Xuhui, Shanghai, China – Friday, June 3rd, 2011
If Happy Valley Shenzhen was the prototype for the Chinese theme park, then Jin Jiang Action Park was the prototypical Chinese amusement park. It opened in 1985 as Jin Jiang Amusement Park, which was, to the best that I can tell, the first amusement park built in mainland China post-economic reopening as a purpose-made ride and attraction park (as opposed to installing rides in an otherwise non-amusement location like a public park or botanic garden).
Apart from its (almost, not-quite-yet) historic character, Jin Jiang Action Park feels like the archetypal ideal of a Chinese amusement park, the place to visit if you only have one stop to try to understand what the Chinese scene is all about. Random rainbows, slightly deteriorating appearance, rapidly encroaching condo towers,
random characters or themed structures plopped in the middle of a bunch of carnival rides, maybe one good coaster. They’ve had more years to figure out “what people like,” and the results check most of the boxes, except for the ones about consistency or coherence.
Although Jin Jiang has its own dedicated Metro station, the exit drops off on the opposite side beneath a huge freeway interchange, at first appearing as if you’ve made a terrible mistake with directions. But look very closely, and there’s a few rides on the other side. It turns out to be a rather fitting, location-specific arrival sequence. No causeway revealing the full breadth of the park, no “Here you leave today…” tunnel, just a good old-fashioned reminder that amusement parks are one of the systemic symptoms of the politics of urban sprawl. We’re here!
All the ticket options. I’m not certain how to interpret the wording, but I believe you get a better deal if you buy two tickets. Way to make my loneliness more acute, Jin Jiang.
A giant empty plaza with a random world landmark replica and cartoon animal sculptures? I’m definitely in a Chinese amusement park!
The top attraction at Jin Jiang Action Park sits right up near the front gate. A Vekoma giant inverted boomerang coaster named: Giant Inverted Boomerang.
Sadly, while there were no construction safety barriers, the dirt and construction vehicles were the telltale sign that the ride was, indeed, still under construction.
File this one alongside Wood Coaster, Bullet Coaster, the Ocean Park Hong Kong expansion, and the Hong Kong Disneyland expansion for “major attractions that were supposed to debut for my trip in 2011, but I was actually a few months too early for.” Giant Inverted Boomerang opened to the public four months later. Early bird doesn’t always get the worm (or the credits, as the case may be).
A bit disappointing, having also missed out on Stunt Fall at Parque Warner Madrid and Déjà Vu at Six Flags Magic Mountain due to maintenance issues both within the past year. I hadn’t ridden a giant inverted boomerang since 2005 at Great America, and now with this one missed I wouldn’t ride one again until 2019. Interestingly, this also was to be the first new giant inverted boomerang installed at any park in nearly a decade.
Fortunately Jin Jiang wasn’t completely absent other new-ish coasters to make it worth my while. Just two years prior in 2009 the park debuted their Zamperla moto coaster model named: Moto Coaster.
Although it’s a smaller standard model compared to the larger, custom-designed Pony Express that I had recently experienced at Knott’s Berry Farm, I actually might have liked this one a bit better, not that either is necessarily an award-winning attraction. More twists and turns are packed into a dynamic, compact layout that I can never quite memorize, keeping it generally sharp and surprising throughout the full experience. Plus much smoother and more comfortable than the Vekoma counterparts.
Operating procedures were a bit of a nuisance so I had my fill after two rides on it.
Continuing to explore the rather compact park.
Get yer sweetmeats here.
Yet another coaster. This one was easily the most basic in the park, and has since been removed in 2018. A Golden Horse spinning coaster named, you guessed it: Spinning Coaster. (I’m starting to see a pattern here.)
Having done a couple of these at the Happy Valley parks, this one was a very similar experience… right down to the weird ant mascots on the safety signage. (A rip-off IP of a rip-off IP!)
One difference seemed to be a more relaxed camera policy, as I was allowed to shoot video during my ride.
Next up is a true classic, not only the Jin Jiang’s first roller coaster opening with the park in 1985, but also the first major coaster built in mainland China. It’s a Senyo Kogyo Co. “Atomic Coaster” model shuttle coaster named… wait for it… Roller Coaster!
The ride is like if you were to take the layout of a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop but use the reverse lift mechanism of a Vekoma boomerang, and with the vehicles turned backwards.
With dual lapbars and over-the-shoulder restraints, it’s far from a comfortable or graceful creation, but at least it avoids any twists or curves that could cause some unpleasant forces. A bit ominous to climb into, but reasonably thrilling and enjoyable by the time it’s over. The dip into the vertical was fun.
I also realized with its Japanese manufacture that one thing that sets Jin Jiang Action Park apart from more contemporary Chinese amusement parks is the high presence of foreign-made attractions. This was a necessity in the case of older rides like Roller Coaster, as the amusement business hadn’t even developed yet to involve any domestic ride manufacturers, although given the trends in their industry it’s still somewhat surprising to see newer European-made rides like Moto Coaster and Giant Inverted Boomerang in this park.
Sadly the Roller Coaster has been standing but not operating since 2017, the last of its manufacture (although a few Chinese knock-offs still exist). Given that in another decade or two this could become a legitimately historic attraction, I hope the park opts not to eventually tear it down. Knowing the way things are in China, however, that seems unlikely.
Last coaster on the agenda. It may be just a powered coaster, but it has a custom layout, a custom theme, a custom mountain structure with special effects, and even… I can’t believe it… a custom NAME. Behold, the Karst Cave Coaster.
Okay, it’s a bit of a schlep to get to the ride entrance in the back corner of the park. But it’s definitely worth it.
I mean, just check out the quality of that dinosaur figure. Does Universal Beijing even need their Jurassic World area with this already in the country?
Karst Cave Coaster is a custom Zamperla powered coaster inside an artificial mountain. (Karst is a type of rock formation common in China, although it looks nothing like the fake rocks on this ride.) The ride cycles the layout twice, first time at low speed in the dark as it mostly works up the energy to get to the highest point. On the second lap, the ride picks up speed as the gel lights turn on with all the colors of a Pride Parade. While I can’t objectively call it the best coaster in the park, it was without a doubt the most original (and fabulous).
With all the coasters complete (at least those that had opened to the public) I took a quick tour to see what other attractions the park had. The enormous 108 meter (354 foot) tall Shanghai Ferris Wheel was certainly a park icon. However, it required a separate ticket to ride, and between being mindful of all extra expenses, and being on a somewhat tight schedule, I opted to pass.
What appeared to be an S&S Space Shot tower appeared to be a local knock-off on closer inspection.
A log flume.
My dude with the paintbrush apparently wants me to notice his sign for a 4D attraction of some kind. No thanks.
Awesome Space Travelers, which looks like it could be a fairly cool flip-n-spew flat ride.
A “Train Cinema,” whatever that means.
And, finally, the one non-coaster attraction I did ride: the Horror House, a small dark ride.
The original dark rides were modified bumper cars to run along a fixed indoor course. From the looks of the Horror House vehicles it seems they took a similar idea. Pretty neat face sculpts, though.
The ride was predictably bizarre, but actually not a terrible throwback to the classic funfair dark rides. I’m guessing it was imported from off a European fair circuit. Sure as hell beats the dark ride at Genting Highlands that was just 30 seconds in an empty dark room. Scariest part though was when the low-powered vehicle struggled mightily to haul my ass up an incline, and I began to expect there to be an e-stop and evac.
Made it through okay. And with that, it was time to conclude my stay at Jin Jiang Action Park.
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