Happy Valley Chengdu Expansion 2017

New for 2017 Happy Valley in Chengdu is expanding with a new Silk Road area of the park. The huge expansion will add two new coasters to the parks lineup. A B&M mini dive machine and a mini coaster.

This expansion was announced a while back but there's been little sign of anything beyond land clearing so far. Now the construction fences have gone up and they include new renderings of how the new area will look.

Early concept art from last year

Shiny new art showing off the layout of the B&M and the GCI in the background.

The Dive Machine is an interesting addition seemingly combine the layout style of the larger dive machines but with the track and trains of the mini dive machines.

Both rides will certainly compliment the parks already decent line up (Mega Lite anyone?)and the themeing looks pretty good too. Just to note the wild mouse in the images is already at the park, it's just receiving a retheme.

Wow! This looks absolutely great!

Heh, just when everyone keeps saying that 2017 is a bad year for coasters...

^ The thread was titled, 2017 Worst Year for new coasters in U.S. ?

The rest of the world, I agree. Doing much better, including HV Chengdu.

If only most parks had the same money as China to get two 'major' coasters in a year.

Wow! This looks absolutely great!

 

Heh, just when everyone keeps saying that 2017 is a bad year for coasters...

It's a horrible year in the US. Worldwide there are plenty.

If only most parks had the same money as China to get two 'major' coasters in a year.

Yeah, indeed. Just hope they get treated properly.

^Ha, no

^Well...... that's what I feared

The GCi has begun to rise. No sign of the B&M yet.

^Nice to see some vertical construction, this is a very interesting project.

If only most parks had the same money as China to get two 'major' coasters in a year.

Yeah, indeed. Just hope they get treated properly.

^Ha, no

^Well...... that's what I feared

So even though manufactureres like B&M, GCI, Intamin etc; have certain specifications for maintenance, the parks in China still let them go to s**t??

Maybe China will have to start keeping up maintenance schedules with their new coasters and parks,

considering Shanghai Disneyland is now "in their neighbourhood" so-to-speak.

Or is this asking too much of China? And the companies involved with all the other parks?

If only most parks had the same money as China to get two 'major' coasters in a year.

Yeah, indeed. Just hope they get treated properly.

 

^Ha, no

 

^Well...... that's what I feared

 

So even though manufactureres like B&M, GCI, Intamin etc; have certain specifications for maintenance, the parks in China still let them go to s**t??

Not shit. But generally parks are cutting costs as much as possible on maintenance because 70 percent of the amusement parks are losing money in China, 20 percent are barely surviving and the rest are making profit. It honestly depends on the chain, Chimelong is very good at maintenance but they run their rides much more frequently than say Happy Valley. Happy Valley parks would cut costs as much as they possibly can. (Wheels on Shanghai's Mega-Lite are made in China)

To be fair to Happy Valley they seem to have been alright with their maintenance in my experience. Especially on the wood coasters. Fireball and The Dragons have both had large sections retracked.. None of the rides I've ridden at the Happy Valleys ive been to (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan and Shenzhen) seemed to be poorly maintained. The second time i visited Shanghai Fireball was running even better than the first time.

I know the SLC at Beijings Happy Valley had some issues though. Although it sounds like it may have been Vekomas fault.

The smaller class of parks are another matter entirely. I saw a mechanic run into the ride area of Shenzhou Coaster in Beijing, collect a small piece of the train and run back to bolt it back on.

If you want some nighmares theres a lovely site with a list of failed inspections and reports.

http://chinaridesafety.org.cn/tag.php?tag=%E8%BF%87%E5%B1%B1%E8%BD%A6

With a translator it makes for some interesting reading.

I happened to be out near the Ohio B&M plant the other day and spotted track for what appears to be Happy Valley's dive machine...

The GCI is going up fast. Seems to have a more traditional layout than many recent GCI's too.

And below is the plan for the new Silk Road Area of the park. Showing both the new GCI and B&M Dive Machine layouts.

[fbvideonew]https://www.facebook.com/VHCoasters/videos/1646457865659605/[/fbvideonew]

Short Chinese news report showing the new area with the GCI. no sign of the B&M just yet.

The parks compact GCI is looking frankly rather excellent.

It may not be the tallest or longest woodie out there but it sure is a pretty little ride.

Love this! Reminds me of some of the old Traver rides from long ago.

Thanks for the updates. The ride sure looks great!

Reminds me of Boardwalk Bullet's structure. Really cool looking.

Just because it's compact doesn't mean it's small. According to GCI's site, it's 111 feet tall and 3,345 feet long. That's right in line with their usual size and in fact slightly larger than a good many of them. http://greatcoasters.com/?p=Chengdu

I think this one looks great!

It may not be the tallest or longest woodie out there. . .

Well, you know what they say... It's not the size of the woodie that matters, it's how good the ride is.

And this ride looks awesome!!

It may not be the tallest or longest woodie out there. . .

 

Well, you know what they say... It's not the size of the woodie that matters, it's how good the ride is.

 

And this ride looks awesome!!

I'm loving both the new GCI's in China this year. Between those two and Mystic GCI are on for a great year.

I'm really interested to see how these compare to the recent Gravity Group rides in China as they've been knocking it out of the park recently. Some of the Jungle Trailblazers are exceptional coasters.