This wasn’t a great weekend, but anyone with an enhanced sense of schadenfreude should enjoy it immensely. I suppose there are some decent pictures as well.
The logistics then. I had a long weekend, so got a Friday evening flight to Guiyang. Flight times are good (leaves Hong Kong around 9pm) and don’t require having to have an early finish at work, so that’s something to keep in mind when I inevitably make this trip again.
The next morning was an early one to take a train to a smaller city about an hour away, Anshun. Both Guiyang and Anshun have high-speed stations, but it made more sense to just take a regular, peasant-filled train since the high-speed stations were a bit further out of both places, making the 30 minutes saved on the train itself quite pointless.
Guizhou Colorful Culture Vientiane Tourist City
The above name from RCDB wasn’t appearing on DiDi (Chinese Uber), which wasn’t a good start, but a taxi driver knew it immediately. Unfortunately, that’s not the name of the park at all, but of a weird housing estate with a couple of coffee shops. The park was sort of close by, so I headed in the right general direction, walking for half an hour along roads that weren’t appearing on any maps.
None of this was looking very promising:
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to go in by walking through a building site, but the park was open though.
Shen Jun Ecological Culture Town
That’s what it’s actually called then. See?
The half-hour walk was a good thing really since I’d arrived way too early anyway. I got there just after 10 and they were starting to test stuff. I thought this was going to be more of a proper park, but it was just a pay-per-ride effort.
The jungle mouse coaster here was massively unique in that it was called Jungle Rat.
Off near there was a “street” with shops and restaurants and what is clearly the main entrance.
The whole surrounding area is still a construction site, just empty shells of buildings and roads which, while open, weren’t showing up on maps yet.
Who cares though since the rides were all open? Everything was Chinese tat though, including this “Condor” from Zhipao. I think a lot of stuff here was from them, and they’re f**king s**te.
I’ll just throw some pictures in. The drop tower theming was amazing, as was the spelling on the Tagada sign.
Second cred was a powered dragon. This and a jungle mouse in the same park? Imagine.
The main coaster is this lovely thing from Zhipao:
I’d only done one of their loopers before, and hated it, so I was half hoping it would be closed. Unfortunately, it was open.
They’re just so s**t, and they’re a very new company as well. There’s just no need.
So, the park was crap then, and was a mission to find, but it was a +3 when nobody was really sure if the place was even open yet, and I got to be first, so, ya know.
Since none of the roads were actually appearing on the map for DiDi, I had to walk another 20 minutes to one that actually was so that I could get out of there. Then it was onto the main reason for this trip.
Great Xingdong Tourist World
Guizhou Province has a reputation for being constantly grey, cloudy and miserable, so at least I wasn’t disappointed in that regard.
A bit of background. This place is very, very new, but I booked this trip after seeing pictures of the coasters being open, people riding them etc. After I’d booked it, I asked someone to check with the park if they were expecting any problems. At that time, after phone calls to the park, “the 11-inversion coaster still won’t be ready, and the dive machine is looking like it will be down for a while, but everything else will be open when you’re there”. Crap. Oh well, at least there are seven other creds.
Look at all this stuff!
At the entrance, there’s the usual ticket scanners and metal detectors, but there was nobody staffing them. There aren’t the usual ticket windows, but a large ticket building which was complexly locked. That’s all f**king great then. There was a big gate off to the side of the ticket scanners which was open, with a few people wandering in and out, so I just wandered in.
Golden Horse Motocoaster. Closed.
You’ve guessed by now, but everything was f**king closed. Pretty much every ride had this sign out front:
This was despite most rides having ride ops sitting around in the control booths or on the platforms. Also, they had music pumping out through speakers all over the park and a bunch of drinks kiosks open. Loads of other staff were sitting around in groups at tables in (closed) restaurants, or around other seating areas. It wasn’t just the coasters either; it was every single ride, right down to little kiddy stuff.
Roller Coaster Square has 5 coasters surrounding it, including the four biggest. Because 11 Ring Roller Coaster still wasn’t ready, there were no staff sitting around it, so I got right up onto the platform. Clearly I wasn’t supposed to, but it’s China and nobody f**king cares.
It looked very impressive to be fair, and I was surprised to see it had lapbars rather than OTSRs.
You get a decent view over the other coasters in the area.
The mine train is clearly nowhere near ready, so the “everything else will be open” was already a dirty lie.
The Golden Horse dive machine also had no staff around it, presumably because it was known to be closed, so again I got right up into the station. Bunch of pictures:
Broken Rail Coaster had staff sitting around the station doing nothing. It looks a lot better than the pair at Wanda Hefei.
Hanging Roller Coaster was, I think, one of the older models of Golden Horse SLCS, which seems stupid since the have a newer, better track design now. Not that it mattered since the c**t was closed anyway.
Something open. F**k you.
Spinner:
Family Coaster:
Stuff:
Inverting spinner:
And that was that. I had a f**king wonderful time.
On the way out, the ticket building was open, so I went in to try and find out what the hell was going on. Through Google translate, some specky little git tried to tell me that it was because of the weather, which was obviously complete and utter bulls**t since the weather was completely fine. When I replied with “don’t lie” (not being deliberately rude, but when you’re dealing with translation software it makes far more sense to be blunt and to the point), he just said that that was the message they had from the ride operators.
He took me to a manager though, who, while very apologetic, was not very forthcoming in giving any explanations. She couldn’t/wouldn’t say when anything would be open, but basically laughed when I asked “this week”. She did offer to show me around their hotel though, which I politely declined.
At this point, I figured that maybe the rides/park hadn’t been signed off by whoever they needed to be signed off by. I just couldn’t see any other explanation for having the place staffed and “open”, but to not have a single thing running.
However, some other coaster geeks were there the following weekend and were first told that because it wasn’t tourist season, that nothing was running. Then they were told that there was a problem with wages not being paid (not sure if park staff or coaster construction/safety). I'm not sure if they even got into the park at first, but they got a manager (probably the same one I spoke to) to show them around, who somehow got them on the tilt coaster and family coaster even though they were "closed".
It’s a total f**king s**tshow in other words.
There was another park in Anshun though.
Ruofei Park
Just a typical small park job. Can’t be arsed to explain much. Jungle Mouse, Fruit Worm (got on it – usually not a problem with pay-per-ride) and stupidly checked out their gross “zoo” section.
And then it was back to the train station for the s**ty train back to Guiyang.
So, there was a +5 at least, but it nowhere near made up for the SPITE of the century at Great Xingdong, the f**kers.
The logistics then. I had a long weekend, so got a Friday evening flight to Guiyang. Flight times are good (leaves Hong Kong around 9pm) and don’t require having to have an early finish at work, so that’s something to keep in mind when I inevitably make this trip again.
The next morning was an early one to take a train to a smaller city about an hour away, Anshun. Both Guiyang and Anshun have high-speed stations, but it made more sense to just take a regular, peasant-filled train since the high-speed stations were a bit further out of both places, making the 30 minutes saved on the train itself quite pointless.
Guizhou Colorful Culture Vientiane Tourist City
The above name from RCDB wasn’t appearing on DiDi (Chinese Uber), which wasn’t a good start, but a taxi driver knew it immediately. Unfortunately, that’s not the name of the park at all, but of a weird housing estate with a couple of coffee shops. The park was sort of close by, so I headed in the right general direction, walking for half an hour along roads that weren’t appearing on any maps.
None of this was looking very promising:
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to go in by walking through a building site, but the park was open though.
Shen Jun Ecological Culture Town
That’s what it’s actually called then. See?
The half-hour walk was a good thing really since I’d arrived way too early anyway. I got there just after 10 and they were starting to test stuff. I thought this was going to be more of a proper park, but it was just a pay-per-ride effort.
The jungle mouse coaster here was massively unique in that it was called Jungle Rat.
Off near there was a “street” with shops and restaurants and what is clearly the main entrance.
The whole surrounding area is still a construction site, just empty shells of buildings and roads which, while open, weren’t showing up on maps yet.
Who cares though since the rides were all open? Everything was Chinese tat though, including this “Condor” from Zhipao. I think a lot of stuff here was from them, and they’re f**king s**te.
I’ll just throw some pictures in. The drop tower theming was amazing, as was the spelling on the Tagada sign.
Second cred was a powered dragon. This and a jungle mouse in the same park? Imagine.
The main coaster is this lovely thing from Zhipao:
I’d only done one of their loopers before, and hated it, so I was half hoping it would be closed. Unfortunately, it was open.
They’re just so s**t, and they’re a very new company as well. There’s just no need.
So, the park was crap then, and was a mission to find, but it was a +3 when nobody was really sure if the place was even open yet, and I got to be first, so, ya know.
Since none of the roads were actually appearing on the map for DiDi, I had to walk another 20 minutes to one that actually was so that I could get out of there. Then it was onto the main reason for this trip.
Great Xingdong Tourist World
Guizhou Province has a reputation for being constantly grey, cloudy and miserable, so at least I wasn’t disappointed in that regard.
A bit of background. This place is very, very new, but I booked this trip after seeing pictures of the coasters being open, people riding them etc. After I’d booked it, I asked someone to check with the park if they were expecting any problems. At that time, after phone calls to the park, “the 11-inversion coaster still won’t be ready, and the dive machine is looking like it will be down for a while, but everything else will be open when you’re there”. Crap. Oh well, at least there are seven other creds.
Look at all this stuff!
At the entrance, there’s the usual ticket scanners and metal detectors, but there was nobody staffing them. There aren’t the usual ticket windows, but a large ticket building which was complexly locked. That’s all f**king great then. There was a big gate off to the side of the ticket scanners which was open, with a few people wandering in and out, so I just wandered in.
Golden Horse Motocoaster. Closed.
You’ve guessed by now, but everything was f**king closed. Pretty much every ride had this sign out front:
This was despite most rides having ride ops sitting around in the control booths or on the platforms. Also, they had music pumping out through speakers all over the park and a bunch of drinks kiosks open. Loads of other staff were sitting around in groups at tables in (closed) restaurants, or around other seating areas. It wasn’t just the coasters either; it was every single ride, right down to little kiddy stuff.
Roller Coaster Square has 5 coasters surrounding it, including the four biggest. Because 11 Ring Roller Coaster still wasn’t ready, there were no staff sitting around it, so I got right up onto the platform. Clearly I wasn’t supposed to, but it’s China and nobody f**king cares.
It looked very impressive to be fair, and I was surprised to see it had lapbars rather than OTSRs.
You get a decent view over the other coasters in the area.
The mine train is clearly nowhere near ready, so the “everything else will be open” was already a dirty lie.
The Golden Horse dive machine also had no staff around it, presumably because it was known to be closed, so again I got right up into the station. Bunch of pictures:
Broken Rail Coaster had staff sitting around the station doing nothing. It looks a lot better than the pair at Wanda Hefei.
Hanging Roller Coaster was, I think, one of the older models of Golden Horse SLCS, which seems stupid since the have a newer, better track design now. Not that it mattered since the c**t was closed anyway.
Something open. F**k you.
Spinner:
Family Coaster:
Stuff:
Inverting spinner:
And that was that. I had a f**king wonderful time.
On the way out, the ticket building was open, so I went in to try and find out what the hell was going on. Through Google translate, some specky little git tried to tell me that it was because of the weather, which was obviously complete and utter bulls**t since the weather was completely fine. When I replied with “don’t lie” (not being deliberately rude, but when you’re dealing with translation software it makes far more sense to be blunt and to the point), he just said that that was the message they had from the ride operators.
He took me to a manager though, who, while very apologetic, was not very forthcoming in giving any explanations. She couldn’t/wouldn’t say when anything would be open, but basically laughed when I asked “this week”. She did offer to show me around their hotel though, which I politely declined.
At this point, I figured that maybe the rides/park hadn’t been signed off by whoever they needed to be signed off by. I just couldn’t see any other explanation for having the place staffed and “open”, but to not have a single thing running.
However, some other coaster geeks were there the following weekend and were first told that because it wasn’t tourist season, that nothing was running. Then they were told that there was a problem with wages not being paid (not sure if park staff or coaster construction/safety). I'm not sure if they even got into the park at first, but they got a manager (probably the same one I spoke to) to show them around, who somehow got them on the tilt coaster and family coaster even though they were "closed".
It’s a total f**king s**tshow in other words.
There was another park in Anshun though.
Ruofei Park
Just a typical small park job. Can’t be arsed to explain much. Jungle Mouse, Fruit Worm (got on it – usually not a problem with pay-per-ride) and stupidly checked out their gross “zoo” section.
And then it was back to the train station for the s**ty train back to Guiyang.
So, there was a +5 at least, but it nowhere near made up for the SPITE of the century at Great Xingdong, the f**kers.
