Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China - COMPLETE

[Gavin]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

^Same. I wouldn't go back to it again. Even though I only saw about 1/3 of it because it's massive and I didn't give myself a lot of time. It's definitely a "tick the box" sort of place.

Are you sure it wasn't the Starbucks? It doesn't really look like one and there's very little actual branding either, maybe none at all actually; I can't remember now. I don't think the word "Starbucks" is actually used anywhere either, but the colour scheme and menu clearly are. It's really small, and the entrance has/had those plastic strip things to get into it.

To be honest, if I hadn't been shown (met someone who worked there the night before, so had a free tour guide) I probably wouldn't have found it, and even if I did I probably would have thought, "it looks a bit like Starbucks", without realising it actually is one.

Pandas <3. You can't swing a fake Prada bag in China without hitting one.

 

[Jake]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

They are as common, as, mouq over there <3.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a Starbucks. We went in and looked over the counter and it was just a normal grotty cafe type place... the drinks were totally different too. Obv, there were loads of drink places, loads in there, so we must've missed it <////3.

Oh, and...

met someone who worked there the night before

Such a slapper <3.

 

[Jake]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park

With 10 coasters, this was the park with the most amount of credits on the whole trip. It was a pretty huge park actually.

As usual, it was about £2 to get in, then it was pay per ride. It wasn't cheap by any means, costing us more than £30 to get all our credits. When compared to the general cost of living in China, it's VERY expensive.

Knockoff Disney castle <3

The first credit we stumbled upon was the mine train, which was a clone of the one at Sun Park (but in a much worse condition)...

To get to the main section of the park you have to go over a bridge, which gives pretty good views of the other rides:

The SLC hadn't opened yet, so we jumped on the Big Apple next to it...

It was rather overgrown...

A Chinese park wouldn't be complete without a Golden Horse!

Next up was the Knockoff loopscrew...

If I remember correctly, this was the smoothest one on the trip and was ALMOST good <3.

The Knockoff Batflyer was closed. Shame, it looked amazing <///3. It might be SBNO, as we returned a few days later and it was still dead. I'm sure I saw a PTR from a couple of months before we went and it was closed then too...

Oppsite the Batflyer was 'Jurassic Adventure' or something. For an enclosed coaster it was pretty huge and had some amazing theming, if a bit ghetto.

For some reason this park has two 'Jungle Mouse' coasters, one being larger and newer than the other. We did the newer one first, which wasn't too bad...

The smaller one was GROSS though. I did get a video of it but can't find it...

By this point the Knockoff SLC had opened. Goliath (Walibi) anyone?

I don't really know what to say about this coaster...

The shape of that twist...

It nearly stalled on several elements...

This video shows how slow it is:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfiXwsypeHI&feature=channel_video_title[/youtube]

The last (open) credit was the shuttle loop, 'Coaster'...

There were loads of Knockoff flats, loads.

The most interesting ride for me was 'Adventure of Jones' aka 'Ghetto Knockoff Stormforce'. It was FAB <3

It had the backwards drop and everything <3

Spite Gardaland...

Another view of the castle...

'Such a REGIME' <3

Ugh <///3

Health and safety <3

So RCT...

The last ride we did was a Soarin knockoff, which actually used some of the scenes from the real one, mixed with some other Chinese stuff. So ghetto, but better .


Thanks for reading!

Next part: Happy Valley Beijing

 

[mouse]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Really enjoying this trip report, that SLC looks like death.

 

[Ben]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

omg, this place was amazing.

Ghetto knock-off Soarin' was amazing. But, unlike Soarin' you loaded really high in a building and it then lowered you down...

So it went from like ______ shaped to ________|
-------------------------------------------------------|people
-------------------------------------------------------|here

Hard to explain but so ghetto fabulous. Fairly sure that since the 3D show was directly beneath and they alternated every half an hour that it was just the same screen <3 Don't get that at Epcot.

And then ghetto knock-off Storm Force was amazing as well, so glad I FORCED you on it <3

The bridge was HORRID though. So excessive in that HUMIDITY <//3

 

[Gavin]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Shijingshan looks a lot different these days. When I was there, the whole area from behind Jones' Adventure (<3 <3 <3) up to the Batflyer (under construction) was just a dirt pile. The giant frisbee and booster knockoffs were just dumped in a pile of dirt waiting to be installed. The Soarin' thing wasn't there either, nor was the dark coaster.

The SLC has really gone to **** as well judging from that video. It wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad either I didn't think. It was definitely faster than it is now. It was the first SLC knockoff though, so maybe that's got something to do with it.

 

[alexr]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Great Report, I'm really enjoying it, how was the restraints on the suspended coaster, were they painful?

Was the Soarin type ride built by Vekoma or was it a knock off?

 

[Jake]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

^ The restraints were foul! They dug right into my collar bones, and I was so pinned I couldn't breathe. Ugh.

^ I doubt Vekoma (or any western company) went anywhere NEAR the Soarin' ride. I could be wrong, but, nah. Haha.

 

[Martyn B]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Wow, that knock off SLC puts Kumali to shame!

 

[Jake]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Happy Valley Beijing

It was quite surreal going to this park because as a teenager I admired the theming, and to be honest, couldn't see myself going here for a while (if ever)...

The operations here were a lot better than the other two Happy Valleys, but they still did the irritating opening times. Crystal Wings and Extreme Rusher didn’t open till a bit later so we started at the back of the park. The Mine Train was up first…

We were a bit sick of these by this point, but it looked pretty.

We then got the SLC over and done with, which only took about half an hour thank GOD. Yeah, it was worse than the one in Shenzhen…

(still better than Kumali <3)


The other burdenous cred was the Golden Horse, which took a rather venomous, spiteful hour </3. This area to me was the only part of the park which felt run down…

... it did spite Bugs Life / Antz though <3

(and you can see them GORPING <///3)


By this point Crystal Wings had opened and had a short queue…


… guess why?


TWO TRAINS


No word of a lie, this was the first and last park in China we saw coasters running two trains.

Crystal Wings is fab. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Superman (SFGadv) so wasn’t expecting much, but the setting of Crystal Wings made it for me. <3.

The Disko totes ruins this </3

The last coaster was the new S&S, Extreme Rusher. The queue was excessive, but they were running two trains (<3) so they can be forgiven. They were running it really well actually, but I guess new rides are always spiteful…

It was about 2 hours...

Eventually it was our turn. I’ll post a little review after the photos…

This hill was OBSCENE. It was like, a turn, with ejector airtime, banked the wrong way. <3.

The trains <3

I thought it was really good. The launch was amazing, and the layout is so random and RCT-esque that it feels out of control. The only issue I had was that a couple of the transitions were REALLY brutal, especially when you enter the brakes. Hopefully it doesn’t become painful in a few years…

Another ride I remember thinking looked fab was the Frisbee, but for some reason they’ve removed the snakes from the supports… maintenance issues perhaps?

Never seen a stand up Rockin’ Tug before, AND it had a bump in the middle…

The Splashdown looked fab, but we couldn’t be bothered to queue over an hour for it...

OK, we didn’t ride anything else so I’m just going to post the rest as general park photos:

Absolutely gorgeous park, helped even more by having decent operations. Happy Valley Shanghai had slightly better coasters, but I’d rather spend a day here I think.


Thanks for reading! Next (and final) part: The Great Wall of China

 

[Martyn B]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Final part already?! Boo!

 

[peep]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Wow, that park looks gorgeous. The scale of the theming is insane <3

 

[Jake]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

The Great Wall of China

There are various sections of the wall you can visit. The closest one to Beijing is Badaling, but it's also the most touristy (and a lot of it has been rebuilt) so we spited it and went to Jinshanling.

It was a bit of a pain to get to because you have to get a bus to a town 'nearby', then hire a driver to take you the rest of the way, then take you back. It was a bit overwhelming when we got off the bus and were getting harassed by all the drivers. It was pretty vile </3.

However, when we got to the wall it was worth the spite.

The condition of the wall changes every time you turn a corner...

Some of it was really steep, worse than Brighton & Hove <//3

Shoot <3

The next day we had a HORRID journey home...

Beijing - Shanghai (2 hours)
2 hour layover
Shanghai - Hong Kong (2 hours)
12 hour layover
Hong Kong - Doha, Qatar (8 hours)
3 hour layover
Doha, Qatar - London (7 hours)

<////3.


All in all, I can't make my mind up about China. It's an amazing place, but for all the wrong reasons. I don't like seeing one side of a road full of luxury apartments, with people on the other side sitting in the gutter with rags on who have absolutely nothing. But, I guess it's only recently discovered how fab capitalism is... it'll level out eventually.

Oh, and I don't miss the food. Ugh. Or people spitting on the floor <///3.

That's it.


Thanks for reading!

 

[Josh73]

Re: State of Qatar, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China

Thanks for posting! I'm sure it took alot of time to put this together and I thank you for taking that time!

Dissapointed it's over...

 

[Lofty]

Best Report I've ever seen. Made me so jealous of you two guys and I don't know why. Thanks so much for doing the report!

 

[furie]

Yep, brilliant stuff right the way through. Loved the great wall, it's something that's always fascinated me.

Great, as ever, to see incredible, detailed reports from places that you don't see often, and to get a good, real person perspective on it. It's more than made up for the lack of foreign Gavin in recent years

 

[peep]

Yep, brilliant stuff right the way through. Loved the great wall, it's something that's always fascinated me.

Great, as ever, to see incredible, detailed reports from places that you don't see often, and to get a good, real person perspective on it. It's more than made up for the lack of foreign Gavin in recent years

THIS!

Amazing report, I've absolutely loved reading all of it.

 

[Hixee]

I'll echo everything that's been said so far. Really great report and really nice to hear your views/thoughts and see pictures of these parks that we so rarely get to see and hear about.

Awesome guys! Thanks!