Photo TR: Guangzhou/Zhuzhou/Wuhan/Yueyang (Oct. 2-5, 2012)

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

I have spent the last four days in China traveling to the cities of Guangzhou, Zhuzhou, Wuhan and Yueping. I visited eight parks and I have photos from seven of them. One park I visited was Shennong Park in Zhuzhou. Since I had posted a TR from there a couple of months ago, I didn't include any photos this time.

 

October 2: I left home and went to Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou while I was waiting for my train. There is a jungle mouse here called Speed Slide. I had visited the park and ridden this coaster before, but decided to ride it again.

 

October 3: I woke up this morning on a train in Zhuzhou. I went to Culture Park and found a few rides. One was a kiddie coaster called Fruit Worm Train that is not on RCDB. I also went to Shennong Park just to see if any changes had been made in the few months since my last visit. Everything was the same. I got on a fast train to Wuhan. I visited Qingshan Park to find a rusted old mouse coaster that never runs anymore. This coaster is not on RCDB. I also went to Wuhan Peace Park to ride the new rides that were added since my last visit.

 

October 4: I went to Happy Valley today in Wuhan. Since I count the two very different tracks of Dauling Dragon as two separate coasters, the blue side became my 799th coaster and the red side became 800th coaster. Both tracks on Dauling Dragon are insane. Needless to say, I really enjoyed both of them. I think the red side (left lift hill) is more intense. Hidden Anaconda was my first Sky Loop coaster and I enjoyed the experience. Monte Carlo Racetrack is a fun mine train by Golden Horse. It is based on Vekoma design. Happy Valley's two launched coasters still are not open yet.

 

October 5: I went to two more parks to finish up this trip. The first was Yueyang Paradise. This park looks like it was very nice at one time, but now many attractions and rides are no longer in service. The coaster here is a standard jungle mouse that is like many other coasters in China. It closed years ago. A few rides here are still open. My last park was just down the street and it is called Jine Park. It has an unusual coaster located on the side of a hill there. The coaster is a full circuit coaster with a lift hill that uses a cable to pull the cars up the lift. There are two loading stations. If you board the coaster at the top of the hill, you encounter the lift hill last. If you board at the bottom of the hill, you encounter the lift hill first. It may be consider more of an alpine coaster by some, but I count it as a coaster as it has a lift, runs on gravity and completes a full circuit. The cars have wheels that are locked to the top and bottom of the rails and you can control the speed of the ride like on an alpine coaster or alpine slide. In all, I had a good trip. I have now discovered 135 coasters before RCDB or ACE could find them.

My first park of this trip was Yuexiu Park in Guangzhou. Here is one of the carousels there.

Here is a kiddie ride at Yuexiu.

This nice pirate ship is located at Yuexiu Park.

Here is one of Yuexiu's kiddie rides.

Speed Slide is Yuexiu Park's coaster.

Here is another shot of Speed Slide.

I have arrived at Zhuzhou Culture Park.

This is one of the many bridges that can be found in Chinese parks.

There are rides at Culture Park.

There is a kiddie coaster called Fruit Worm Train.

Here is a view of the coaster.

Here is the carousel at Zhuzhou culture park.

Here is Qingshan Park in Wuhan.

Qingshan Park has this little carousel.

There is a wild mouse at Qingshan Park, but it is not open.

The coaster is rusty.

This shot reveals that the coaster is indeed closed.

Next up, a short distance away from Qingshan is Heping/Wuhan Peace Park. Here is a new carousel.

Peace Park has a huge ferris wheel.

The flume at Peace Park is fun.

The Gliding Dragon is like many other powered coasters I have ridden.

The Jungle Flying Squirrel is like many other mouse coasters I have ridden.

It is still a fun ride.

My next park of the trip is Happy Valley in Wuhan.

Many rides are at Happy Valley.

Coming in 2013 to Happy Valley: Ravine Flyer II.

I like these carousels that are found at big parks all over China.

Caesar's Palace is in Wuhan.

Many people were at the park today.

I like the themeing on Monte Carlo Racetrack.

Here is another view of Monte Carlo Racetrack.

You can get some snacks here, but I wouldn't call it supper.

The chutes ride is very tall.

The S&S air launched coaster is still not open.

It looks like it will be a fun ride.

Here is another view of it.

The Hidden Anaconda doesn't appear to be too hidden.

Happy Valley's family coaster has inversions.

Dauling Dragon-I count this as two coasters as one dargon can't "daul".

Another shot of Dauling Dragon.

This is where the "high five" element is on Dauling Dragon.

This is not at Happy Valley, but it is Wuhan's Yellow Crane Tower. It is the most famous sight in Wuhan.

My last day of the trip started off at Yueyang Paradise.

This little bridge is nice scenery at Yueyang Paradise.

The coaster is no longer operational here, but it is like many others I have ridden.

Here is another look at the coaster.

The coaster hasn't carried passengers in years.

Here is one last look at the coaster at Yueyang Paradise.

I bet the disko at Yueyang Paradise is a knock off.

The flume is not running anymore.

These water slides closed a long time ago.

This ride is also closed.

The paratrooper is also closed here.

This is one of the few rides that was open at Yueyang Paradise.

Here is my last park of the trip. Jine Park in Yueyang.

The carousel here is nice.

Jine Park has a lake just like other Chinese parks.

Here is the life for Jine Park's coaster.

Here is one more shot of the coaster a Jine Park to close out the trip report.

Edited October 6, 2012 by The Angry Darren Mullins

[larrygator]

Is that coaster at Jine Park an Alpine Coaster that is not very tall or was there a lot more to the coaster that is not seen in your photos?

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

The coaster at Jine is on the side of a mountain. I guess it could be called an alpine coaster as the cars are similar to those on a alpine slide, but there are some short, steep drops on the way down as the track winds down the mountain side. The cars are on wheels and the track is a complete circuit, so I count it as a coaster as it runs on gravity.

[simon8899]

The S&S air launched coaster is still not open.

 

Maybe they should ask the guys at Nürnburgring to make it ready...

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

The smaller launched coaster will open very soon at Happy Valley while the larger one will not open until 2013. They do not even have a queue area yet for the big one and one train still has not been put together.

[gisco]

Interesting that there are a number of non-working coasters. They must have gone on a building boom years ago andinstalled them everywhere even if there weren't enough business to support it.

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

Many smaller parks in China and South Korea are like this. They seem to be built with no expansion plan in mind. It appears that they build many rides at once and never add anything else. When a ride reaches the end of its life, it just sits there rusting away.

[805Andrew]

That park with most of the rides closed down looks like pictures of North Korean parks I've seen on the internet where some rides are operational but many are SBNO and are rusting away.

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

I was thinking the same thing when I was at Yueyang Paradise. It is very much like a North Korean park. At least Yueyang Paradise had that nice piece of eye candy taking tickets outside the front gate. Screw the coaster, I would have liked to have added her to my track record.