Chengdu, Sichuan, China – Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
While today it seems like nearly every city in China has at least one theme park with a decent western-built coaster or two, back in 2011 I had very few options for visiting a city in China’s interior that would also offer some Swiss-made steel. Happy Valley Chengdu, having opened in 2009, was one of the few options available. It would also be my first park in the Happy Valley chain.
Happy Valley often gets compared to Six Flags for being China’s most visible nation-wide chain of parks featuring big coasters, but I don’t think the comparison is entirely accurate. For me the more apt comparison seems to be Happy Valley as budget regional versions of Islands of Adventure from ’99 to ’09: heavily masterplanned with colorful styrofoam themed structures in an eclectic collection of lands, featuring only a couple of big exposed coasters amid a middling mix of decorated flat rides and other attractions, and all remaining relatively untouched after opening day.
I arrived at Happy Valley on a very overcast early spring morning. The park entrance is through a large arched canopy housing several dirigibles and flying craft, apparently as part of a park thesis statement.
The aviator theme continues into the first zone and the one most of interest to me: Dream of Mediterranean, home to the park’s two largest coasters as of 2011.
Dragon in Clouds felt like a very apropos name for a foggy day like today. Not sure how dragons relate to biplanes or the Mediterranean, though.
Dragon in Clouds is a Vekoma Shenlin-model SLC, similar to Kumali at Flamingoland but with an additional helix.
The layout features a spiraling first drop…
…followed by a vertical loop…
…cobra roll…
…zero-G roll…
…and concludes with two helices in opposite directions.
Unfortunately the Dragon in Clouds was exceptionally rough. Even putting that roughness aside, I greatly prefer the standard layout SLC to the Shenlin model. Whereas the traditional SLC has a fairly dynamic pace with rapid-fire inversions distributed throughout the layout, the Shenlin model just puts a pretty conventional package of bigger, slower-paced inversions at the start of the layout, then burns off the rest of the speed with an uninspired helix finale. It’s about as boilerplate as a multi-inversion coaster layout can get, and combined with the unpleasant riding experience and excruciatingly slow-moving queue I only bothered to ride it twice.
Fortunately there’s a much better ride right next to it: Fly Over Mediterranean.
Although the name sounds like it should be a flying theater, it’s actually an Intamin Mega-Lite coaster. One of four built between 2008 and 2009, it would be the first of three Mega-Lites I would get to ride in Asia this year. At the time when they first opened I recall many enthusiasts proclaiming the Mega-Lite to be the best thing Intamin had done since Expedition GeForce. While I obviously thought Fly Over Mediterranean looked good enough to plan a trip to Chengdu for, I was a bit skeptical that it would measure up to all of the hype I had heard.
The shorter four-car train uses the same design as the standard Intamin mega coasters.
It even includes a high-speed elevator cable lift despite being barely 100 feet tall.
The ride has a very strong sequence of elements that uses pairing and repetition to create a very dynamic experience. The steep first drop leads into a high-speed ground-level curve that gives an enhanced sense of speed. This maneuver might cause blackouts on a giga-coaster, but for a modestly-sized ride it helps maximize the moment when it still has the most kinetic energy.
Then it’s up into a twisting camelback hill, providing a delicious combo of float and rotation.
That first hill is next paired with a second, much more devious straight camelback producing intensely sustained negative G’s. For many this is the highlight of the ride, although for me that moment is still to come.
In this first part of the ride, a pattern is established: a flat speed turn, a twisting hill mixing two forces, and then a straight hill with strong negative forces. After another speed turn, it’s then poised to repeat this pattern only now delivered in multiples of three.
This sequence of three back-to-back S-curve hills features some equally extreme forces mixed with a wonderfully rhythmic serpentine motion. The first hill is larger than the next two, creating the impression that the ride is gaining speed as each maneuver becomes tighter and wilder, while flowing very naturally into the next maneuver. This for me is the highlight.
After another quick turnaround it heads into a sequence of three (well, maybe two-and-a-half) straight bunny hops, producing more intense negative G-forces but at a much faster rhythm. It might not be the most unique aspect of the ride, but it’s still an incredibly satisfying finale to the main sequence.
A broad turnaround leads back into the brakes. Compared to the intensity of everything moments before it’s almost surprising how quickly it flips the switch from 11 back down to, like, 2. At first I didn’t like it as it felt like a waste of potential, but once I thought of it as a calming denouement that mirrors the initial speed turn that kicks things off, I could see how it has a place in the layout.
Fly Over Mediterranean definitely makes the most with only 100 feet of height and less than 2,500 feet of track. Within that class of coasters, very few come close to comparison.
That said, it is a very short, bucking bronco of a ride that’s ready to toss you off down the exit ramp almost as soon as you climb aboard. I could certainly appreciate how much it does with so little, but also still prefer many of the traditional mega-coasters that have a little bit more… presence.
Moving on, I next encountered the family area of the park, I believe called Magic Castle. When the designers asked which colors to include, OCT responded “yes.”
Since my visit I believe this area has been redeveloped into a much better looking desert themed area including a GCI wood coaster. Since it’s been torn down, at least I can say I have visited here.
I ended up missing the North Pole Adventure (I’d get to try it in the other Happy Valley parks) but as able to ride the Mad Rats, my first Golden Horse spinning coaster. As of this writing, I’m fairly certain this is the most duplicated production model roller coaster in the world. (Although the SBF compact spinning coaster is close on its tail.)
The ride was utterly unremarkable, refusing to spin and lacking any of the sharp drops that typically give these styles of mice rides a bit of variety beyond an endless series of flat turns.
Aside from any aesthetic crimes committed in the kids zone, Happy Valley Chengdu is a much greener park than the other Happy Valleys, relying more on landscaping than on oversized thematic structures.
(Although there’s still a number of strange oversized themed objects, too.)
Great Szechwan was the most detailed of the themed environments on offer, based on regional culture and identity.
While the level of detail is still less than the similarly inspired Anandapur zone in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the fact that I had to travel to Sichuan province, immersed in the air and climate of western China, does seem to make my personal experience a bit more authentic than if this same zone were built elsewhere in the world. I guess the question is if this zone has any aspirational appeal to locals, or if it’s a cheesy analogy to DCA 1.0 that only people visiting from outside the region like?
The main attraction in this zone is the Vekoma Mine Train coaster, Dragon in Snowfield. A bit confusing with Dragon in Clouds on the other side of the park, although I’ll admit this name in particular conjures some very calming imagery.
It’s the same production model dual-lift mine train coaster found in multiple other locations, although the Himalayan inspired theme with a giant ornamental folly nearly double the height of the coaster itself does give it a distinctive visual presence within the park.
The pastel colored train looks a little out of place amid the amidst the much heavier colored surroundings.
The ride is pretty middling, which is enough to make it solidly the second best in the park (as of 2011), as there’s no close competition for either the first or third positions. The hard ridged bench seats don’t do it any favors.
The scenery is impressive, but despite the scale it does little to conceal the fact that it’s built atop a flat field. There’s only a single full tunnel in the second half of the ride. That’s the problem with a compact production model layout for a ride type where the integration with an unpredictable terrain is the most important feature.
Here’s a POV video I shot from the rear car:
Nearby, an attraction called Tomb Risk piqued my curiosity.
With “features: fantastic & lifelike” and a “lifelikeness index” of four stars, how could I miss such a stunning simulation of life?
What it turned out to be was an imitation of the old “Sounds Dangerous!” show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where you sit in a dark room wearing headphones as you hear various spooks and ghouls move around you. While it’s an experience that could easily be replicated in one’s own living room, the best part was listening to the reactions at the rest of the much more easily scared audience.
While we were waiting for the attraction to start (as a Happy Valley park, there’s always plenty of time between cycles), the three girls next to me asked where I was from and if I could record a short interview with them for a school English project. Presumably it’s not too often they get to meet a native English speaker, so I happily obliged. The conversation continued, and they introduced themselves as (front to back) Cherry, Susan, and Cher.
Since I took a picture of them they insisted they return the favor.
Up last was what I think was the Sunny Harbor land, which feels likely influenced by Disney California Adventure’s Paradise Pier, as both allow a dense concentration of flat rides that would otherwise be hard to theme as something else.
And my new friends from the Tomb Risk were still with me! After the ride the conversation continued as we all walked the same direction, and soon it became mutally clear that they’d be tagging along with me for a couple of hour to ride rides (or “play games,” which I discovered was how they translated it; at first I thought they were really into the games of skill, though I suppose it makes more sense than a words that’s both a verb and a noun.)
Sunny Harbor has a handful of amusement park staples, including a pair of S&S towers…
…a giant frisbee ride (perhaps from Zamperla?)…
…a Zamperla Disk’O (closed)…
…a double Top Spin style ride (also closed but testing)…
…and a giant splash boat, missing the faux mountain found at other parks in China.
Whenever I’m confused by the theming in a Chinese theme park, I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that it has something to do with the language barrier.
Susan and Cher wanted to give the haunted house a walk through so I obliged them.
The haunted house was… not very impressive, if this lack of facade was anything to go by. The girls screamed a lot but as I recall they also expressed an ambivalent opinion of it once we were out.
The queues were a bit long by this point of the day so I appreciated the opportunity to make conversation. So often when you’re traveling you only get to know people as anonymous passersby or through brief, usually commercially-structured interactions. Though the political systems of our home countries couldn’t be more different, getting to spend part of an afternoon with Cherry, Susan, and Cher were a reminder that China and the U.S. have grown to have a surprising amount of cultural similarities, especially with regard to the consumption of entertainment. The only difference between China and other countries with theme parks I’ve visited was that here I was more obviously coded as an English-speaking foreigner, which made it possible for them to break the wall of anonymity and begin a conversation. Once I was past that barrier, I could see very few difference between them and a group of girls from anywhere else in the world.
(Although I wouldn’t have been surprised if they reported to their English class that Americans have a strange cultural tradition of obsessively taking pictures of whatever amusement ride hardware they see.)
After they left I had one last ride left on my to-do list, the Flying Island. These have gone nearly extinct within the U.S., but have shown a surprising popularity among Chinese theme parks. The platform allows an unobstructed view of the entire park, showing off the many waterways that are integrated with the landscape.
I forget where in the park this was, but had to take note of this map that labels the world by trade agreements. Theme parks are FuNuTainMenT!
Finished the day racking up laps on Fly Over Mediterranean until it was time to close.
And with that, I bid adieu to Happy Valley Chengdu. While it’s not as elaborate as the other Happy Valley parks in the chain, the plentiful green spaces and waterways gives it a much more tranquil feeling. The addition of a GCI wood coaster and B&M dive machine to the skyline have finally given the mega-lite some quality company. If I’m ever in the region again (most likely to try more Sichuan cuisine; my wife is incredibly jealous that I got to try Chengdu hot pot before her!) I’ll be happy to return to Happy Valley once again.
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