Guangdong, China – Sunday, February 27th & Monday, February 28th, 2011
My first experience of visiting mainland China was on the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. As we departed for the two hour journey, an announcement was made advising us that the restrooms would be unavailable until after we crossed the border, the reasoning being that the train empties the waste directly onto the tracks, which isn’t permitted in Hong Kong but a-okay in the mainland. Thus, my initial impression of mainland China sounded something like this:
“Welcome to China. You may now use the toilets.”
While most of the students in Hong Kong got their first taste of the mainland experience in Shenzhen immediately across the border, I opted to wait until the Wood Coaster at Knight Valley and Bullet Coaster at Happy Valley could be confirmed operational, and instead decided to go a little bit further north for a quick two-day excursion into the much larger city of Guangzhou, one of the three largest in China. Perhaps doing it as a solo trip was a little ambitious for my first try, but I couldn’t very well find many traveling companions who would be equally interested in mopping up a series of random coaster credits of varying degrees of build quality, and besides the coasters I had relatively little else on my agenda, meaning my expectations for the trip were low and I was willing to go with the flow wherever it may lead me. Besides, I was told that Guangzhou had been cleaned and modernized since hosting the Asian Games in 2010, for which posters still adorned the city.
My quest started with a pretty lengthy bus ride from the train station to Nanhu Park, or as it’s apparently also known, “Nanhu Cultural Theme Carnival for Gametoys”. The park is mostly known to the coaster folk for the Crazy Roller Coaster, mainland China’s first large custom coaster project from a western vendor opening in 1986, probably modeled after the success of the Dragon at Ocean Park which opened two years prior.
Unfortunately as I approached the seemingly lifeless amusement park, I had a suspicion I might be out of luck. After using mostly pantomime hand gestures to communicate with the ticket taker, they confirmed that the roller coaster would not be running.
While I think they may have had a children’s coaster I could have ridden, as I was budget conscious I decided to take a pass on buying full-price admission and would focus my time elsewhere in the city, as there were still two other small parks on my potential hit-list. (In retrospect I kind of regret that decision.)
It’s possible the coaster had already given its last rides by that point. Photos from 2013 showed the ride abandoned with vegetation overtaking the track, indicating it probably hadn’t been operated for at least a couple of years prior. A shame as it had a custom four-inversion layout with a unique hillside location.
Skipping Nanhu Park, I upgraded my next destination, the Guangzhou Zoological Garden (which RCDB showed as having two family coasters) from a “possibly” to a “definitely”. At the time the Guangzhou Metro was still being expanded, so I again had to rely on buses for this route. This made knowing which stop to get off at difficult, especially without international mobile data to check my location. (This trip would have been so much easier to do eight years later.) I was able to confirm with a passenger my correct stop at Huanghuagang Park, but when I got out I couldn’t identify if there was any amusement or zoological area within the park.
I decided to wander around for a while to see what I found. I double checked later and confirmed that I was at the correct park, but while there I eventually gave up on trying to find the coasters figuring I must have gotten some piece of information wrong. Strike two.
Eventually I emerged back on the streets of Guangzhou.
With some extra time on my hands, I decided to simply wander the city to get a feel for the rhythm of urban life in mainland China. Guangzhou was certainly a much greener city than I might have imagined.
By this point I realized I had maybe wandered a little too much!
Nevertheless, I was eventually able to find my way back to my hotel near the center of the city. It actually took me two attempts; the first hotel I checked was part of the same chain on the same street, yet despite the identical names it took the receptionist a little while before figuring out I was at the wrong location. I can’t imagine that doesn’t happen to them more often. After a short rest in the correct location, I ventured out into the nearby Yuexiu Park, the largest city park in Guangzhou and home to Jin Ying Amusement Park, where I would try for my third and final time that evening to ride a coaster.
(I appreciate the Chinglish on the sign on the way in… “Please cherish every blade of grass…”)
Let’s see, do I want to go to the amusement park, or to the Fable Garden of Idiom?
They’re pointing “that way to roller coaster!”
And… there it is! But… gah! I’m too late, the rides are all closing for the night!
There was my target: Speed Slide. Sadly, it wasn’t to be either. But all was not lost. This park was close to my hotel, so I found an employee who spoke some English and was able to ask what time the rides would open the next morning. 8:00am. Perfect!
With that, I made my way towards the exit of Yuexiu Park.
While I might have been disappointed on missing out on all three parks I had planned for the day, I really wasn’t (except perhaps for Crazy Roller Coaster, but that seemed inevitable no matter what), as I enjoyed using the time to explore the city on my own, the furthest I had been from my own culture. (I realized that, except for the morning when I was leaving Hong Kong, I hadn’t seen a single other white person all day.) By that time of the night I was ready to indulge in a well-deserved meal of the local Cantonese cuisine.
With nothing to do in my hotel room, I spent the rest of the evening doing more walking around Guangzhou.
Along the way I discovered a smaller park named “People’s Park”, extremely common in China.
The park was home to the “Guangzhou Point Zero”, which evidently many Chinese cities use for purposes of Feng Shui.
These lights converged above the zero point… sometimes smog does have some advantages!
Eventually I made my way to the Pearl River.
One thing I noticed… for a country that doesn’t have the best record on LGBTQ rights, they sure do like to illuminate everything in rainbows!
The next morning before heading off to spend the day at Chimelong Paradise, I returned to Jin Ying Amusement Park in an attempt to ride my first Chinese-made roller coaster.
Although I arrived an hour after the rides were scheduled to open, it seemed people weren’t interested in rides as much as other activities like practicing badminton.
Speed Slide appeared silent on my approach.
Hmm… two maintenance workers were on the platform. Not a promising sign as I wasn’t going to wait for long before heading to Chimelong.
Eventually I inquired at the ticket booth (again, hand gestures proved more useful than spoken language) whether the coaster was open. The girl quite cheerily seemed to think it was and sold me one ticket and indicated I should go up to the platform. Somewhat hesitant, I decided to do as instructed.
Oh, they’re just replacing all the broken seatbelts! No big deal. Of course they’re going to let me ride! I paid for my ticket, didn’t I?
Yup, I was probably going to die in my attempt to get this video…
My face when I got back:
No, but I actually did ride my first Chinese death trap coaster and lived to tell the tale. Score 10 coaster enthusiast XP points. Now off to Chimelong Paradise!
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