Shawn's Worldwide Adventures! PTRs From My Travels

[packfanlv]

Mechanic, RCFreak, arrowfanman & jew thank you for the nice comments. I really enjoy doing this thread tremendously and hearing from you makes it that much better!

 

Team Thriller - Most of the shows are in Cantonese, Mandarin & English. For example Turtle Talk With Crush and Stitch Encounter which are interactive CG shows are done at different times in all three languages. At the front of those attractions they have a sign with the show times in each languages.

 

Other shows do it differently. The Golden Mickeys is in Cantonese with two screens on either side, one in English and one in Mandarin. The Festival of the Lion King is narrated by Rafiki in English, but he speaks to two monkeys who relay what he is saying in Cantonese. It is rather brilliant.

 

The other spot in the park where this comes in is the Jungle Cruise. Just like with TTWC and SE they have three lines here with one each for English, Cantonese and Mandarin. We found that the jokes don't transfer well in English, since it is usually the skippers second or third language.

 

As for the signs, I believe they are in all three languages, but am sure that they are at least in English and Cantonese. Everything is very English friendly and most of the staff also speaks some English so there shouldn't be any problems.

 

PoisonedPirate - The Muppet Mobile Lab was cool, but they were only doing it in Cantonese, so we couldn't understand anything. As for Crush, the show is with a screen that has crush on it. He interacts in real time with the audience. During the show he has a few kids ask him questions. My son was picked.

 

HKDL is actually cheaper than other Disney parks. While the food may be about the same, admission is around $40 USD which isn't too bad. The two hotels on property aren't cheap, so I would suggest staying in Kowloon where you can catch the subway out to the DLR. This is what we did.

 

As for Ocean Park, they now have a small ferris wheel, but the wheel in the drawing looks to be much bigger and will be in that area on the top of the mountain that is still under construction. I agree the view will be fantastic.

 

Thanks again everyone!

[packfanlv]

Happy Valley Shenzhen is the first of what the OCT company hopes will be a theme park franchise similar to Six Flags or Cedar Fair. Currently there are only two Happy Valleys (Shenzhen & Beijing), but two more are under construction. (Shanghai & Chengdu)

 

Happy Valley is known for having great theming and this park doesn't disappoint in that department. My only complaint is that they list there hours as 10:30am to 10pm, but stagger their ride openings. When we entered the park at 11am, in addition to the four coasters, they only had kiddie rides open, leaving each of the three adult coasters with a 1-2 hour line. They didn't open up the adult flats until around 2pm, at which time the lines became much more reasonable.

 

For those that don't know, Shenzhen is a booming city just inside Mainland China bordering Hong Kong. In the past 30 years the city has grown from a small fishing town to one of the largest and richest cities in China. With that said, Shenzhen really isn't anything special and the only thing we found of interest in the city was the theme park. (BTW it was really hot and sunny when we visited so some of the pictures are a bit overexposed.) Enjoy!

Thanks Happy Valley for some "Happy Times" (Operations sucked but the park is a lot fun!)

Every park in China has a double decker carousel where the top section is closed.

Random scenery.

Ok I just can't resist adding one more picture of the mine train coaster. (Following will be a few random pictures.)

Another look at the boardwalk.

But this "Float Around the Area On This Round Boat in a Pointless Way" ride was boring.

The frisbee was fun.

Back to the uninspired boardwalk section of the park.

Sorry Rapids Nerd. They were closed on this day.

At this point we were tiring so we headed back to the front for a few more rides before calling it a day.

The ride itself isn't too rough. (Although I have learned how to hold my head out as to not bang it during an SLC experience)

The headrests are extra cushy!

I believe it is themed as being in a temple.

Next on to the SLC.

Almost as good as Thunder Mountain!

Its amazing that the whole thing is held up with bamboo!

The theming is fantastic.

I believe this is the same layout as the new mine train at Hard Rock park.

The lines had died down at the mine train.

Ok at this point we had seen a lot of park without being on a major coaster. It was time for this to change.

An amazing ride actually.

Shawn Reece went poncholess and got soaked. Jasmine and I sat it out.

The last ride in this area is the nicest themed splash battle I have ever seen.

The Magic Castle also has a Santa/North Pole themed shooting dark ride that really sucked.

My main complaint about these rides is that they over brake them. This design has six separate spots where the car hits brakes. BOOOOOOOO!

Lift hill.

Two cars at once.

Next up is Wild Elfin. Yes this is just the same Golden Horse spinning wild mouse that is in every other Chinese park. Get used to seeing this ride quite often in upcoming parks.

For a kiddie coaster it was a lot of fun!

Credit whoring POV.

It is actually a well themed figure 8.

RCDB only had the new Spinning Mouse coaster listed in this area, but when we arrived we found a bonus opportunity. They also built a "family coaster" that we didn't know about. YAY for Baby Coaster!

It is really well done.

The area also has a cool underground ball battle area.

"Lets get out of here mom before those girls give me a kiss!"

Same (They were really friendly.)

"Hello, hello ...... hello ...... You speak Chinese? Hello ..... *giggle giggle* Hello .... Where you from? *giggle* America? *giggle giggle giggle* Hello!"

Magic Castle is the newest area of the park. It seems to be themed around the mascot seen in the picture. The children here loved saying "HELLO" to us and generally harassing us. They don't see too many foreigners in theme parks.

The train had weird hours as well and looked to be a premium attraction so we missed this train credit. =(

Yay for theming!

I've been working on the railroad.......

This was like that audio show with Drew Carey at Disney's Hollywood Studios only good!

We took another quick peak at the mine train but the line was still over an hour. Did I mention they were only running one train all day on both of the major coasters!

The picture sucks but the theming was nice.

America 1 - China 0

Then the team firefighter game. We are now 2-0 after our victory at Legoland a couple of years ago.

Next up stay on this spinning wheel as long as you can and please don't throw up.

"Dad please don't make me take another goofy photo so you can show it off on TPR!"

But the line was to long so we headed to this self powered ride.

Oh yah that's it! Give it to me baby.

Chinese coaster nerds waiting for the train to take a picture.

We soon came to the other major coaster in the park. RCDB has a different name, but the English sign said "Suspended Looping Coaster". (Guess what kind of coaster it is!)

Yay for Frog Hopper!

Past the splash boats we come to a sandy beach area with a playground and a couple of kiddie rides.

The ride itself goes through about five minutes of abandoned fishing town scenery before the climb. Well themed, but quite boring.

The poncho just wasn't made for the stress of my oversized American body and had several holes by the time we dropped. In essence, I still got quite soaked.

Jasmine and SR didn't want to go so I went solo. Of course I bought a poncho, but it didn't work too well.

As you can see the ride is very wet!

With the temperature around 104F or 40C I decided it might be fun to ride the splash boats.

Chinese people and mining for gold = a good show

But this was the line we found so we decided to leave it for later in the day.

Next we headed for the Mine Train coaster to get our first credit of the day.

It does have a pretty cool looking Master Blaster slide though!

The water park is included in the price, but it to did not open until later.

Nice landscaping.

This is the crappiest 4D film I have ever seen. Basically it is Christopher Lloyd running around a lighthouse in a storm and dubbed into Chinese. We only lasted five minutes before walking out.

Our hotel was part of the OCT area and overlooked the park. (Our room was on the other side of the hotel so we didn't face into the park) =-(

The front of the park is themed as a boardwalk with a lot of flats including a Disk-O. This area didn't open til around 2pm.

The park entrance really isn't anything special.

After crossing the border a twenty minute subway ride brings you to the station where Happy Valley is. Emerging to the surface you can't miss this sign!

The Hong Kong metro runs all the way to the Chinese border at Shenzhen.

[AlmereStars]

wow that park has some serious theming!! the splash and minecoaster looks really awesome!

[OldJJman]

Great pics!

 

Love the wheel of death!!

 

Thanks for the info about the lines, as I believe we are going there on the TPR trip in September!!

 

JJ

[packfanlv]

^Thanks JJ. Yes I do believe you will visit this park on the trip. I can't wait to see pictures of all the TPR antics in these Chinese parks. When you visit it will be during school holidays I believe, so maybe they will operate all of the rides all day. We visited during a weekday when school was in, but there were so many school groups and youth groups that the park was pretty packed. We are heading to Beijing in two days and I can't wait to see the Happy Valley there. It looks even better!

[Tikifire]

Thanks for all the great trip reports. I'm really enjoying reading them.

 

Something I noticed in your HKDL photos and in other photos I've seen of the park is all the mountains around it. That's really strange to me as I've been to DL twice and to WDW more times than I can count and seeing mountains behind familiar sights is a bit of a weirdness.

[SteveC]

Enjoying your report Shawn; I think I spy a TPR takeover of a certain flat ride (just posted) on the China trip, for sure!

 

Also like your blog- and especially the maps, I guess I'm a map nerd

[PoisonedPirate]

That waterpark looks totally awesome! Was that leafy/green/moss covered ride in the background a log flume? Or was it part of something else?

 

The theming in that park is amazing, especially the mine train one. I am really impressed because my expectations of a place in the middle of nowhere would be quite low.

 

Why do they stagger the times? Is it for cost effectivness or something?

[larrygator]

Thanks for the pictures and insight. I am in the process of adding Happy Valley Shenzhen to TPR's Park Index page.

[packfanlv]

Tikifire- Yes HKDL has an awesome location and the mountains add some atmosphere. The park feels so much like Disneyland in California, (minus a few key rides) but with a completely different setting. I didn't have high hopes for HKDL (given the lack of rides and lackluster reviews), but it was a pleasant surprise. I LOVED HKDL! I can't say that enough!

 

PoisonedPirate - I believe that is the Master Blaster water coaster that you are seeing. It is located in the water park section. Also, Shenzhen is a city of almost 5 million people and it sits right next to Hong Kong with millions more, so it is hardly in the middle of nowhere, but I agree the theming is quite impressive.

 

Larry - Thanks! There are a lot more Chinese parks coming in this thread and at least a couple that TPR isn't visiting on the upcoming trip.

[dino]

What's up with park operations (staggered opening's, running single trains)? Seems to be a theme with asian theme parks (sans Disney). Anyway beautiful theming, and I love that pick axe entrance, very cool.

[wierdo135]

Wow great pictures of the indoor mall! That coaster looks great! Was there a long line to ride it

 

 

Read his beginning description. It says that the park was dead. I do believe that would mean no...

[PoisonedPirate]

^ I don't really understand coasters/rides inside a mall - I mean you go to a mall to shop and people who shop a lot in malls are women and they don't traditionally go on coasters, they would rather shop lol! If you're doing a big girly shop you don't take your kids so I don't see where the audience is... maybe thats why they are always empty?

 

Obviously kids go on them but that would only be the weekend - are these mall rides cost effective? Am I missing a huge point here?

[packfanlv]

I just got back from 8 days of riding camels and staying with nomadic families in the Mongolian countryside. (Fantastic BTW!) I apologize for the lack of recent updates. Today I bring to you three small parks in Southern China.

 

Park #1: Honey Lake Amusement Park located in Shenzhen, China is home to two coasters. One of the two coasters (The one over the lake) has been known to be SBNO for several years, but for some strange reason the second coaster was also not operating both of the times we visited. Because of this I didn't bother to pay admission to enter the park.

 

Park #2: Donghu Park in Shenzhen, China is a small amusement park located within a green area that houses the cities large reservoir. In addition to several flats and two coasters, a few minutes away from the amusement section is an alpine slide. On the day I visited, the kiddie coaster was not operating and the employee told me it had been broken for a long time.

 

Park #3: Jing Ying Amusement Park in Guangzhou, China is a place I stumbled upon on accident. It is located in a very famous park in the city and wasn't even listed on RCDB until I submitted it. Since we didn't know it existed, we visited on a rainy day and I wasn't able to ride it because of the weather.

 

So to recap, I will show you five coasters in this update, but I was only able to ride one of them and it was a crappy Golden Horse rip off spinning mouse!

 

The next update will be from Chimelong Paradise in Guangzhou, China. Thanks for the great comments! Keep 'em coming!

But the whole area is quite beautiful! I hope you enjoyed the update.

and others need work

Some were nice

When leaving the park we stumbled upon a few hiking trails that had animal figurines along them.

This track is for a self powered monorail type ride. These are also very popular in Chinese theme parks.

None of the rides were operating due to weather.

Just like Donghu, this park is really nice and well maintained, but small.

Unfortunately the coaster wasn't operating because of the rain. (No matter how hard I tried to convince them to let me ride!)

The park's one coaster is a mouse called Speed Slide.

Next up we have Jing Ying Amusement Park which is located in a beautiful large public park in Guangzhou.

But it was still a lot of fun!

The only thing that stunk was they had the employee ride down in front of me so I couldn't get very fast.

Its a long way to the top!

Take me up!

They also had a roller skating rink, but I couldn't wait to get to the alpine slide.

To get a better look we hopped on the ferris wheel.

While the park is really small and didn't have much to contain us, it was clean and pretty well maintained.

The other coaster in the park is a junior dragon coaster. As you can see it was broken and the car was sitting in the middle of the track.

Sexy.......NOT!

Oh yes and they have the exact same rip off spinning wild mouse as all of the others. Oh joy!

But we finally did find it along with this Chinese Amusement Park staple ride.

Next up we have Donghu Park. The park itself is large, but the amusement section is quite small. We thought this was it originally, but it turned out to be a wacked out zoo.

And from across the street.

You can see it from the very drab park entrance.

This is the coaster that is supposed to be operating. It is a pretty standard coaster with two loops.

Here is a park map. For some reason I didn't get a picture of the SBNO coaster over the water, but there is another thread on TPR with it if you are really interested.

Actually this is the real park name, but for some reason all of the coaster sites have adopted the other, so pick your favorite.

The first stop on our tour is Honey Lake Amusement Park. It is located about ten minutes by foot from the subway in Shenzhen.

[Big Mike]

That was really cool to read Shawn!!

 

I am always afraid that I travel somewhere and there is a coaster not listed either, then I find out and say I was just there and missed it lol.

 

I enjoyed reading this!

 

 

Peace, Big Mike

[OldJJman]

Shawn,

 

Thanks for the continued updates! I find your travels quite amazing!

 

Under one of your pictures you wrote:

 

"Unfortunately the coaster wasn't operating because of the rain. (No matter how hard I tried to convince them to let me ride!)"

 

I'm assuming that you don't speak Chinese. (I could be wrong!) Do many of the Chinese people you've encountered speak English? Or do you end up making begging gestures like I probably would (only to still be denied)?

 

 

JJ

[packfanlv]

Big Mike: Thanks for gracing my thread with your holy presence. Seriously though, after visiting these parks and being disappointed, my wife put a new rule that we couldn't visit any other parks in China that had less than three coasters. So far I have followed the rule, because it takes so much time and energy to get to some of these smaller places when you are traveling independently.

 

JJ: English in China is very rare. In fact, the few people who know anything speak just a few words usually. For the most part we use hand signals and rely on pictures and getting things written down ahead of time, but the Chinese are also very poor at non verbal communication as well. I guess after traveling for as long as we have, you learn to adjust and the situation of not being able to communicate is less stressful.

 

As for in that specific circumstance with the coaster, another employee was trying to help me convince the ride op to run the coaster but failed. All I did was show enthusiasm and say please with my hands, but the ride op just smiled and shook his head. It was raining hard and we were literally the only ones in the park, so I think they just chalked me up to being crazy!

 

Thanks for the great comments guys!

[gisco]

Very nice seeing these pictures. Your giving us a preview of the TPR trip next month. Thanks.

[packfanlv]

Chimelong Paradise is located in Guangzhou, China which sits about an hour north of Hong Kong. The park itself is perhaps China's best example of a typical western style amusement park. It opened in 2006 with five coasters and recently added a B&M dive machine.

 

While Chimelong Paradise has a small amount of theming, it doesn't go over the top like Happy Valley. What the park does do is provide a lot of rides and a nice pleasant atmosphere in which to enjoy them. They do have staggered ride operating hours which I don't like, but have so many rides that the lines hardly ever get out of hand.

 

With all of that said Chimelong Paradise is by far my favorite theme park in mainland China and only second to Hong Kong Disneyland to the parks I have shown in this thread. In short, it rocks! Enjoy the trip report.

 

P.S. The day we visited was very grey, so some of the pictures didn't turn out well. I hope you enjoy the rather large update.

Alright then. I think that is it. Anyone who is going to Southern China needs to go to Chimelong Paradise.

Now I leave you with a few random shots of Chimelong Paradise!

What can I say? I liked it!

The show has jetskis, boats, hovercrafts, submarines and more. It is high budget and high energy!

I spy a credit!

But there big show is a rip off of Water World at Universal Studios. (Only better!)

and this. Also a lot of fun!

They also had a second show that we stumbled upon on accident. It had aerobics.

The whole thing was a lot of fun and the Chinese seemed to eat it up!

And here are the Canadians!?!? They don't look like Canadians to me.

It was USA vs. Canada. This is the USA team.

Before closing I have to talk about Chimelong's shows. We saw three and they were all very good. The first one was a lumberjack show.

They wouldn't let Shawn Reece do the sub ride by himself so I brought an umbrella.

This frisbee was top notch. It is the best one I have been on!

Here are a few more rides.

Jasmine was glad to see Mexico was represented.

Chimelong also has plenty of rides that go in circles.

Unfortunately with horrible height requirements, Shawn Reece was stuck on kiddie rides for most of the day.

Like I said pleasant but not overdone.

They also have the Chinese staple fire truck team work ride.

The park has a ton of kiddie rides.

Ok now its time to see some more of the park.

Here is a picture of the bikes if you have never seen this type of coaster before!

This ride actually has a little speed and is a good family ride. (Of course with the 1.3m height requirements families really can't ride it!)

This Vekoma motorbike is much much much better than the Intamin version I rode at Dreamworld in Australia.

The park's last coaster is named Motorbike Coaster.

They also have one of those horrible Golden Horse spinning mouse coasters. One picture is enough!

And they play this interview with Walter Bolliger in the queue for all you nerds out there!

The Chinese girls just love it!

Well if kiddie coasters aren't your thing then they also have an Intamin Halfpipe!

Not bad for a kiddie ride.

After 10 inversion we headed to the only coaster in the park we could handle.

Not my favorite coaster.

Just to give you an idea of how intense this ride is, here is a sign directly outside of the exit. (And plenty of people were using this area)

This is before my first ride. (Jasmine wouldn't go back on it!)

The coaster does five heartline rolls which IMO is too much!

As its name implies the coaster goes upside down ten times. It is a clone of Colossus at Thorpe Park.

The park's other major coasters is aptly named the 10 Inversion Coaster.

Ok last picture of Dive Coaster. IMO the ride was fun but not life altering. I had high hopes with this being my first dive machine, but left a bit disappointed.

Did I say splashdown?

The second drop goes into a tunnel before emerging and making a turnaround into the splashdown.

Going through the Immelmann.

And now for some random photos of the ride in action.

Here is a look at the train.

Just inside the queue.

Oh here it is! I couldn't have said it any better myself!

Where is the entrance? Oh that way!

This was my first dive machine experience and I was excited!

The brand new "Dive Coaster" as it is called really dominates the back of the park. Here is the turn around into the splashdown.

Chimelong back entrance. Shawn Reece is excited until I tell him that he can't ride the dive machine! =-(

The subway stop actually brings you to the back entrance of the park. (Where the dive machine is located!) This proved to be quite beneficial.

This advertisement in the subway gets me excited for the day.

Chimelong Paradise is part of a large tourist resort that is conveniently located off of the Guangzhou Metro.

[dino]

Nice update. Chimelong Paradise seems like a cool park with a nice selection of rides. Even the shows seemed like they were really good. Oh and I liked the shot of you with the umbrella, had me laughing .

[Gutterflower]

Hey.

Lovely pictures once again and thanks for turning us all green with envy.

 

Any sign of the Mack Water coaster that is supposed to be built at Chimelong this/next year?

[Jew]

That WaterWorld rip-off looks awesome. Looks like they took the best of Miami Vice (the hovercraft and mine car track) and WaterWorld! Keep up the great updates!

[packfanlv]

^No there was no sign of construction on the Water Coaster. In China they tend to open rides early in the year to coincide with the Chinese New Year so it is possible that this ride will go in early next year. Perhaps things will be different when TPR visits there on the trip in a month.

 

When I was there I talked with Duane at RCDB and he said that he got his information on the new coaster(s) from Mack, so perhaps the park backed out on the deal or postponed it. They do have a lot of room for expansion though. If they add a couple of other great rides I can see this being the premier park in all of China. (Besides Disney of course!)

 

Thanks everyone for the great comments!

[Mechanic]

While that park may lack some theming, it still looks very nice in your pictures due to all the trees and plants. I'm sorry your son wasn't able to ride as much as he would have liked to. It did still look like you were all having a good time though. I always look forward to checking in on your updates and, as usual, this one didn't disappoint. Thanks for sharing.

[superman2]

Shawn!

 

Great report.

 

just a quick question what is the name of the park Jing Ying Amusement Park is in?

 

Also what is the nearest metro station to it if known?

 

Thanks