Zhuhai Weekend - Part 3: Quanlin Resort

[Gavin]

Yes, it’s another one of those “Gavin goes to a bunch of random crapholes for a Jungle Mouse” trip reports.

I’d already been to Zhuhai (kind of but not really) just a couple of weeks earlier when I went to Ocean Kingdom. Originally, Ocean Kingdom would’ve been part of a Zhuhai trip, but I decided to do it as part of a weekend in Macau instead, meaning that seeing anything of Zhuhai outside the Chimelong Resort was left until later.

I got there at about half two on Friday afternoon with the plan to grab a couple of +1 kiddy creds on the way(ish) to the hotel and hit a proper park the next day.

Paotaishan Park

I ballsed up the planning slightly with this. Well, not the planning really; I **** ed up the park order after I got in a taxi at the ferry terminal. This should have been the last of the three +1 parks that I visited as it was the closest to the hotel, but I screwed up and got a taxi here first, meaning that I ended up going back on myself back towards the ferry terminal, then heading back in that direction again once the parks were done to get to the hotel.

No big deal really as everything was in the same general area and no huge distances were involved. The park itself looked nice enough.

Apparently there was some kind of viewing area where you could get a good view of Macau, but I was in a bit of a rush to getthecredz and couldn’t be **** ed with all the steps in the heat/humidity and with my bag for the weekend.

Luckily the “Pleasure Ground” area - different cities in China seem to have their own ways of labelling their amusemt park sections – was right in front of where the taxi dropped me off.

As expected, it was dead thanks to being a weekday afternoon, but, as usual for these places, things were open. Staff just randomly appeared when they were needed.

50p later and I was lucky enough to get another powered **** ing dragon. At least this one was slightly different, in an even crapper way, to the usual double-helix variety.

After ten minutes well spent it was into a taxi to the next place.

White Lotus Cave Park

This park – by that I mean park as a whole, not crappy kiddy amusement area – was much bigger than the last place. Towards the back were a load of paths and steps that led up to some small temples and stuff, but again, because of time and a distinct lack of giving a ****, I just got in and out fairly quickly. What I saw of the place was lovely though.

This place had another “Pleasure Ground”, as well as “Lover Woods”. That’s two areas that sound like dogging sites then.

The Pleasure Ground was the same deal as the last place: small, crap and dead with a powered dragon.

I’ve started to notice in China that I’ll sometimes come across something new that I haven’t seen before, only to find that practically every park in that area will have the exact same thing. For example, I thought this outdoor shooting ride was pretty unique, but then I saw them in a few other places later.

Yay:

+1 and Back into a taxi then.

Haibin Park

This was another really nice park, and due to its location right next to the sea had quite a few people using it. Again, the amusement park section was very quiet though.

Another one of those outdoor shooting things:

Bunch of random crap:

I thought this kiddy log flume looked pretty decent, as in quite well-themed for this type of place. It turned out to be a stock model that was common in other places around here as well, though.

Onto the amazing +1 coaster here then. At least this time it wasn’t powered.

Spot the AJ theming?

Since this park was right next to the sea, I took a bit of a walk along the coastal road before flagging down a taxi to get to my hotel. It was actually a really nice area.

I hadn’t really expected much from Zhuhai as a city since I’d come to think of it just as “that bit of mainland China that’s attached to Macau”, but it was actually a lovely place. It was very, very green. All the roads had trees/plants running along both sides and down the middle, it was clean, and it was mostly pretty laid back.

Just before I grabbed a taxi to get the hotel, I spotted this plane sitting in a car park.

I did a quick bit of research after I got to the hotel, and, apparently, it’s one of Chairman Mao’s old private jets. The owner of the shopping complex bought it years ago as a way of getting tourists to the place, but the appeal has worn off and instead of taking pride of place in front of the shopping centre, it was decided that the parking space is more valuable, so it’s been dismantled and shoved off to one side, possibly sold or possibly on its way for scrap.

My hotel was in a busier area just a 10 minute walk from the main Macau border crossing and at the end of “Pedestrian Street” which was great for food and stuff. There were also a bunch of outdoor bars set up, staffed by scantily clad girls trying to lure in male customers.

I just grabbed some food and called it an early night since I wanted to be up early the next day for the “proper” park of this trip.

Next up: Mysterious Island.

 

[Tomatron]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 1: Random S**te

Nice pictures. You really do visit some utter holes!

I look forward to doing the same in 4 months time.

 

[nadroJ]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 1: Random S**te

The parks actually look really nice! It amazes me that they can afford to have this stuff running on weekdays? Do you know if the parks are all council run or privately owned?

 

[Gavin]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 1: Random S**te

I'm not sure, but I'd imagine they're government run since they're basically just municipal parks. Weekdays will have few staff at places that small though, usually one at a ticket booth and a couple running whatever people want to go on.

If there's one thing the Chinese do really well, it's city parks. They're usually lovely, clean and immaculately kept. The areas with the rides shoved in usually let them down though.

I've said it in numerous reports now though: these aren't amusement parks. They just tend to have a corner with a few rides. Yes, those areas are crap if you're thinking theme park, but they're not theme parks. It's the Chinese equivalent of a slide and a few swings to keep young kids occupied for a bit.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 1: Random S**te

That outdoor shooter thing looks ace!

 

[Gavin]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 1: Random S**te

^I thought the same when I saw the first one, thinking it to be original since I'd never seen one before. They were really common in that area though.

Mysterious Island

I’d given myself a whole day here since it was pretty far away from the city – a little over an hour’s drive – and was the only major park of the trip. Plus, with it being a Saturday, I thought it would be best to allow more time.

There was no problem getting a taxi despite the distance. Thinking about it, Zhuhai is the only place in China where I didn’t get any idiot taxi drivers for the whole weekend. There’s usually at least one who’s completely clueless and has no idea where things are, despite printing stuff in Chinese.

I got to the park just after 10, and it was dead. The ticket was only around £11 as well which I thought was decent.

It was really nice and decently themed.

Right across the lake was the main reason for coming here. The coaster obviously, not the Topple Tower.

Having said that, I didn’t know they had a Topple Tower here. I’ve seen them in two other parks, but they were down on both occasions, so I was interested to finally get to try one, even though they don’t look all that good really. Alas, it was not to be as this one was closed as well.

Now, I don’t know if this has suffered the same fate as a bunch of others and is down for the count, or whether it was just closed that day. What annoyed the **** out of me about this place was that they had one of those “Closed Today” signs at the entrance, next to the ticket windows, but with nothing on it. The assumption would be that everything would be open, but there was loads of stuff closed, including this:

Audio Room must’ve been one of those wear-headphones-in-a-dark-room kind of things, so I wasn’t too bothered. I’ve tried a few decent ones in Japan, but the Chinese ones I’ve tried have invariably been s**t.

My phone is always turned into shaking style, but, since it was closed, I didn’t have the opportunity to walk about in the room at my sweet will.

The dodgems were open, so I rode them because they were there. Meh.

Then it was onto the main coaster for the day - well, for this whole weekend really – Sky Car.

I ended up walking all the way around the bloody thing to find an entrance that I had been standing right next to. Tit.

Jacques Offenbach’s Gallop Infernal from Orpheus in the Underworld (The Can-Can to you simpletons) was playing in this building, so I had a quick look as I was passing.

The show was just a bunch of kids juggling hats.

Finally onto Sky Car then.

It was walk-on the whole time I was there, which was great obviously. As usual, people just automatically filled up from the front, so I could easily get some back-row rides in. At one point, the ride op tried, for no reason whatsoever, to get me to move forward to fill the rows further forward, but a quick “Why?” was enough for her to shrug her shoulders and leave me the **** alone.

Some thoughts. It was ok, but far from my favourite Intamin Accelerator. The launch was weak, probably on par with Kanonen. There was decent airtime on the top hat though, and the hill going through the loop was probably the best part of the ride. There was airtime as you moved up into the breaks as well. So yeah, three decent moments of airtime really. It seemed a tad rough on my first ride, but I didn’t notice it so much after that.

I ended up riding it ten times over the time I was at the park, not because I particularly liked it all that much, but because there was very little else to do there and I’d made a bit of an effort to drag my arse down there in the first place. Overall, I’d probably place it somewhere in the middle of the accelerators I’ve done: over Kanonen, Rita and Desert Race at any rate.

The exit shop had a misleading name, leading to some disappointment.

Continuing round you get to a pirate-themed area.

I wasn’t bothered, or surprised, that this was closed.

There was some kind of ghost train/walkthrough here, which was actually open with about 40 people waiting outside it, so I joined the queue.

I assumed that when the doors finally opened about 15 minutes later that everyone would be ushered inside. Nope, just four people were let in. **** that; I left the queue. Luckily, this amazing feat of engineering was right next to it.

RCDB has it listed as Screaming Squirrel, but the park has now called it Man-O-War. I’m guessing, since the cars still all have Screaming Squirrel plastered across the front of them, that this is a fairly recent change to fit in with the pirates theme.

It was, obviously, f**king s**t. I think it may actually have been even worse than the one at Gardaland. It was being run quite stupidly, too. They’d make people queue outside the station, then fill four cars up at a time, but they wouldn’t send a car off until the previous one had been emptied and the riders had left the platform.

Luckily, because it was so quiet, it only meant a ten-minute wait, but I wasn’t going to bother riding it again. I’ve now got the complete collection of these pieces of s**t anyway. Dreadful **** ing things. I think I’d actually place them below Zamperla Volares for worst coaster type.

There was a decent looking water ride with two fairly big drops, but that was also closed.

Every now and then, they’d turn the pumps on, but the ride never opened.

The S&S shot tower was on top of a massive hill, which was a struggle given the heat and humidity, but the whole area was really nice.

This area was even quieter than the rest of the park, probably because people couldn’t be bothered with the hills/steps, so the ride op let the small handful of us stay on the ride and just waited a few minutes between dispatches to see if anyone else wanted to jump on. I only bothered because of the effort to walk up there in the first place and the fact that there was **** all else to do.



From the hill, you get a decent view of the whole area. Mysterious Island is actually only one very small part of Ocean Spring Resort, which has a few hotels, hot springs, pools, shopping, restaurants and some kind of show.

From pictures I’ve seen, it actually looks lovely. Since it was still early, and I’d done everything, including the only decent coaster 10 times, I was going to have a wander over and have a look around. However, as I was leaving the park, there was a bus right outside that was due to head back to Zhuhai just five minutes later, so I ended up just jumping on that rather than waiting an hour for the next one.

I wish I’d known about the bus sooner since it was obviously a lot cheaper than the taxi to get there, and was a direct shuttle between the city and the resort. I ended up getting off at some underground transport hub which turned out to just be a 5 minute taxi ride to my hotel. I later found out, when I was heading back to Hong Kong, that the bus starts at the Ferry Terminal I’d arrived at the day before. I hadn’t paid any attention then as I just wanted to jump into a taxi and get to the hotel, but the shuttle buses for Ocean Spring Resort, as well as for Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, were very well signposted outside the terminal.

Some overall thoughts on the park then. It was nice, it really was, but it was a lot smaller than I expected. Again, it’s part of a huge resort though, so I’m guessing few people would just go to Mysterious Island on its own. It also takes the piss that on a Saturday so many rides were closed, despite there being no information on the boards outside. Operations on what was open were ok, but it’s hard to make a decent judgement call on that since the park was practically empty. So yeah, it was all a bit disappointing really given that I’d wanted to head to this place for literally years.

Since I ended up getting back to my hotel by around half three, I decided to jump in another taxi to a park I had planned on doing the following day.


Jindouwan Resort Villas

This place was about a half hour drive away. I had no idea what to expect when I got there. I kind of thought it would basically be another city park with some rides, but it was actually just an amusement park with paid entry. It was only 50p to get in, so obviously rides were extra. It looked pretty decent as I was going in.

It was an absolute, festering s**tpile though, and, again, it was practically empty.

At least there were some creds to be had, starting with this amazing thing:

Other people!!!!! They’d just got off the carousel, so I’d missed out on what would’ve undoubtedly been some amazing action shots.

The arcade was a hive of activity.

Second coaster then. This is only the second one of these I’ve been on. I could happily never go on one again, though I will forthecredz.

I gave this a miss, although it looked incredibly exciting.

There was another outdoor shooting ride here.

The ride op was obviously tired from such a busy shift, so had a bit of a sit down.

I’ve seen a few parks with these “zoos” now, and still hadn’t been in one. I didn’t start here either, but curiosity finally got the better of me the next day at another park, and I wish it hadn’t.

I can’t remember what ride this was for, but I didn’t ride it, meaning that I didn’t have to worry about staying in my seat if the websitestops steadily, or being in a fluster if such an event occurred.

The final, and biggest coaster is coming up. Brace yourselves.

It was the only Golden Horse spinner of the trip though. I was beginning to worry that I wouldn’t get to ride one. The poor cow at the ticket booth was rushed off her feet.

I felt bad having to interrupt a couple of these guys to let me on the ride; they were clearly exhausted.

Another picture of the spinner then:

Yay.

I was out of the delightful place within about half an hour. Since it was out in the arse end of nowhere, there were no taxis. There were also none of the guys with cars offering lifts which I’ve come to expect at these kind of places. Instead, I had to lower myself to clambering into a **** ing motorised rickshaw and getting the driver to take me somewhere civilised where I could get into a cab, head back to the city and sit down crying in the shower trying to wash away the shame of Jindouwan Resort Villas.

The humanity!

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 2: Mysterious Island & Jindouwan

Great report! The barrel ride looks interesting, was it literally for people to sit inside and then roll along a track?

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 2: Mysterious Island & Jindouwan

I just love the passion and sincerity that comes across in your reports Gavin.

Yeah seriously, wtf is that barrel ride? Does it actually rotate you as you go along?

 

[Gavin]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 2: Mysterious Island & Jindouwan

^^ and ^ Based on others I've seen, it's basically like a hamster wheel that you walk inside. I'm assuming it's basically one of these, only infinitely less interesting.

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 2: Mysterious Island & Jindouwan

^ They're so weird! I don't know whether the concept is appealing, disturbing or both.

 

[Gavin]

Re: Zhuhai Weekend - Part 2: Mysterious Island & Jindouwan

I love that this report features an Intamin Accelerator that I'm pretty sure nobody else on here has ridden, and the focus is on a hamster wheel on 15 feet of ground-level track in an absolute s**t tip of a park.

Anyway, onto the final park of the weekend.

Quanlin Resort

Originally, I’d intended to go here on the same day as the previous place, Jindouwan Resort, since Jindouwan was roughly halfway between the city and here, but since I’d already got that done the day before I had a lie in and got a taxi out here around lunchtime.

It was out in the middle of nowhere, and was actually a pretty big place, despite it feeling very old and run down. There was a small entrance fee and then pay-per-ride, and although it was quiet, it was still the busiest place I saw on this trip.

Most rides were clustered around the main entrance, but there was other stuff scattered around further back, which you couldn’t see from the main area.

I got the powered dragon out of the way first.

Have some pictures of stuff:

I don’t think I’ve seen one of these things with rotating cars before. This was the first time I tried one anyway. It wasn’t awful, but I’m in no rush to get on one again.

The second coaster was a jungle mouse. I was obviously thrilled since I hadn’t gotten to ride one on this trip; I usually get at least three.

The aquarium was rather gross.

The actual fish tanks were all fine, but with nothing of any real note in them. Not sure on the legalities of having Chinese sturgeon though, which I’m pretty sure these were. They’re critically endangered and heavily protected. Even Ocean Park had to have them officially gifted from the government.

They had a couple of turtles in a less than suitable tank.

This was **** ing horrendous though, just so unbelievably wrong.

There was yet another one of these kiddy log flumes:

And yet another outdoor shooter thing:

This is the second pirate ship that I’ve seen in China that has been themed to this porno.

This one shares sponsorship with Pirates of the Caribbean though. Johnny Depp looks rather impressed.

Away from the main ride area, the park gets a lot more open and greener. It’s basically all set around the foot of a mountain.

Best plant pot ever:

There was one of those small zoos that I mentioned in the last part of the report. I’ve never been into one before, but curiosity got the better of me.

I was curious since the signs outside these always have fairly major animals on them, like lions, tigers and crocodiles, but they just don’t seem big enough to actually have these kinds of animals. Wrong.

There was a lion in one half of this box, and three wolves in the other:

This was home to a fully-grown bear:

The lion, tiger, bear and wolves had no access to any outside space at all; they were just stuck in a concrete box not much bigger than they were. It was **** ing appalling. The proper Chinese zoos – apart from major parts of the one in Wuhan – are absolutely nothing in comparison. In fact, you can often see where they’re trying to make improvements and bring things up to date.
I’m in no way anti-zoo at all, but I will NEVER go into one of these tiny, park “zoos” again. They’re very commonplace as well, so **** knows how many animals are stuck living in conditions like that.

Anyway, moving on from that, they had a large grassy hill that you could sled down, slide down in a tube, or hire these weird rollerblade things for.

There was also another roller coaster, this time a bit more substantial.

It was pretty horrible, but the setting was really nice.

One of the main attractions at the park were cable cars that took you up to the top of the mountain.

The cars were tiny, with just one, forward-facing bench in each one. The ride up through the forest was pretty awesome though to be honest.

There was really bugger all at the top apart from an enclosure with a bunch of peacocks on it, so I just headed back down again. I guess sometimes the journey is more important than the destination, or some other such new-age s**te that people post on Facebook.

Overall thoughts then. Take the horrific animal exhibits out of the equation – or don’t be naïve and stupid enough to go in them in the first place – and it’s not bad for what it is really. While the main rides area is just your typical slab of concrete, the park as a whole has a really nice setting and there’s actually quite a lot there if you’re a family with kids, or if you’re not a jaded, burnt-out foreigner who bypasses the vast majority of what’s on offer.

This whole weekend was clearly nothing special with regards to parks. There was only one decent coaster (Sky Car) and even that was in a park that was an overall disappointment. Having said that though, I really liked Zhuhai as a place (remember it also has Ocean Kingdom now, which is awesome), I spent next to nothing over the whole weekend, and I was under no illusions beforehand that this wasn’t just a bit of a cred run to make the most out of my soon to expire Chinese visa.

So yeah, it is what it is really. +11, but actually a lot easier and less stressful, given the nature of the city, than a lot of other cred runs I’ve done.

 

[davidm]

No hamster wheel at this last park? Disappointing.

(Cracking views from that cable car though. )

 

[nadroJ]

Urgh, the animals make me so sad, I couldn't quite tell, was that a walrus or a sealion? Either way <//3

Park does look nice though, even though that looping thing looks like it's actually made of K'nex.

 

[Exciter]

hi, i plan to go to Zhuhai, do you know witch port from Zhuhai i can take the bus to Ocean spring Resort (Mysterious Island)
is this Jiuzhou Port you mean from the ferry terminal? Thanks

 

[Gavin]

Ok, this is a very old report. If I remember correctly, I took a taxi out to Mysterious Island, but once I was there found a bus stop with a bus schedule next to it and used that to get back to the city.

Yes, it's Jiuzhou Port. There used to be a small bus station connected directly to it, but last time I was at that port, probably around a year ago, there was a lot of renovation happening and access to the boats was via a very temporary building, so I've got no idea what the bus situation is these days.

 

[Exciter]

Ok, this is a very old report. If I remember correctly, I took a taxi out to Mysterious Island, but once I was there found a bus stop with a bus schedule next to it and used that to get back to the city.

Yes, it's Jiuzhou Port. There used to be a small bus station connected directly to it, but last time I was at that port, probably around a year ago, there was a lot of renovation happening and access to the boats was via a very temporary building, so I've got no idea what the bus situation is these days.

Thanks a lot, i was been also in Macau & Hong Kong in 2019, but not yet in Zhuhai, i Just have a couple of days to visit Chimelong Ocean Kingdom & Mysterious Island.