larrygator Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Those new S&S launched coaster certainly look very interesting. I would like to see some getting built outside of China. It is interesting that S&S won whatever bid process there was with Happy Valley. But I also wish there were more outside of China. Many when Happy Valley buys Six Flags we get some in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattnz Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 The Happy Valley parks look great - thanks for sharing. I always love photos of Chinese riders with their hands firmly down! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flex Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Nice TR ! Reminds me a lot of memories, as i did the same trip last year. Unfortunately, Extreme Rusher was down for me and the El Loco at Happy Valley Tianjin was not open yet but Fjord Flying Dragon was awesome. I'm glad you said that Bullet Coaster is better than Extreme Rusher because this is the only S&S launched coaster that i tried on the 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbmace Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Does anyone know if there is an on-ride video of the mine train coaster at Happy Valley Tianjin? I couldn't find one on youtube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gutterflower Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 Does anyone know if there is an on-ride video of the mine train coaster at Happy Valley Tianjin? I couldn't find one on youtube. I've not seen a video of the mine train. The majority of it takes place in pitch black anyway so it wouldn't be a great POV. I shall have a look through some Chinese sites later though. Great pictures! is Extreme Rusher rough at all? I didn't find Extreme Rusher too rough. A little rattly around the edges maybe but the Lap Bars are good and it didn't detract too much from the ride in my opinion The next park for me was Victory Kingdom. Victory Kingdom sits about halfway along the train line between Beijing and Tianjin at Wuqing station. For this trip I bought tickets on the day at Beijing South station. (I always take a printout with the names of places I want to go in English and Chinese so if all else fails the point and smile tactic comes into play) The park is about a 30min walk from the station and it appears Wuqing is an up and coming city. Just next to the station is a new shopping mall with huge copies of structures in Venice such as St Marks Square. It was under construction as I walked past but it looked almost finished. The city is also criss crossed by a number of canals giving it a much different feel to Beijing or Tianjin. Victory Kingdom itself is a really odd park. Like when TPR visited it was dead quiet. There were some people around but they were mostly watching a show at the entrance. The park provided me with my first big miss of the trip as the Intamin Flyrider was closed. However the other 3 main rides were open. The SLC is pretty poor and was probably the worst of the trip, the kink in the cobra roll is all kinds of wrong. The spinning mouse was standard but had a weird musical lift hill. And the water coaster thing was pretty weak, I'm fairly sure the water hadn't been cleaned in months. Here's the magic musical lift hill for your enjoyment. After Victory Kingdom I wandered down to the nearby Youth Center Park (again about 30mins walk) and took in the sights. It's a pleasant city style park with 2 small credits. A powered coaster and a jungle mouse. Despite ample time in China this was my first Jungle Mouse and it was perfectly enjoyable. At first I thought both the rides were closed. But when I went to buy a ticket at the ticket booth the woman summoned a ride op to walk with me to the ride. I didn't comment on the beer in his hand but what's the worse that could happen right? The entrance to Victory Kingdom. Seems busy. The SLC towers over the right hand side of the entrance. LOOK... People There's something almost poetic about this picture. The invisibility cloaks were out in full force today. The park is reasonably nicely themed. But it's like they stopped half way through. That's what I came for. If Burger King sells burgers what do they sell here? One of the few sunny days on the trip. It certainly stands out and it looks awesome. BUT it's closed. No flyriding for me today The spikes are beyond vertical. The famous Somalia themed zone. Not inspired by Car's at all. But also closed. I'm not sure if you can fire these. But yes you can fire these. Sniper scope and all. Not real bullets though. Stop taunting me... This was open. Down we go. Free Malaria with every ride. 7D? or is it 6D? I'm not sure. Either way thats a lot of D's The Coliseum There's some weird areas of the park. None of them are busy. Some of the more random flats were open. Every park here has one of these. Time to brace and try this out. The station looked nice enough. But it rode like a car crash. Considering the one at Happy Valley Beijing was so nice this one was a shock to the system. This just looks painful. And it was. The worst jolt of the whole ride. No copy write infringement at all Nothing to see here. Still not open. Eventually after another hour of hope i gave up. The last credit is predictably one of these. The magic singing lift hill. You may look nice but you are still rubbish. This rode as you would expect. I don't hate these, there are just so so many of them. Random piece of track just lying around behind the ride. Despite what it looks like this isn't a backstage area. Just the way to the toilets. POV. Wuqing is a fairly nice city. It seems a lot more open than Beijing. Plenty of Canals around too. don't drive in a wine glass! Youth Center Park. Plenty of weird flats around A couple of credits too for those who count such things. It was actually open. Price board I think... didnt seem to match up with what they really cost though. It was as you would expect. OK. These city parks are really common in China but are slowly dying out. The second credit was a proper one. They look so happy. Quite a nice little ride. I didn't try this out but it looks fun. First Jungle Mouse of the trip and certainly not the last. It hit the brakes with quite some speed. I do like these curves. Next Up is Zhengzhou's Century Park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcjp Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 And it was. The worst jolt of the whole ride. Oh, I see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 Yes, that SLC was awful. And I remember somebody's cell phone (?) flying out and down into the grass, when we were there in 2012. Fun time. Also, the "Western Town" looks as bland now, as it did back then. I expected they'd have added more themeing to it by now, but obviously not. And at that time (it's opening season, yes?) several of us figured the park wouldn't last another season with the way everything looked unfinished, etc. But, I am glad it's still running, and only hope it gets it's act together and just improve everything there, more and more. Thanks for the look at it, and Youth Center. p.s. Stomach King Rules! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 I'm just amazed that Victory Kingdom is still open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 ^I assume most of the parks like Victory Kingdom are not making anywhere near a profit. Sad to see the park looks IDENTICAL to when we visited it over two years ago! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Great TR! These parks look actually pretty nice. We call Victory Kingdom Fiasco Kingdom because it is always a ghost town. Meanwhile their U-Shaped Coaster costs the price of an admission ticket to do a circle. They can start planning to sell their rides to other parks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 (edited) ^I assume most of the parks like Victory Kingdom are not making anywhere near a profit. Sad to see the park looks IDENTICAL to when we visited it over two years ago! At least they got the spinning mouse running. Edited November 13, 2014 by cfc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flex Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Haha ! Seems like every china trip has it's "closed for random reason" coaster ... It was Extreme Rusher for me, but i was able to try the U-Shaped a few days after it's opening, and it's a brillant ride, very powerful and comfortable. Once again, thank you for the (fast) updates, can't wait to read more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gutterflower Posted November 13, 2014 Author Share Posted November 13, 2014 Today was the day I'd head out of Beijing for the last time and head south. I had tickets on an early morning bullet train from Beijing West Station to the city of Zhengzhou. Beijing West Station is an incredible structure. It's absolutely huge. It's really easy to navigate and having read my train number off the big airport style board I wandered down to my waiting area and took a seat. The main arch of the station is HUGE A panorama just about manages to show the scale. As this was the last day of the national holiday I'd had problems getting a ticket sorted. They all sold out incredibly fast. Thankfully I managed to get one of the few remaining Business class seats on an early train and although it cost a fair bit extra over the standard 1st of 2nd class seating it was a very nice trip. I even got to sleep in my fully reclining chair. I wish all trains told the speed. This got up to around 320km/h So comfy The train travels to Zhengzhou East (Not Zhengzhou Main) station which is a bit out of the way. But Zhengzhou has just opened its first metro line which runs from East to West and links the two main train stations. Zhengzhou is a fairly new city and was basically built because its on the cross roads between the east west line to Xi'an and the north south line between Guangzhou and Beijing. The city is in China's industrial heartland and as such suffers really badly from air pollution. And I mean REALLY badly. I've been to a fair few smoggy cities but this was by far the worst. The view that greeted me at the exit to Zhengzhou East station. Once I'd caught the Metro to my hotel I got a taxi down to the Century Amusement Park on the South Side of the city. It is really easy to get the Bus in Zhengzhou. The bus system is actually awesome. Every bus stop has a massive map showing exactly where each bus goes and where it's come from so you can easily plan your route. Best of all its 1yuan wherever you want to go (about 10c) They even have an express bus system which uses its own lanes and you pay on the platforms which are found in the middle of the road, (accessed via crossings) These are even better as once you are on the system for 1 yuan you can get off and on as many buses within the system as you like. You only have to repay once you leave the platforms. Anyway I arrived at Century Amusement Park to a mad crowd outside the gates. I quickly bought my ticket ($20) from a ticket window and went to the join the queue. Only to be ushered through an express gate to one side. CAP is an odd park and the ticketing is very strange. I didn't realise it until later though. I found the queue for the knock off SLC was over 3 hours. (YEAH 3 HOURS). I was about to say sod this and go ride something else when a nice (and cute) Chinese student came over and explained the ticketing system. You can either enter the park for a small fee and buy ride tickets separately like you do in Sun Park OR you can buy a park ticket like I did. Now if you buy individual ride tickets you have to join the main queue. Just like the poor guys waiting 3 hours for an SLC. BUT if you have a park ticket you can walk up to the ride exit and get on straight away. Best of all it appears you can buy one park ticket and use it with multiple people. So once you get off the ride you hand it to another person in your group and they get on next. Now to me this makes no sense. But I'm super glad I didn't have to wait 3 hours for a fairly awful ride. Anyway I waffle. Onto the rest of the park. After walking in the park the first view you have is this. The themeing in the park is a mad jumble of things. This must be Egypt This is the main ride here. And the parks newest coaster. The famous immelmann isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It looks a lot better than some photos made it seem. The parks other main coaster. Mysteriously called the Old Gold Mine Roller Coaster. Also the queue for the new 3D cinema was huge. This SLC is built by Hebei Zhongye Metallurgical Equipment Manufacturing. A company who would probably be better off building almost anything else. The ride is called Suspended Looping Coaster Over Water, despite not actually being over any water at all. To be fair the ride rode no worse that the SBL one in Beijing. One enterprising man was selling big water pistols next to the splash battle ride The kids were loving it and the people on ride were getting a drenching Surprise Surprise its a spinning mouse. Every park worth it's salt has one of these now too There's some nice themeing on a ride by ride basis but its very random The queue for this was over 3 hours. Thankfully it was explained to me that my park ticket allowed me to walk up to the exit and get on straight away. Not sure 3 hours is ever worth it for an SLC The lift hill makes an interesting sound. This bit was reasonably OK The massive cushions on the OSTR's tell you all you need to know about the rides smoothness. The ride, like the others, is crawling by this point The helix is pretty rough. The next victims take their chances. I quite like the colour scheme on the ride though. These are taken painfully slowly. Another shot of the lovely OSTR's My favourite bit was the shopping trolley's used to place your bags. The on ride photo involved a man taking a picture of the people in the front row while in the station. You survived. I assume there is actually meant to be water under here. I forgot how many pictures I took of this thing The double roll in all its painful glory. You can walk around almost the entire ride. This just looks painful Ready, set, go. This bit IS over water at least. Now for a look at the parks other major coaster. The oddly named Old Gold Mine Roller Coaster. A Japanese built looping coaster from Sameco. Similar if not identical to the Meisho loopers found at places such as Seoul Land. Pretty rough ride but its tolerable. Threading the loop. The park has a bit of a Train theme going on. Located right next to the railway tracks you can watch the Bullet trains as they head out of Zhengzhou from the east side of the park. The park has an extensive and very nice garden section. The shot tower near the entrance. Another of the parks many trains. This one occasionally fired off some steam No idea... I waited about 20mins while having a drink for a UFO... no such luck. This huge tower is just near the park. I didn't get a chance to go up but it looks cool. Next up Fantawild Zhengzhou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
viking86 Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Wow that is the most extreme padding I've ever seen on any sort of ride restraints. Looks like it's much needed though. Love following this TR, looking forward to the next update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKI Jizzman Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Oh dear lord. That ride looks like one of the worst. I wish I could see the 3+ hour line for that! Haha and people are still smiling when getting on the ride! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcjp Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 The ride is called Suspended Looping Coaster Over Water, despite not actually being over any water at all. Like you later said, I guess that (based on the footers and look of the ground below) it is supposed to get water. Now these were my favourites: This one beats everything, though Great report! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GwaziBSRider1 Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 So with the pollution...does this mean this SLC is like being in a continuous car crash inside of a gas chamber? Great TR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 I can't decide what's worse...a three hour line for a Chinese Knockoff SLC or that air quality! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 ^Each experience builds upon the wretchedness of the other, yielding a uniquely Chinese quality of "suck." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted November 13, 2014 Share Posted November 13, 2014 Strange ticket system, so the package ticket is also flash pass? That seems like a good deal that those in the 3 hour line don't even know about. They made a second modification on the SLC as you can see on the support near the Immelmann there are a few spots that are redone. Old Gold Mine is a Chinese knock-off Meisho looper by Sameco (They made Shanghai Amusement Equipments co. sound like a Japanese company) As for the air, I feel blessed to live in Guangzhou. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 ^The air did seem better in Guangzhou than in Beijing when TPR was there a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gutterflower Posted November 14, 2014 Author Share Posted November 14, 2014 (edited) Next up was Fantawild Zhengzhou. This was my first Fantawild and I actually really liked it. The park itself is located about 40mins East from the center and unfortunately there is no regular bus service. I got my hotel to phone up for a taxi and paid about $8 to get there. Fantawild Adventure is currently the only park on the site but they have just finnished building a Water Park and Fantawild Dream Land is due to open as the 2nd gate next year. Anyone who's seen a Fantawild before will know they are known for their good themeing but tend to have poor knock off coasters. Thankfully this park had ditched the knock off SLC in favour of a real boomerang and sky loop combo. The park does have excellent themeing and although not up to Disney and Universal standards it is much better than your average park anywhere else in the world. The themeing also seems to be more uniform than the majority of Happy Valley parks. Fantawilds also have a ton of dark rides. There were some pretty good ones here in a variety of styles. Again not up to Disney or Universal standards but all pretty good when taken in context. The 2nd gate is already well into construction and I tried to get some sneak peaks through the fences but Fantawild have sewn up the construction site pretty tight. The parknew is expected to get a Gravity Group woodie before it opens but there was no sign of it yet. Mostly just the big buildings were up. The invisible coat brigade were out in force today. However as it was the day after a week long national holiday I can see why it was quieter. Just in case you didn't know where you were. The parks 2 main coasters. It had been a while since I rode a Boomerang. This one is actually a real Vekoma. And it sits nicely by the central lake. Yet another Nanfang built chair swing ride. I actually really like Sky Loops and this bit freaks me out no end. Shockingly this one is also a real Maurer ride. The park has a good cartoony vibe going on throughout Roller coaster number 3 was one for the little guys. But they did let me ride it... I don't think anyone saw.. Double decker merry go rounds are popular out here too. The main pathways are easy to find. They are bright green. This Boomerang has Vekoma's new trains. It's still pretty rough but much better without the head banging. This building holds a show which I unfortunately missed. Lunch was from the burger bar in the middle of the park. It was acceptable if not great. The Space Talent Show theater was a ride system I hadn't seen before. 6 massive cars rotate and move into another cinema room with 5 huge 3D screens. Some of the talent show entrants on show outside. 2 of the parks many dark rides. The parks 2 main coasters are on an Island in the lake. It does make it a little awkward to get to as the only 2 ways on are at the back of the park. It's a simple ride but they give a pretty intense experience. Going Up. I always find the pull out from the first drop to give some good forces. The new Vekoma trains on the Boomerang. The vest style OSTR is much better than the old head banging ones. The 2 main coasters were pretty popular with a 15min wait each. Best of all both queues had seats while you wait. Just in case you stall I guess. This is why we call it a Cobra roll I guess. Another show which I again missed. The Sky Loop is called Terror Twister. And it's visible from everywhere in the park. The parks 4th and final coaster is a knock off mine train. Some good themeing around the mine train area. The entrance. As far as these rides go this was a pretty good one. Same layout as the Vekoma version. But well themed and pretty tough to get a good photo of the ride. Some amazing matching outfits. The parks big splash ride drew a crowd. The dinosaur area includes the splash ride and a dark ride you will see in a moment. The indoor sea show was closed for now. The castle contains a huge play area for kids. The boomerang from behind. Literally viable from everywhere. The lake even has fish in it. Another pic of the Terror Twister across the lake. The parks spiderman esque dark ride is themed to Dinosaurs attacking a city. The idea is good but the execution was poor. You could see some screens activate as they came into view. The queue area reminded me a bit of Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom. The parks shooting dark ride was really weird but quite good fun. It's all done on 3D screens and you fire various virtual projectiles at a number of fairground style games. Seriously these are everywhere. I actually rode this one to get a view of the park under construction next door. I did not die. The restraints are however a stapley. The park has a number of boards advertising the new park. It was getting late and I had another park to visit today so I headed for the exit. Overall I really liked Fantawild and would certainly visit one of the many many other parks if I got the chance. Some more signage for the new Dream Land Park. Looks like they have even more dark rides planned. Looking forwards to seeing the results. SoonOping 2015 apparently The entrance square for Fantawild already has 2 gates. This is the park I just left which is on the right side. The big services building in the middle. And the gate to the new park is on the left hand side Construction is well underway. The entrance area is enormous. So sometime next year. I'll keep you updated And as an aside. This is some of the weirdest merch I have ever seen. Next up is People's Park. Edited November 14, 2014 by Gutterflower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 The Space Talent Show Theater looks and sounds an awful lot like the Universe of Energy in EPCOT...without all the dinosaurs, lol. And that shooting dark ride sounds a teensy bit like a Toy Story Midway Mania clone. On the whole, the park looks great and there seems to be a lot to do and ride there. And "two of the parks many dark rides"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Lots of dark rides work for me--even if they are Chinese knock-off dark rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcjp Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 I always find the pull out from the first drop to give some good forces True. The only skyloop I've ridden was the extended one (abismo in Madrid) and I did find the drop + sort of banked immelmann combo pretty forceful as it gave me a slight grey out a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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