Lisebergerare
Roller Poster
For my first post on the forum, I'd like to post some thoughts on my recent trip to China, where I managed to go to three parks. (plus a drop tower on Canton Tower). China has experienced a theme park boom over the past decades, and has some incredible rollercoasters. You need to go to a few parks to get a decent number of coasters, but once there the rides are great. Chinese park operations are ...unusual and frustrating, but when most rides are walk on you can live with it.
Other highlights in the park: an S&S Space Shot, and the water ride Springtime Surf (cross between a water park tube slide and a flume). There is also an (upcharge) big wheel, worth it for the view and the cabin lighting control.
There are plenty of other rides but most aimed at kids or domestic flat rides. The park is themed nicely and has loads of live entertainment, but the paint is peeling, and it was pretty empty. The lighting design at night makes it look a lot better! Worth coming here for the dueling dragons but little else.
Ops are wild at this park - rotating staff halfway through loading, no choice as to which side of the wing coaster to go on, times where everyone is waiting until something happens, not letting people through to the airgates until everyone is off (and again the "we all leave the station at once"). Aside from that, the park has great theming, clear signposting, and makes the most of its layout on a hill - the S&S Shot tower (with only one side open) is up on a hill with great views.
Guangzhou Sunac Land
My first stop, mainly for the (non-)Dueling Dragons. They were only running the green side on my visit, which is a great coaster! It rides really well, plenty of airtime and hangtime. Ops were frustrating (separate sets of batching, the mandatory warm-up drills, everyone leaves the stations together), but as it was a walk-on it didn't matter too much. The plus side is that despite the length of walk to the exit and back through the queue, I was able to get on every dispatch. Front and back are both great, and the lights on at night make for a really pretty ride.Other highlights in the park: an S&S Space Shot, and the water ride Springtime Surf (cross between a water park tube slide and a flume). There is also an (upcharge) big wheel, worth it for the view and the cabin lighting control.
There are plenty of other rides but most aimed at kids or domestic flat rides. The park is themed nicely and has loads of live entertainment, but the paint is peeling, and it was pretty empty. The lighting design at night makes it look a lot better! Worth coming here for the dueling dragons but little else.
Chimelong Paradise, Guangzhou
This is one the world's most popular parks, and it shows! There were actually people here! This park is more lively, has a lot more in terms of theming, entertainment, and flat rides. It is a very commercialised park - F&B is pricey, and they've got a choice of multiple different fast track wrist bands (and of course one doesn't cover all the good rides). I picked a bad time to come here - the B&M was being rebuilt in a new location (to get around the 20 year rule), and the Premier Rides Sky Rocket was closed for ??maintenance??. But I managed a few goes on the Mack junior coaster "Young Star" - nothing special but a fun layout (and two-train ops!!) The Jinma Rides Launch Coaster was good fun. I'm glad I skipped the posted 100-minute queue, but a decent ride and good ops - tunnel launch and then a fairly intense layout. The Zamperla revolving drop tower was great too - good view and magnetic drops are always decent.Happy Valley Chongqing
Last-minute decision to come here but I'm glad I did. Another quiet park, back to normal Chinese ops. There are four coasters here - the Jinma Rides family coaster (Monte Carlo Track) was a nice warm-up - two lift hills and used the terrain well, along with some fun theming. The family boomerang (aptly named Family Coaster) was fine, if a little rough. But the highlights were the GCI (Jerome's Wooden Dragon) and the B&M Wing Coaster (Flying Wing). Both on one-train ops of course, and mandatory batching to the lift up to the GCI + exercises, but the rides themselves were good. Both used terrain well and had a decently long run-time. The B&M especially was running smoothly, lots of great twists and hangtime, and just generally a great ride.Ops are wild at this park - rotating staff halfway through loading, no choice as to which side of the wing coaster to go on, times where everyone is waiting until something happens, not letting people through to the airgates until everyone is off (and again the "we all leave the station at once"). Aside from that, the park has great theming, clear signposting, and makes the most of its layout on a hill - the S&S Shot tower (with only one side open) is up on a hill with great views.