PTR: Bill's Epic 3 Weeks in China w/TPR!

[cfc]

Up next, some driving, more s-a-p* credits and...

 

Floraland

 

 

 

Tagada! I know a video has been posted on the site, of this thing in action, and

I'm pretty sure if one ever opened in North America, there would be seat belts,

possible OTSRs. Which would take The Painful Fun out of it, lol.

 

 

I think OTSRs would add some different type of pain to it.

[SharkTums]

I"m curious to see if Victory Kingdom actually finishes building out, or if we go back in four years and it's exactly the same. My money's on the latter.

[cfc]

^Or if it even still exists.

[805Andrew]

Cool TR so far. Thanks for the pics.

[Nrthwnd]

^ Thanks! Much appreciated. I do what I can, heh heh.

 

And now that the credit whoring is over (for now),

it's time to hit another park...

 

Happy Valley Chengdu

 

Big park, Not unlike it's sibs where we've been, before. It was

definitely more lush with landscaping, and incorporating more

animal themeing into the shops and services, the rides - and

coasters too.

 

It rained on and off when we arrived and during our visit. Which

(I'm not sure on this) possibly caused two coasters to not be working,

at this time. But they both eventually got running and all was well.

 

Several of us found a "pet handling" spot that also involved the

loveable, cute, totally ingratiating sweeties called...Red Panda.

 

 

So there's a set pf pix, (most of) all of our group holding the little critter, while

it only paid attention to the apple slices it was being given, lol.

And for 30 Yuan a sitting......? A good deal we all thought.

 

And a few of us did miss out on the mouse re-opening. Time was extended

for the group (by popular vote, I totally go with it, even if against me, lol),

but a few of us had had enough, and went out for a western meal a la

Pizza Hut, lol! Unfortunately, when they found out it was open for riding,

we couldn't go back into the park, unless we paid entry fee..... again.

Here, in many of the parks in Chinas, even the franchises, they do not

allow free re-entry into the park. Simple.

 

So, even though Robb offered to repay the entry for the three of us,

to get the mouse credit, we said that was really nice of him and thanked him

- but "we'd get the credit on next China tour..."

 

And - the very next day - REAL PANDAS!!!

Morning in our hotel room. Hmmm. Not The Greatest View, hmm?

But before we hit the park's entrance - we went thru this, one of the visual reminders that "We're in BAMBOO COUNTRY!" (For pandas, probably.)

There's our park entrance! Big open shopping and eating space. Impressive.

And one of our first ERT coasters to ride. Another mega lite! I love these things. And an slc beside it.

These guys were strolling towards their in-park business. Most of the flavours looked...interesting.

Not happy with this closure. Not happy with it - at - all. Angry in my Dippin'Dots. Then, it opened later...and I said "meh."

So this is how it was set up - us and the devil child.

Here's Josh and It. (Loooove the stripes!)

And Cheryl. Awwww, It's sharpening It's teeth, Elissa.

And Lauren. It's so attentive, not fussy and un-still like..... a panda.

And Nick. Awwww.... I think It's looking for you, Elissa.

And Ben was soooo good with It...

He wanted It to look you in the eyes, Elissa. See? I knew It could!

Then my turn with It. And then...things started getting.....fuzzy...

So after all that warmth and cuddliness - a ride on the flying island, over the park.

Oops. Not the best shot of all of that ,below.

There. That's a bit better. (o: And there was an ICE HOUSE down in there somewhere, so we went to check that out, next...

And we found it! Me and Cheryl, freezing our....parkas, off.

And Jon contemplating whether this is a knock-off Canada totem pole or..... something else?

Didn't have an open slide though, so we left, and eventually made our way out of the park, to the nirvana that was Pizza Hut, lol! (And missed out on the mouse credit.)

But not leaving before I took a pic of this nice rendering of my fave mythical animal...Pegasus. Very nice!

And I guess it's time for a hotel room shot or three.

Bath tub and vanity, both spacious enough. Neat glass sink, too.

Separate shower. Glassed in. Opaque. Uh huh.

And, the AWESOME VIEW at night from our hotel window!

Edited November 7, 2012 by Nrthwnd

[SharkTums]

Wow, what an ugly red fox!!!!!!

[Nrthwnd]

^ I thought it was an Evil Red Devil Raccoon?

 

[SharkTums]

^It's so ugly and not special it could be either of those boring normal animals!!!!!!

[Nrthwnd]

Awww....

 

 

 

 

(And b/w pandas are overweight slobs, who should get some

valid exercise, once in a great while. Couch-potatoes, indeed!)

Yeah, it's all about the Group Meal............. burp.

[SharkTums]

^It does look a bit like an ACE buffet there!

[cfc]

It's the panda version of an "orgy."

[Nrthwnd]

^ Looks like a very laid-back "orgy" to me, lol.

 

Or this might be afterwards, and the bamboo is the smokes!

 

[vuurvogel]

Ahh, that red panda looks so much more fun then the boring 'I only eat bamboo' very small for giant panda's

[Nrthwnd]

^

And which one would you rather have on your lap, hmm EB?

 

(Not to mention being done up like a ~fake~ intern to hold The Big Thing.)

Although I "suppose" it could be true, of Cheryl 'catching something' from this adorable cutie!

[vuurvogel]

I like to collect all sorts

This is one of my mothers pets

[Nrthwnd]

^ Ooooo, very cool EB!

 

Does it have a name?

 

I mean, it's your mother's pet, yes?

 

 

(Sorry to sidetrack, but This Is Cool!)

[vuurvogel]

I do not know. She has about a dozen of them. Probably called 'takkie' (stick) or something like that.

Did you find any interesting 'wildlife' in China?

[Nrthwnd]

^

 

Just this.... at the Great Wall...

Ha ha. (o; Other than this, and some cats running around here and there, nothing 'wild' that I remember. And everything else was either at a zoo, or in a 'habitat" somewhere.

[Nrthwnd]

And so, moving right along...

 

PANDAS!

 

Or rather, the Panda Research Base, in Chengdu.

 

All dedicated to keeping those cute, adorable, black and white bears,

that look and act like they're stoned most of the time, and eat as much

to prove it so, LOL!

 

All in the atmospheric themeing around us of... you guessed it... bamboo trees!

It - was - everywhere. This is what really happens if you let your little

bamboo plant get out-of-hand in the yard, heh heh. It was all lush and green!

 

This was also The Place where one could fork over a couple hundred+ US $ and

then be made up like an extra on "Grey's Anatomy" (blue smock, footcovers,

cap - all BLUE!!!) and THEN have the fun of actually

balancing one of these hefty bamboo suckers on one's lap. Get the pic taken

and....and you're done!

 

Most of the tour did this. I chose not to, as did a few others in the group. And

we hung around the building where the "lap action" took place, people-watched,

and enjoyed ourselves - doing nothing and relaxing - while the rains came down

on us.

 

A good day for poncho-wearing, lol!

Here we are at the Research's entrance. And speaking of blue... it's Poncho-Wearing time! This one was from Nagashima Spaland, Japan. Rained pretty good that day.

Interesting way to use the bamboo that grows all over the place. Like a cathedral archway, it was.

After walking round and up and through a variety of wet leafy pathways, we finally came across...

The Group Meal! As perfected by this group of slow-moving, overweight....cuties. Litter slobs, too.

I think the bottom one was trying to 'mate' with the top one. Interesting ritual, hmm?

Neat what one can do with an umbrella, eh?

And none of the locals I saw, even looked at her once, while the rest of us snapped and snapped (pix) away, lol.

Also - YAY - My Kind of Pandas! I love devil children!

There was a lake there as well, with tons of koi fish swimming around and acting (feed me! feed me!) freeky as usual.

A few black swans got in on "the feeding frenzy" as well, and fared pretty good

I decided to try some self-taken pix and Bjorn decided to be cute. I see you there, Bjorn. And this was on the bus to either A) another park with sad and pathetic coaster(s), B) lunch or C) to the airport for our second internal flight...to Wuhan!

Edited November 12, 2012 by Nrthwnd

[cfc]

Also - YAY - My Kind of Pandas! I love devil children!

 

They are coming for our children! Or maybe just our churros.

[gisco]

This was also The Place where one could fork over a couple hundred+ US $ and

then be made up like an extra on "Grey's Anatomy" (blue smock, footcovers,

cap - all BLUE!!!) and THEN have the fun of actually

balancing one of these hefty bamboo suckers on one's lap. Get the pic taken

and....and you're done!

 

lol, love the accurate description. I forked out the money when we were there with TPR in 09!

[Nrthwnd]

^ I can honestly say, that I never was interested in the first place to do this,

even before knowing how much it would cost, etc. That said, I REALLY enjoyed

the surprise of being able to hold a Red Panda, at Happy Valley Chengdu; totally

unexpected, and a neat surprise making that park's visit all the more special

for those of us who held The Devil Child, lol!

 

(EDIT To Add: And Jon in Ontario? How did your devil child photos turn out? Please post and share!)

I think this is my fave of the bunch taken of us with...... It.

[Nrthwnd]

And now that we're done with pandas for now..... more parks!

 

And it's another Happy Valley park! This one is named what else?...

Happy Valley Wuhan.

 

HVW is the home of the newly built "Dauling Dragons" which may or may

not have anything to do with racing, lol. Apparently, the staff don't run

both trains that often, if at all. It looked like the ERT we had riding and

(ahem) "High-Fiveing" each other from both running trains, was more than

they had ever been run since getting the coaster! Hmmmm.

 

But - it was a great time riding the coaster and getting oh-so-fingertip-close

from a side angle. Much fun.

 

And although two of their other coasters were still "in maintenance mode"

(or in one case, still being built and finished!) the rest of the park had enough

flats and stuff to keep us busy till leaving time.

 

And then - we rode a very sick and twisted little coaster, that shouldn't have been

built in the first place! Or "added to" I guess would be the better term. And a few

other s-a-p coasters along the way, to dinner, the hotel and then the next morning.....

flying to Shanghai!

So this is Dauling Dragons at Happy Valley Wuhan - which has the (now) TPR famous "High-Five" in it....if and when they run both trains together!

Then there's this lovely thing, we got to ride after DD. Also note the green "IV bag" attached to the tree? Wierd and they were all over the park's trees.

A view from the Dauling Dragons station. It really is a well laid out coaster.

Purty. The coaster was called Hidden Anaconda... which really wasn't that hidden, lol.

Bjorn gave me this shot of himself .... uh..."saying Hi" to those passing by in the raft ride. Great Bjorn...

I have no idea what we were trying to do in this shot - but it's after our turn on the raft ride. And Bjorn got the 'wettest' of it, heh heh. This shot is from Bjorn, too.

I "think" this better explains things. Uh, maybe not. Bjorn is so...um...silly.

Bjorn also got this shot of those of us in the shoot-the-chute boat, getting water blasted by those "on shore" ha ha. I'm there, trying to use Jon as my shield, lol. Not much success I can see there.

After Happy Valley Wuhan, we headed to parks with trees and sculpted landscaping...and a coaster or two, of course.

This park had some really nice sculpted trees through-out it. Very nice.

A looping coaster, at this park I cannot remember it's name, sorry. Blurring memory, hmm?

And THIS is that coaster (an old Toboggan) that should NEVER had this loop added to it! But we rode it anyway.... At Fishermans Wharf park, I am pretty sure.

Something about the back area of this one restaurant we ate at - very creepy.

And I happened to snap a pic of this McDs from the bus. And then a few of us came back to this, wanting a bit of a change from the Group Meals. And it was good.

And Bjorn gave me this shot he took of me with both of us on A Coaster in "A Park". Which one(s) I do not know. But I thought I would end this post with it. I'm happy, I'm on another coaster, I'm In China!, life is great!

[cfc]

I'd forgotten all about the trees with the IV bags. Well, I guess it's better than risking dehydration.

[gisco]

I think the red pandas are a lot cuter then the black and white ones! Have to try that when I go back to China when Shanghai Disneyland when it opens!