What with that HK Disney report yesterday and that long, summer American thing, it’s been months, MONTHS, since I’ve posted pictures of Jungle Mouse coasters and Golden Horse spinners.
I’d originally planned this weekend right after I got back to Hong Kong after the summer, buying train tickets and paying for a hotel upfront, but then realised that I was a total f**king moron and couldn’t go since I didn’t have the day off work that I thought I had; I had to go into “work” and sit, seething, in a Cantonese meeting all day instead.
Anyway, since I’d already planned stuff out, I just rebooked the exact same stuff for a couple of weeks ago since I actually did have a long weekend. I’d had Changsha on the cards for while since there are regular high-speed trains from just over the border in Shenzhen, but held out for a bit since Fantawild were finishing off a new park. Plus it was all a bit of an unknown entity since RCDB has basically no pictures from most places there.
I left straight after work, got the metro up to Shenzhen – for better or worse, the station right next to work sits on the line that connects directly to China - transferred onto Shenzhen’s metro and got to the high-speed train station for an evening train. The train took around three and a half hours, not bad for about 500 miles.
It was around 10:30 by the time I got to the hotel, so I didn’t bother doing anything. It was in a really convenient area, and I had a lovely, relaxing room overlooking a picturesque ten-lane road.
I got up early the next morning for some crappy cred whoring.
Changsha Ecological Zoo
This was quite a way out of the city, and would likely have been skipped if I’d been able to take this trip on the original dates, but I figured I’d have plenty of time.
I didn’t have to actually buy a zoo ticket since the amusement park is off by itself rather than inside the zoo. I was here too early though. I got there around 9:30, figuring that the zoo would be open from around 9, which is was, and that the rides would open around 10, which they did, but since I didn’t have to go into the zoo at all, I had nothing to do to kill time until the rides opened other than take a few pictures.
I was literally the only person there though there were quite a few people heading into the zoo. I’m guessing that the amusement park would get busier as people leave the zoo though.
Just one cred here. A stunning Golden Horse spinner.
Back to a taxi then and onto the next place.
Nanjiao Park
RCDB had this place listed as Cartoon Paradise, but that was slightly inaccurate. Cartoon Paradise was just one very small amusement section, but there were different ride areas scattered around the park, which was pretty big and very hilly.
I found Cartoon Paradise, and what a paradise it truly was.
No coaster. Worrying. But there was a Ferris wheel over in another area, which is always a good sign.
9D!!!!!!!! But still no cred. I was resigned to the fact that it had been ripped out.
I finally spotted it as I was on my way out, off by itself and nowhere near Cartoon Paradise.
Fuxake:
A Jungle Mouse. So that made it two out of three of the ubiquitous dragon, spinner and jungle mouse options for these places. Just a dragon to get later.
I would have actually found this really quickly if I hadn’t followed the signs for Cartoon Paradise, which took me completely the wrong way around the park. Ah well, there’s always a chance of finding an unlisted coaster at places like these, so I probably would’ve scoped out the other areas anyway.
Another taxi then.
Ocean Lake Wetland Park
This place was massive. And there was absolutely no sign of any rides.
The “keep off the grass” signs were unintentional poetic genius.
After wandering around for ages, I ended up looking at the satellite view of Google maps to try and track something down, realising that the amusement park was really far away and involved having to find a tunnel which passed under a road to a totally different section.
Oh joy.
There was a powered dragon here, completing the usual trio.
And another Jungle Mouse. Fantastic.
Getting to this area had been a good 20+ minute walk from the main entrance, but luckily there was a smaller entrance about 10 minutes away. Final view.
The next place was a bit of a lucky accident. It had popped up on RCDB just a couple of days before I took the trip. If I’d have made it on the original dates, I wouldn’t have known about it.
Galaxyland
Being new, it was a massive ballache. From looking at Google maps, I had worked out that it must be attached to a massive new shopping centre, but with the whole thing being so new, absolutely nothing was labeled. There was no way a taxi driver would know what Galaxyland was, even with the Chinese translation, and there was no way for me to find out the name of the shopping mall it was attached to.
I ended up sticking a pin in it and getting a very worried taxi driver to follow the sat-nav on my phone.
The shopping centre was huge, and obviously brand new as there was still a lot of work ongoing, and it was totally dead. The taxi driver seemed really surprised to see it there as we were pulling up.
The park was outdoors, and had its own entrance, but was also accessible through the mall. This seemed to be an indoor skydiving centre, and was due to open a few days later from what I could work out.
Dirt:
There’s a Golden Horse Motor Coaster here. As with most of Golden Horse’s knockoffs, these now greatly outnumber the rides they’re copied from, and offer an identically craptacular ride experience.
The outdoor entrance, which I imagine will get absolutely no use whatsoever.
Other stuff:
There’s apparently a tiny kiddy cred on a separate rooftop level, but that whole area was blocked off. Spite.
It’s on top of the “indoor amusement park” section, which looked stunning:
Some stuff connecting the park to the mall, and a few pictures from inside.
So yeah, a bit of a mission, but it’s always cool to be the “first” to get somewhere and it was a nice little bonus considering I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t had to take this trip a few weeks later than planned.
When Galaxyland popped up on RCDB, another place also popped up at the same time, so I decided to finish up the day’s cred whoring there.
Wangling Park
This was just a regular city park, and luckily wasn’t too big this time.
I found the rides area quickly enough.
But no cred. Bollocks. I double-checked RCDB again, but the park wasn’t listed. It turns out that it had been mistakenly added for a couple of days and then removed again, so my spotting it was perfect f**king timing.
Luckily, it wasn’t out of the way at all; it was near the city centre and I would have had to have passed it on the way back to my hotel area from Galaxyland, so no big loss.
It was late afternoon by this point. There was a large island in the river right next to my hotel, which I’d intended to check out the following morning, but decided to just do it then and have a bit more of a chilled day the next day.
The island – Tangerine Island – is really long and narrow. There were shuttles running up and down it, but I just walked down one side and back up the other, which was probably about a 6km walk.
I imagine if/when the air’s clearer, it would be really nice, but on that day it was just shocking really.
There was a cool sculpture garden about halfway down.
The highlight, at the far south of the island is a giant Mao head.
This is why I love China, for bats**t stuff like this, which is done in all seriousness and with no sense of the ridiculous at all. It’s very different to somewhere like Japan, where the “quirky” is, these days, incredibly contrived to the point of being trite and obvious.
I walked back up and across the bridge to my hotel.
There was a pedestrianised area right next to the hotel, so I had a quick wander down there and got something to eat, but went back and had a proper look around the next evening since I was a bit knackered by this point.
Day one done.
I’d originally planned this weekend right after I got back to Hong Kong after the summer, buying train tickets and paying for a hotel upfront, but then realised that I was a total f**king moron and couldn’t go since I didn’t have the day off work that I thought I had; I had to go into “work” and sit, seething, in a Cantonese meeting all day instead.
Anyway, since I’d already planned stuff out, I just rebooked the exact same stuff for a couple of weeks ago since I actually did have a long weekend. I’d had Changsha on the cards for while since there are regular high-speed trains from just over the border in Shenzhen, but held out for a bit since Fantawild were finishing off a new park. Plus it was all a bit of an unknown entity since RCDB has basically no pictures from most places there.
I left straight after work, got the metro up to Shenzhen – for better or worse, the station right next to work sits on the line that connects directly to China - transferred onto Shenzhen’s metro and got to the high-speed train station for an evening train. The train took around three and a half hours, not bad for about 500 miles.
It was around 10:30 by the time I got to the hotel, so I didn’t bother doing anything. It was in a really convenient area, and I had a lovely, relaxing room overlooking a picturesque ten-lane road.
I got up early the next morning for some crappy cred whoring.
Changsha Ecological Zoo
This was quite a way out of the city, and would likely have been skipped if I’d been able to take this trip on the original dates, but I figured I’d have plenty of time.
I didn’t have to actually buy a zoo ticket since the amusement park is off by itself rather than inside the zoo. I was here too early though. I got there around 9:30, figuring that the zoo would be open from around 9, which is was, and that the rides would open around 10, which they did, but since I didn’t have to go into the zoo at all, I had nothing to do to kill time until the rides opened other than take a few pictures.
I was literally the only person there though there were quite a few people heading into the zoo. I’m guessing that the amusement park would get busier as people leave the zoo though.
Just one cred here. A stunning Golden Horse spinner.
Back to a taxi then and onto the next place.
Nanjiao Park
RCDB had this place listed as Cartoon Paradise, but that was slightly inaccurate. Cartoon Paradise was just one very small amusement section, but there were different ride areas scattered around the park, which was pretty big and very hilly.
I found Cartoon Paradise, and what a paradise it truly was.
No coaster. Worrying. But there was a Ferris wheel over in another area, which is always a good sign.
9D!!!!!!!! But still no cred. I was resigned to the fact that it had been ripped out.
I finally spotted it as I was on my way out, off by itself and nowhere near Cartoon Paradise.
Fuxake:
A Jungle Mouse. So that made it two out of three of the ubiquitous dragon, spinner and jungle mouse options for these places. Just a dragon to get later.
I would have actually found this really quickly if I hadn’t followed the signs for Cartoon Paradise, which took me completely the wrong way around the park. Ah well, there’s always a chance of finding an unlisted coaster at places like these, so I probably would’ve scoped out the other areas anyway.
Another taxi then.
Ocean Lake Wetland Park
This place was massive. And there was absolutely no sign of any rides.
The “keep off the grass” signs were unintentional poetic genius.
After wandering around for ages, I ended up looking at the satellite view of Google maps to try and track something down, realising that the amusement park was really far away and involved having to find a tunnel which passed under a road to a totally different section.
Oh joy.
There was a powered dragon here, completing the usual trio.
And another Jungle Mouse. Fantastic.
Getting to this area had been a good 20+ minute walk from the main entrance, but luckily there was a smaller entrance about 10 minutes away. Final view.
The next place was a bit of a lucky accident. It had popped up on RCDB just a couple of days before I took the trip. If I’d have made it on the original dates, I wouldn’t have known about it.
Galaxyland
Being new, it was a massive ballache. From looking at Google maps, I had worked out that it must be attached to a massive new shopping centre, but with the whole thing being so new, absolutely nothing was labeled. There was no way a taxi driver would know what Galaxyland was, even with the Chinese translation, and there was no way for me to find out the name of the shopping mall it was attached to.
I ended up sticking a pin in it and getting a very worried taxi driver to follow the sat-nav on my phone.
The shopping centre was huge, and obviously brand new as there was still a lot of work ongoing, and it was totally dead. The taxi driver seemed really surprised to see it there as we were pulling up.
The park was outdoors, and had its own entrance, but was also accessible through the mall. This seemed to be an indoor skydiving centre, and was due to open a few days later from what I could work out.
Dirt:
There’s a Golden Horse Motor Coaster here. As with most of Golden Horse’s knockoffs, these now greatly outnumber the rides they’re copied from, and offer an identically craptacular ride experience.
The outdoor entrance, which I imagine will get absolutely no use whatsoever.
Other stuff:
There’s apparently a tiny kiddy cred on a separate rooftop level, but that whole area was blocked off. Spite.
It’s on top of the “indoor amusement park” section, which looked stunning:
Some stuff connecting the park to the mall, and a few pictures from inside.
So yeah, a bit of a mission, but it’s always cool to be the “first” to get somewhere and it was a nice little bonus considering I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t had to take this trip a few weeks later than planned.
When Galaxyland popped up on RCDB, another place also popped up at the same time, so I decided to finish up the day’s cred whoring there.
Wangling Park
This was just a regular city park, and luckily wasn’t too big this time.
I found the rides area quickly enough.
But no cred. Bollocks. I double-checked RCDB again, but the park wasn’t listed. It turns out that it had been mistakenly added for a couple of days and then removed again, so my spotting it was perfect f**king timing.
Luckily, it wasn’t out of the way at all; it was near the city centre and I would have had to have passed it on the way back to my hotel area from Galaxyland, so no big loss.
It was late afternoon by this point. There was a large island in the river right next to my hotel, which I’d intended to check out the following morning, but decided to just do it then and have a bit more of a chilled day the next day.
The island – Tangerine Island – is really long and narrow. There were shuttles running up and down it, but I just walked down one side and back up the other, which was probably about a 6km walk.
I imagine if/when the air’s clearer, it would be really nice, but on that day it was just shocking really.
There was a cool sculpture garden about halfway down.
The highlight, at the far south of the island is a giant Mao head.
This is why I love China, for bats**t stuff like this, which is done in all seriousness and with no sense of the ridiculous at all. It’s very different to somewhere like Japan, where the “quirky” is, these days, incredibly contrived to the point of being trite and obvious.
I walked back up and across the bridge to my hotel.
There was a pedestrianised area right next to the hotel, so I had a quick wander down there and got something to eat, but went back and had a proper look around the next evening since I was a bit knackered by this point.
Day one done.