Not bad for what it is!

They also have another mouse coaster.

The next coaster was their spinning wild mouse. (Yes this is the same as all of the others!)

Another look.

It basically helixes around the mountain a couple of times. All in all, quite lame!

Ok on to the coasters. The first coaster of the day was the mine train. It is housed in quite the fake looking mountain.

Heck they even have a parachute tower!

We were really surprise to see just how many rides this park had.

The park itself is quite serene much like all Chinese parks.

As you can see from this map the park is enormous and the amusement section takes up about a quarter of it.

Ok now on to the update. The first park "Sun Park" is another park within a park. It is located within Chaoyang Park in Beijing. To enter the public park you pay 5yuan entrance.

Here is the entrance though.

Actually there is a 4th park in BJ. Its called Beijing Amusement Park and unfortunately we didn't go in because they have two coasters and admission was north of $20.

[packfanlv]

Part 2: Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park

 

Beijing Shinjingshan Amusement Park gained fame last year when they were shown using knock off Disney characters. I am happy to report that on our visit there were no characters around, only the Cinderella Castle that sits in the back of the park.

 

As for the park itself, it houses 9 coasters (With a tenth almost ready to open) and all of them are crap! The park also has no unlimited ticket so each ride must be purchased individually. This lead to me paying quite a bit to ride the coasters and nothing else.

 

The park sits on two sides of real train tracks and the front seems to be quite a bit more run down than the back. Also there is a new section of the park in the back that is quite nice, but very cheaply done. It is quite obvious that this park has had a monopoly for some time and they are now trying to compete wit Happy Valley by building these new sections.

 

The other thing that makes this park noteworthy is that it houses a fake Vekoma SLC. That ride was horrible. The first half was so rough and the second half the train meandered slowly through the track. Quite an experience! Anyway I hated this park, but what the heck I picked up 9 credits! Enjoy.

 

(Look for Part 3: Happy Valley Beijing in a couple of days!)

Shawn Reece what do you think?

Ok thats about it. The park really mixes crappy and ok, but mostly crappy. (As seen here and this mountain is brand new!)

Beijing Park #2 and open gate #2

The parks last coaster just basically went in circles.

Before the next coaster its time to take our photo in front of Cinderella's Castle.

Hence the name!

This mouse was quite crazy.

Ok back to the coasters.

Ok this is cool.

This ride was fun though!

The rock master at work.

I snuck into the station to get a peak at the trains.

The parks other new coaster was not yet operating on our visit. It is a suspended coaster that goes through a really fake looking forest.

Whoa!

This mountain also houses a dinosaur themed indoor coaster that is brand new.

Here is an example of the excellent rock work.

The water ride actually looked good, but we didn't ride.

Leaving Dream World we came to the fakest looking rock mountain ever!

And employees that ride standing up.

Heck they even have a water battle.

It is bright and clean and for kids.

Now on to Dream World the new section of the park.

Methinks it is going to be painful!

They also have a looping double corkscrew coaster.

I know at this point you are wondering if they have a spinning coaster too! Well of course they do.

But then you have cheap crap like this. (It is just a screen!)

See parts of the park look really nice.

Yay for coasters that go through apples!

The fourth coaster of the day was Worm Coaster. It was a big version of the kiddie ride at Sun Park!

Hey the park looks really nice here!

The ride is painful and incredibly slow at times.

At times I actually saw the wheels leave the track.

GOD please don't let me die!

Fake SLC seats!

I was really scared to get on this thing!

Double Decker carousel and fake SLC!

Now on to the back section of the park. These "real" train tracks run right through the park.

And Spaceship Earth! The ball housed a ride that sounded like a rip off of Soarin', but we didn't ride it.

Walking further we found more ripoffs from Disney. The American Adventure...

Except that it has top notch theming!

The next coaster was the same mine train from Sun Park.

Here is the other side!

The first coaster we came to was a shuttle loop. (It wasn't that bad!)

But just look around and the truth suddenly becomes apparent!

From here everything looks nice!

After 30 mins at the front trying to figure out if they had an unlimited ticket we finally gave up and headed inside the park.

I introduce to you hell on earth!

[larrygator]

Shawn - thanks for the update. I have added many of your pictures to the TPR Park Index.

 

I'm sure those going to China next week will find this useful and informative.

[OldJJman]

Once again Shawn, great up date!

 

The information you're giving will be very useful when we get into China next weekend. It will probably save lives at some point!

 

I know that Elissa is LOVING the news about all of the parks having the spinning mice! She loves 'em!

 

 

JJ

[dino]

packfanlv wrote: Along the exit path a gate is left wide open that leads right under the coaster. (You wouldn't see this in the U.S.)

Wow, I can't believe that . You could just wander right up to the coaster. I guess people in beijing are just more trustworthy. Great update BTW.

[revilolee]

Wow, just now reading this. Great TR's Shawn. Looks like you're having a blast. Keep up the great work !

[packfanlv]

We have been back home for a bit now and I thought I would try to finish out this thread with a couple of parks not seen on this site before. First off I have what's left of Nairamdal Park in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia which housed Mongolia's only known roller coaster.

 

I first heard about this park in an online blog post while doing research on Mongolia. I then found more information in the Lonely Planet, but ultimately discovered that I made it to Mongolia about a year to late to experience this special place. The Lonely Planet describes Nairamdal Park as Mongolia's version of Disneyland. Even though it is now defunct, judging from what I saw, they were stretching a bit with that description. I hope you enjoy!

and eat some gigantic Mongolian balls. Thanks!

Oh well, at least we got to see throat singers

Just think of all of the fun we could've had.

And found the basis for all of those Disney comparisons.

After a few moments of silence for the defunct coaster that I wasn't ever going to be able to ride, we moved in for a closer look at the ferris wheel.

and then came down closer for another picture while yelling "I conquered Mongolia's only roller coaster!" (Ok maybe not)

I climbed slowly on the rusted out steps to the top of the lift hill.

After looking around for a while I decided to fulfill a coaster geek's fantasy.

It has been partially disassembled.

One scary looking mouse!

As we approached the wheel, what is left of Mongolia's only known roller coaster began to appear.

Sexy!

Why its a very scary looking ferris wheel.

Continuing on, what do I see in the distance?

Ah we have some sort of Chinese themed building. Now I know what they are talking about with the Disney comparisons!

At first glance this just looks like a vacant lot. Its hard to believe Mongolia's version of Disneyland stood here just one year earlier.

We did find an opening in the driveway to a sports complex that is located adjacent to the old park.

Nairamdal Park is located not to far from the shark's fin building. The whole park had a fence around it, with one exception.

But with the fall of communism more interesting buildings have started to appear.

UB is full of old soviet style apartment complexes.

Shawn Reece loved being a millionaire!

1 US Dollar is worth around 1100 Tugriks. Here is a million!

Welcome to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia or as the locals call it, "UB"!

[printersdevil78]

Great stuff, Shawn! Miss the updates on your RTW website, but I can't wait to see your Olympics photos on here!

[dino]

Great update. Love how you "conquered" the coaster .

[packfanlv]

^Thanks for the kind words.

 

I know it sounds crazy, but walking on the rusted out track of a roller coaster was a bit eery.

[packfanlv]

Ok in an effort to finish this thread before I grow old, today I bring you the "lovely" city of Shanghai and Jin Jiang Action Park, which is, for now, the largest amusement park in the city. Of course with Happy Valley under construction and Disneyland rumored, this park could face steep competition in the coming years.

 

With this in mind, they have added some top notch attractions including Joyland. It is a boat journey through several scenes with children from all over the world singing the same song. Just wait until you see the pictures, because I don't want to ruin this marvelous attraction for you. I think Disney Imagineers might be taking a close look at Joyland for future guidance. Anyway, the TR will start with a few images from around Shanghai and then go into the park.

 

If you enjoy these trip reports please feel free to comment. I love to hear what everyone thinks. Thanks in advance!

BTW here is a pic of the entry room of It's A Small World at Tokyo Disneyland as a comparison. I hope you enjoyed!

Oh no the sleeping giant awoke!

Finally its time for the long subway ride back to the hotel.

and another go around on the shuttle loop.

Other than take a quick ride on the crappy Chinese knock off Disk-O

With that done there wasn't much else to do.

And Finally, The Bride's of Chucky Choir!

Hey look I found some old friends.

Ok, I'll keep quiet now and let you continue on with your tour.

What a clever idea, singing children!

Oh well it must be my imagination lets go through the ride.

Hey this loading room looks a little familiar. *cough* Tokyo Disney *cough*

Part of the queue.

Something about this feels familiar. We better go in to investigate.

It turns out to be something called Joyland.

Back to the park now and what do we see. What is that MASSIVE building wrapping around the pukey coaster?

Endless rows of housing blocks.

Here is a nice overview of most of the park. (The weather wasn't great and the smog doesn't help either!)

Next up we decided to go on the big wheel for some aerial views.

With dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually the Karst Cave Coaster is an indoor powered coaster.

But this didn't look like a good sign. Is this what they do when white people ride?

After checking out a few more rides we started to head to the third and final coaster in the park.

A good view of the park from the top.

Yes, you guessed it! Yet another cloned Golden Horse crappy spinning mouse!

Luckily we survived so I could barf in my mouth at the sight of the next coaster.

Yah that's how we roll!

No launch here. It lifts you up one side and then drops you back through.

It was soon going to be our turn to ride.

After watching the train fly through the station

A view of the layout.

To go to the shuttle loop name Roller Coaster.

Ok by now we were ready to ride a coaster so we passed the cleverly named "Flume Ride".

Pretty soon we began to get hungry. For some reason they only had one thing for lunch.

But then the decor began to improve!

Around the entrance things didn't look all to nice.

And it wouldn't be a great park without a ghetto monorail.

Part of the park is made up of cheesy carnival style attractions.

Looking back towards the entrance you can see that this park sits right beside a busy freeway.

Giraffes and the Eiffel Tower. Score!

In true Big Mike style I bring you a park map.

Emphasis on the ACTION!

Ok enough with Shanghai, its time to visit Jin Jiang Action Park.

This is the Expo's mascot. To me he looks like a Tooth.

Instead of Olympic countdown clocks like in the rest of China, Shanghai has decided to put clocks around town to countdown until the start of the 2010 World Expo in the city.

Across the water lies to Oriental Pearl Tower. (Yes it contains a credit and no we didn't ride it!)

And this area along the waterfront is known at The Bund.

This is a bit of the old city.

Before heading to the park, we can explore Shanghai a bit.

The train is sleek and sexy.

During peak times the maglev runs at around 431km/h (268mph), but we were just off peak so it only ran at 301 km/h (190mph). =(

The real reason I was excited to fly into Shanghai was the opportunity to ride in the world's first Maglev train from the airport to the city!

Since we were able to get tickets for dirt cheap, we flew from Wuhan in Central China in lieu of taking the train. Not only did this save us 12 hours, but we got to see our plane's shadow!

[OldJJman]

Of all of the rides they could possibly rip-off... IASW????

 

Damn!! Shawn, was the song just as annoying as the "real" thing??

 

 

Thanks for the Maglev pics! As always, loving your coverage!!

 

 

JJ

[Olsor]

Great stuff, Shawn! How was that Meisho/Senyo shuttle loop? Those rides seem like a hybrid of Schwarzkopf shuttles, Arrow shuttles, and a Vekoma boomerang.

[packfanlv]

Great stuff, Shawn! How was that Meisho/Senyo shuttle loop? Those rides seem like a hybrid of Schwarzkopf shuttles, Arrow shuttles, and a Vekoma boomerang.

 

It was great. Although it has the same layout as the one at Beijing Shijingshan, this one was a lot better. (And not a ripoff!) It was pretty forceful, but not painful in the least. I still think I like Schwarzkopf shuttles the best though!

 

Thanks for the comments. Keep 'em coming!

[packfanlv]

Since I promised to provide a trip report from the Olympics, I figure that it is time to follow through. With other people posting some pictures from their summer trips, I guess it isn't to late for this.

 

We spent a total of 10 days in Beijing during the Olympics and attended seven events during that time. I will break this update down into two or three parts since we did cover a lot while we were there. I hope you enjoy!

 

Part 1 - This part will focus on us arriving back in China from Mongolia, the opening ceremony party we attended at a Beijing park and our first event attended, archery!

More on that next time along with Water Polo, boxing and Shawn Reece's 8th birthday. I hope you enjoyed it so far!

Little did we know that we would get to see six more events in what would become one of the most exhausting stretch of days in our lives.

So we took our time leaving the venue, while making sure to soak up the atmosphere.

It ended up raining for most of the event. Since this was the only event we actually had tickets for, we weren't sure if we would get to see anything else.

It was cool because we watched them set a world record!

They had an entire section of devoted fans.

The best women's archery team in the world is the South Korea team.

Or maybe they were just scared of her.

When the Chinese women came out, the crowd went bonkers.

After a while it started to rain, but they nicely provided us with rain ponchos for free!

And there were plenty of people to cheer them on.

The Japanese beat the Columbians.

This was my first live archery event. It was quite fun!

As was noted on tv, the crowds were light the first few days. Add to it that it was raining on and off and the archery venue was only about half full.

All of the signs and announcing was done in Mandarin, English and French.

And then a ticket check.

Once at the venue we had to go through metal detectors.

Add to it that Chinese people don't like to wait in lines and you had people constantly cutting. Luckily we gave ourselves plenty of time.

We had to take a shuttle to the archery site. This was the line for the shuttle. This was only the second full day of competition and they were still figuring out some things.

Are you ready for the Olympic security hassle?

After the ceremony it was time to actually attend an event. We started our early morning on Day 2 of the festivities with this delicious bread/fried egg thingy that was delicious.

This is just after they lit the torch.

Another view of the crowds.

The energy was truly electrifying and Shawn Reece enjoyed every moment of it!

Thanks ladies for keeping your pits to yourselves!

There's a hidden surprise in this photo. Find it and you won't thank me later!

Of course the crowd loudened as the Chinese athletes made their way out.

Yay!

We represented when the American athletes came out.

Despite the scary images being shown on the screen.....

This guy was just as shocked as we were that the Chinese had pulled off such an incredible show.

Its time for the ceremony to start!

Please don't eat us Chinese People. We love your country.

No your eyes aren't deceiving you. These are real live genuine 100% pure CHINESE PEOPLE! (I know, I couldn't believe it either.)

They had two screens set up and a kazillion people, no a bazillionkillion people showed up. (Ha Ha I made that up!)

Off to the park we go.

Before heading to the opening ceremony party, we practiced for when the American athletes came out.

and a flag on every house.

The atmosphere was electric on opening day. On our walk through one of Beijing's old neighborhoods we saw this...

Are the weapons ready? CHECK!

Tonight the Olympics start in Greyjing!

Finally the day of the opening ceremony has arrived.

One is never far from people while walking the streets of Beijing.

It is also home to a food court in the basement of one of the buildings that has the BEST FOOD EVER! (We almost never saw any westerners down there, despite that fact that there were hundreds above on street level!)

This is Wangfunjing Street. It is home to the famous night market that sells all of those tasty insects and starfish!

This attractive street housed our hotel.

There is something wrong here. I just can't place it.

They literally had displays everywhere in the city.

As the Olympics got closer, these volunteer booths were set up to help confused tourists. One would be lucky to find an Engrish speaker among them.

We encountered these clocks all around China in the lead up to the Olympics.

This is where former chairman Mao, who some say killed more people than Hitler is shown off every day for tourists.

How many soldiers can you spot in this picture?

Security was never more than a step away.

They had several nice displays in the square.

Since we had already been in Beijing to pick up all of the cultural credits, on our first day we decided to head to Tienanmen Square to see how crazy the olympic crowds had become.

Our bus was an overnight sleeper bus. This configuration works good for shorter people, but for me, not so much!

The border town on the Chinese side is Erlian. It is nice enough, but we were anxious to get on the bus for our twelve hour ride to Beijing.

The most colorful border on earth. (Actually we were detained and searched for 30 minutes before being let into China. They even questioned Shawn Reece about whether we were really his parents. They also turned on my computer and searched it for a while to make sure I didn't have any banned materials. SCARY!)

You can't cross from Mongolia to China by foot, so it is necessary to buy a bus ticket for the short hop across the border.

[COOOOLkid]

Fantastic photos! I can't believe the Olympics was already like 5 months ago.

[dino]

Cool update with great pictures (well, maybe not the pit picture).

Please don't eat us Chinese People. We love your country.

LOL, I'm going to start saying that now

[packfanlv]

Olympics in Beijing, China - Part #2

 

Since archery was the only event that we had tickets for, our original plans were to leave Beijing shortly after that. Fortunately for us many of the tickets were not being used and we found that showing up outside of a venue and asking everyone if they had extra tickets usually enabled us to somehow get tickets for the event. We also discovered that as long as he would sit on our lap in the event of there being any empty seats, that Shawn Reece didn't need a ticket!

 

We were truly lucky in finding people to either give us tickets for free or sell them to us for near face value. For the seven events we attended, our total outlay for tickets was only $120! It was truly miraculous. Out of everything that I have done in my life, I have to say the attending the Olympics in China was probably my favorite.

 

Today I will focus on some more Olympic sights around Beijing, our visit to the water polo venue and some "boring" Olympic boxing. Shawn Reece was also lucky enough to celebrate his 8th birthday while we were at the Olympics. What a lucky punk he is!

 

As always keep the comments coming. I really enjoy hearing from everyone. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Next time I will try to finish up this TR with Cuba vs. U.S. baseball, beach volleyball (including bikini dancers), weightlifting and track cycling. I will also show you the Beijing Zoo and more pandas than you will know what to do with. Thanks!

After boxing Shawn Reece wanted to visit the water cube and National Stadium at night to see them all lit up.

Oh yah and Jasmine loved the Mexican wave!

The only time I really enjoyed myself was when the Chinese boxer came out because the arena came to life with cheers.

The way they score boxing in the Olympics sucks IMO.

The boxing tickets were by far the easiest for us to get.

To get to the boxing arena we had to take a bus.

Of course Shawn Reece had to call home via Skype first on our ghetto ten time taped together piece of s**t headphones.

The next morning we woke up and celebrated Shawn Reece's 8th birthday with cake. We also wanted to try to get into boxing.

See what I mean! (Actually this was just a tall black guy who was not an athlete. The Chinese all assumed because he was tall and black that he played basketball and they swarmed him!)

Afterwards we ran into the U.S. men's basketball team at the mall.

We had a great time at the water polo match.

Uh oh. I think she spotted me taking pictures.

GOD I LOVE ZOOM LENSES!

We even decided to break down and sport a Chinese flag for the occasion.

It was a ton of fun watching and cheering for China with the locals.

Towards the end of the U.S. match, the arena started to fill up for the final match between Russia and China.

The Americans were well represented.

We even got to see the U.S. women play.

Enjoying the sights!

Before long we were inside and....

Shawn Reece was excited.

Luckily after spending almost an hour looking and not finding anyone selling water polo tickets, we ran into a Dutch man who gave us two!

On the next day we headed over to the Water Polo arena to try and score some tickets. Here is some of the military equipment nearby.

We also discovered this cool Coca Cola venue in which they had large screens set up to watch the competitions, a huge pin trading tent and Nintendo Wiis!

Since the beach volleyball was held at Sun Park, we decided to ride the fake Tarzan coaster instead. (We had already visited this park previously and gotten all of the credits.)

Our first attempt to get scalped tickets after the archery was at the Beach Volleyball venue. Unfortunately we were not successful, but Shawn Reece did get interviewed for Australian tv.

Temples can be interesting places to visit. Of course when you visit a lot of them, then they all start to look the same!

In between events we took some time to visit some of the lesser known sights in town. This is the Lama Temple (Yonghegong)

More floral displays.

We visited the National Stadium site a few times, but this was the first time we actually got to see the flame.

This is a bad picture, but you can see that that the balconies were covered in the flags of the countries occupying them.

All of the signs are in Mandarin, English and French.

This is the entrance to the Olympic Village. It was fun to stand outside and see all of the athletes coming and going. The buildings in the background are the apartments for the athletes.

Each sport had its own little drawing. These were used on the tickets, at the venues and on all of the signs.

And even far away from the venues we could find a guard on every corner.

Pictures of Chinese athletes were found everywhere around the city.

[packfanlv]

The atmosphere in Beijing during the Olympics was amazing. For us it was a non stop combination of getting tickets, attending events and filling our extra time with sightseeing around Beijing.

 

In this final part I will show you pictures from our last four events attended at the Olympics as well as the world famous Beijing Zoo. One of the most amazing things we were able to experience was the Cuba vs. U.S. baseball game. We ended up getting free tickets from an American lady walking by outside and were sitting right next to one of the two Cuban cheering sections. All I can say is, Cubans can be loud and annoying, but we had a ton of fun.

 

The other three events covered in this report are Beach Volleyball, weightlifting and track cycling. Each venue and event had its good and bad parts, but we had a ton of fun at each. Of course, beach volleyball was probably my favorite event out of the seven that we attended.

 

Ok, time to start the report. Any comments you have will be appreciated. I hope you enjoy!

But we had the time of our lives! I hope you enjoyed this trip report from our time at the Olympics. I always enjoy hearing your comments!

The food available at the concession stands, not so much!

Seriously though, the atmosphere was fantastic!

"Shawn stop looking behind me and take the damn picture!"

This was really a lot of fun and we got to see the American men kick butt!

Ok back to the action.

"Dad stop taking zoomed it pictures of those women in bikinis so you can post them on TPR. It is a little embarassing!"

Oh and the Olympic mascots were there as well.

and while they cut to tv commercials we were entertained by these ladies.

The action was amazing.

Ok I'll finish off this TR with Beach Volleyball which was my favorite sport from the Olympics.

We were only able to get one ticket, so Shawn Reece and I went alone. For some reason all of my other photos are no where to be found so this is it. We got to see two medal ceremonies and a world record so it was neat!

I am going to skip Beach Volleyball for the moment and talk about our last event attended Track Cycling. This event was held in that wierd spaceship looking building in the background. For those on the TPR China Trip, you might have seen it since it sits right next to Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park.

As the Olympics drew on the Chinese government began to crack down on scalpers and it became much more difficult to get tickets.

Here is a final look at the venue.

As the competition wore on, the men started getting heavier and before I knew it they were lifting over 600 lbs.

All I can say about weightlifting is that these dudes are strong.

A few minutes later we managed to get another ticket and we were finally on our way. Shawn Reece was pumped up!

Finally this Spanish Judo athlete shows up and gives Jasmine an extra ticket while she drools all over the floor. No, I wasn't jealous at all. Come on!

So we show up at the weightlifting venue and spend almost an hour trying to get tickets.

Ok on to weightlifting. Jasmine looks ready to go!!

For its one two three strikes your out at the old ball game! (The U.S. lost in the 11th inning because of a new rule that you start each extra inning after the 10th with runners on 1st and 2nd.)

If they invade its a shame.

For its root root root for the commies.

I don't care if I ever get back.

Buy me some pig snout and noodles.

The whole game us Americans tried to out do the Cubans, but they are some f****en crazy people.

Just behind the baseball fields was the building that housed the basketball competitions. It was designed to look like wheat. (Oh those clever Chinese architects!)

Someone gave us these cool American flags sticky things and we did our best to represent them.

Insert mob of loud and crazy Cubans here.

It's time to head through the ticket gates.

Ok enough with the zoo. Its time to head out to the old ball field. Thank you kind Northern California yuppy woman who's son is on the men's U.S. water polo team for the tickets!

The other cool thing about this zoo was the speed boat rides. We didn't have time to take one, but they looked pretty fun.

The Beijing Zoo has the second largest collection of Pandas in the world, behind the Panda Observatory in Chengdu. The Pandas appear to be taken care of pretty well.

As you can see they have a lot of Pandas.

It was the Panda collections we were most interested in seeing.

Including saggy camels.

While the zoo had a good selection of animals that you might find just about everywhere....

They even had a few children's rides. (Hey, this TR had to earn its place on this board!)

The zoo is just outside the Second Ring Rd. (which defines the old city) and is quite spacious and green.

Today we'll start off with the Beijing Zoo.

[sugart]

That was awesome. I thought that the tickets to the venues would be a little harder to get than that or that they would cost an absine amount of money. Did you try to get into any swimming events and see Phelps, or was that worthless to try