TheRapidsNerd Posted September 5, 2008 Share Posted September 5, 2008 Hey man, I'm enjoying this so thanks once again. China is a remarkable place I should definately visit some time. Oh, and one other thing... At a quick glance, it first looked like the sign said "Deadly World". Yes, double take ensued followed by cool point loss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 6, 2008 Author Share Posted September 6, 2008 Time to move on to more of Day 2. The cultural aspect. We left the park and headed for lunch... Who am I kidding? I hope you enjoy the pics. This is one of the many guard towers on the wall of the Forbidden city. More pics soon. You can see the Beijing Tower from here, about 2 blocks from our hotel. And yes, it has a moat all the way around it. YAY!! Finally made it out of the Forbidden City! The Emperor's own private lookout tower. The exit! NO! Just a passage way to the Emperor's private gardens. Pretty cool roof details. Yet another throne. Steve, if you want to look like a statue, lose the shades and nametag! The carved walkway was pretty cool. Finally, the exit! NOT! Just a transition to the outer guard areas. and the next. Next building. Throne for this building. Loking back in the current courtyard at a guard gate. I really loved the detail in the roofs. At least it was Robb approved! More gawdiness! Random incense pot. for the Emperor, the Dragon. Symbol for the Empress, the Phoenix... Another long a$$ courtyard! I mean - C'mon. TWO, 15 ft. plasmas?? Get real! This guy knew how to live! Even the Empress was her own loyal servants! Throughout the length of the Forbidden City was some very ornate stone carvings. No one was allowed to walk on them, not even the Emperor. His chair was carried over the stone, by servants who walked off to the sides. One of the many temples/throne rooms that were here. Each one had a specific purpose. Each of the various courtyards were huge! This one featured fancy stone bridges over a stream thru the middle. This is the entrance to the part of the Forbidden city inhabited by the Emperor and other heirarchy. The next few pics show the "outer court where the barracks for the soldiers were, along with other symbolic buildings. Me 'n Mao. Just chillin'. The entrance to the "Forbidden City" was across the street. There were literally 100's of workers changing the floral displays from the Olympics, to the Paralympics. That's a monument to fallen soldiers. We looked everywhere, but found NO tank parking! Those are the major Gov't buildings for all of China. Atsa rotsa bricks! We had to take a walkway under the street AND go thru a security checkpoint to get in. This is some sort of old, fancy entrance to the square (which btw, can hold over 1 million people). Our driver dropped us off about a block from Tien'anmen Square. Right across the street was the Beijing Railway Museum. Our lunch stop happened to be right next to a police equipment store. Naturally, Rich had to check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy T. Koepp Posted September 6, 2008 Share Posted September 6, 2008 I can't see the last set of pictures. Is the site acting up again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheStig Posted September 6, 2008 Share Posted September 6, 2008 I can't see them either, bummer! Nice report so far Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Forbidden City is just jaw dropping...and huge! Did anyone say what each building and throne were used for and why? Seems like a lot of excercise for the carriers, hiking from throne to throne with the emperor. Really fascinating. Yep, the second round of pics isn't showing just yet. Minor hiccup perhaps. Regardless, very cool to see what all is up. Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 7, 2008 Author Share Posted September 7, 2008 OK - So my last post had pics that never showed up. We're now Hong Kong, and I'll try to get the Day 2 pics finished up (hopefully with the same stupid captions). Enjoy! Another shot of the Beijing Tower to finish off this report for Day 2. Hopefully, I'll get more done soon. JJ They then served us dinner at the silk factory. Showing that he is a true "New Englander", Rich displays his taste in rare exotic foods. Because TPR is rated "PG-13" I can't show any more pics, (Sorry Guy!) but you get the idea. To increase our appitite for things made of silk, they gave us a private fashion show... .. string it up to be unrolled..yadda...yadda... (45minutes of sales pitch goes by) and you get ... silk stuff. Oh joy! Basically, you take a cocoon, soak it in water... Our last stop for Day 2 was a Gov't owned silk factory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy T. Koepp Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Your killing me! You can't tell a story of that magnatude with out a pay off Jeff! Damn it! I want my happy ending! I better get those "other" pictures sent to my email address! Guy "I am a man with needs!" Koepp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRapidsNerd Posted September 7, 2008 Share Posted September 7, 2008 ^ Thanks for reposting Jeff, as I 'm also a fan of Chinese dresses on ladies. (Beautiful!) Rich and his fries are a hoot. Gotten a good laugh out of those pics. Well, you adapt and do the best you can when the menu isn't very appealing. Know that all too well. Most entertaining! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 Day 3 Had us hitting Beijing Amusement Park and Sun Park. Like almost all days on this trip, it was clear (NOT smoggy) hot and very humid! If you've read this far, I'm impressed. Pics below. Please enjoy! Heading back to the other coaster. They must have finished changing that wheel assembly by now! More later. Understood! I'm now having a sudden desire to get off!! Elissa's face says it all! OK. I could be wrong! Looks harmless enough. High Altitude Roll Slider. Yeah. OK. Figures. The Jew already has a franchise here in Beijing. What's the porpise of this tilt-a-whirl? Transformers: The Ride So we headed to the back of the park for their other coaster. Um.... words escape me. First up: The Super Speed Cool-Cool Bear coaster! Not!! They were too busy changing a wheel assembly. (Seriously!) Typical "Do Not" sign. This one features "No spear fishing, Ice skating or Volvos" Spectacular billboard. Why? I have NO idea. Descent sized ferris wheel (w/o AC!) In case you have a short memory, we're at Beijing Amusement Park Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 More from Beijing Amusement Park. Spinny boat ride, that went around the outside of the garden. I don't think the Chinese have the same concept as the Europeans. Pics from Beijing Sun Park soon. Log Flume. Not exactly sure what kind of ride this was. never saw it run. It's not a swinging ship, as it's only half of the ship and semi-circular. Fancy bridge to nowhere. Some monorail pics for Scott. "Go-Kark" Top Scan and Disk-o, from the ferris wheel. Both beautifully set along Malaria lake. They also had a nicely themed frisbee. A really cool triple deck carousel. The top two levels are the ride, and they go in opposite directions. I wish we could actually verify this! Elissa managed to drag Frank (our tour guide) on to the coaster. First train of crash test dummies. After a little hesitation (afterall,they did just replace a wheel assembly) we rode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 Jeff, thanks for taking the time to post all these. I LOVE the pics of the Forbidden City. That's easily one of the places near the top of my list of things I'd love to visit. Simply amazing stuff. After looking at it, and considering how hot is was, I'm guessing that monorail must have felt like a microwave on a track! I'm still laughing at this sign! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 Our second park this day would be Sun Park in Beijing. Sun Park was the venue of the Olympic beach volleyball events. Although the park was nice, and fairly clean, I can only imagine how busy and/or packed it was only a couple of weeks before. It was pretty dead, but all the rides were operating. We even stumbled across a bonus credit in the park, that has since been added to RCDB. Please enjoy! It really was quite ghetto, but it did have themeing. (Are you listening HRP?) More pics shortly. Noticw how the real "credit whores" got there first?? (George, Jeff and Ginny) Rich's long lost distant Chinese relative was looking out for us. Next up was the wacked out mine train. Reverse lift hill shot. However, our test dummies concluded that Elissa would certainly "NOT" approved, as it didn't spin worth a damn. That's more like it! A real "Elissa Approved" ride! Oh well. At least Rich approves. Yup. Your basic mouse. It appears that we have come across another "Elissa approved" ride. It may look clean and pretty, it may look like a "bouncy-bouncy" but compared to the "Bouncy-Bouncy" at Zaragoza, all others at just flat rides. That's Callum and Natasha behind me. They're cool. Lift hill shot. It "looked" really nice and clean. First up, the aptly named: "Roller Coaster" The Brave Turntable (aka: enterprise) Yes, that is a ladybug restroom. Bungee tower in the background. More "Do Not's" The name of the park for those that can read Mandarin. It was actually quite large. Nice looking entrance plaza. The first thing we saw: Blood donors station. Don't know if it was voluntary or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 More pics from Sun Park. I'll end Day 3 with this pic of an odd looking fly/bug/whatever that the doorman at the Marriott pointed out to us. I don't know if I'll get to do more updates before next week (9/17) as we leave for Korea this evening, and then Tokyo. Internet access can be a bit sketchy, so we'll see. Hope you enjoyed the pics so far. JJ Though nit was quite a nice area, I still wish we could've gone up inside. BUT, the damn thing had been closed since BEFORE the Olympics. WTF was someone thinking when doing the planning for this city? Oh well. It was pretty cool looking! To close out this day, Officer rich and I took the daring walk (these people drive quite insanely) to the Beijing Tower. Robb in his glory days. The Olympic Beach Volleyball venue. A good look at "Fruit Worm" They even had a parachute drop (which I somehow managed NOT to get a picture of) and in the red/white dome is the bonus credit that no one knew existed! Yeehaw!!! Callum and Chris defy death in Malaria lake by trying the water zorbs. Ftog Hoppet A truly "sad and pathetic" moment! Worm hole POV. The big hit today was the "Fruit Worm" coaster!! Nice double decker carousel. Complete with "George of the Jungle" being held at gunpoint. Jungle Mouse wasn't really mouse, but a Chinese roller skater type rip-off. Disk-O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheStig Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Even though you ruined my mail, I'm really enjoying these updates. These Chinese parks are really interesting to me, even if they don't look like it! Have fun on the rest of the trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 22, 2008 Author Share Posted September 22, 2008 Time for an update. Day 4: Happy Valley Beijing Here it comes. Highly resourceful insight showing that I am not annoying. You OTOH, usually read enough hogwash anyway. Who’s thinking "shut up and post pictures"? Ok. I will. I took a ton here as *I* thought the park was very well themed, and quite pleasant to look at. Though, operations were absolutely HORRIBLE! Oh well, you probably haven't read this far anyway. Enjoy the pics. JJ More to come soon. (I have a LOT of pics of this park!) An upper eating area for the restaurant below. It's a complete rip-off of "A Bug's Life" As we walked clockwise around the park, our nest area was "Antland", complete with the Ant Palace. It really looks awesome! First glimpse of the centerpiece of the park, the B&M flyer: Crystal Wings. First thing to greet us in the front gate? A bug. A green bug. Oh joy. Ticket windows in front of the entrance. Here's a map for those who don't have a paper one to follow along with. MILES! STEVE! NO DAMNIT! It's to damn early to start drinking! The Yanjing beer, beeramid. Kinda DCA-ish, huh? We have arrived! My first train sighting in China! I believe that this building (when completed) will house the national TV broadcasting offices. I found Beijing to be a very pretty and unique city. That's just early morning fog you see. On the road again. Good morning, Mr. Mao. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HerBlackWings Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 :::sits unblinking::: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 22, 2008 Author Share Posted September 22, 2008 Still in Ant Land... Not quite an "Elissa friendly" midway game. More pics soon. The Phoenix statue in front of the "Jungle Racing" coaster. It's a standard Vekoma mine train. Think Hard Rock Park, with themeing. Believe it or not, a restaurant. We're now in the "Lost Maya" section of the park. Is that truck themeing, or abandoned? You decide. Noticed. One of those "put out the fire" attractions. Ornamental tree in-between the towers. Shot and drop towers. I haven't ever been happy to see a real SLC, until now. Though, it didn't open until after lunch. Crossing over into Shangri-La. I imagine that Terrance would be having a field day here! Ants with eyeshadow. Yeah. Our second missed credit of the trip. It never opened during the time we were there. Ooooh. Images stamped into the walkways. How un-original! Caro-Seuss-el. Albeit, with BUGS??? Okey Dokey. Can you say BLATANT rip-off??? I see 2 credits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 22, 2008 Author Share Posted September 22, 2008 More Pics.. BTW- This is in the "Maya" section of the park. Let's go ride... More pics coming. From the outside queue, you get a quick glimpse of the trains going by (every 5 minutes or so). Themeing outside the show building. While in line, I first noticed the flying island. Time to get in line for Crystal Wings. Nicely themed frisbee, that swings out over the water. These guys made sure we weren't followed. The pathway between "Maya" and "Atlantis". Looks like Disney's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" made it to China like everyone else! How come this is the only men's throne in the park, NOT carved in the floor? Never found the "Big Straw Hat". Didn't look for it either. Speak no evil. Hear no evil. See no evil. How stupid. Lotsa water! During.... Before the flood... This was a large outdoor stage. All for a 20 minute show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 22, 2008 Author Share Posted September 22, 2008 Somewhere inside of Crystal Wings. Maybe it's just me, but that sounded kinda dirty. Sorry. A better veiw of the diving show stadium. Final pics coming soon. The Chute-the-Chutes ride (Olympia) was closed today also. It gave great views of the park. Time to go ride the flying island called "Energy Collector". The Trojan Top Spin. Looking over into the "Aegean Harbor" section of the park. Apparently, a good photo op. Well, it might have been. The show I saw was a diving show from these platforms. This is the area for their "Water World" type show. (NOT!) That's not real water. It's just themeing. Diving into the pretzel loop! Smile! Yay! We're next! Inside the queue building, I couldn't figure out if this was just themeing, or a Dave Thomas torture device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted September 22, 2008 Author Share Posted September 22, 2008 Final set of pics from Happy Valley Beijing. End of the train ride, and the end of day 4. Day 5 coming in a couple of days. Thanks for looking. Bamboo fence. Otay bankey. One last lap around the park. Train ride = must ride! At least it was photogenic. SLC time! Am I cute, or what? I wonder if Angus McNasty would stand a chance against this Chinese bred athlete? OH! Did I mention that whole arm of this flying island does a complete 360? I mean, this looks like a "Water World" type show, as those are ramps for boats, jetskis, etc. Alas, not to be today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI Jizzman Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Jeff, you always have great quality coverage of the parks...A+!! What an amazing park. Thanks for the pictures, keep it up! -JZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy T. Koepp Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 The detail of this park is incredible! It realy is beautiful to see. Thanks Jeff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gisco Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Awesome pictures! It was like I was there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyBo Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 That park looks amazing. So much attention to detail and theming around the entire. park. Looks like they had a good ride package there too with coasters AND flats. Great pictures as always Old Man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillerman1 Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 These are some GREAT pics Jeff! Ah these China parks look so cool. Thanks for posting these, and I can't wait to see more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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