China 01/20 – Colourful Yunnan Paradise
Unusually photo heavy day for me here, but this place deserves it. Proper impressed.
Day 4 – Colourful Yunnan Paradise
Come on in.
That looks awful.
That looks amazing.
Obviously first port of call was the B&M and I loved the whole area for this thing.
There’s a sinister sounding heavy rock soundtrack intertwined with Tibetan monks singing and when combined with the visuals it makes for a great atmosphere. Beautiful ride.
Snow leopards watching you closely.
Suppose I’d better talk about the actual ride experience. It’s good. Not great.
Something many rides of this type lack for me is a proper wow moment. It goes through the motions, does its thing. You enjoy it, but it doesn’t really get you going.
The wingover drop is par for the course these days, then it hits an airtime(?) hill that’s far too big and sluggish to do anything at all. Some corners and inversions follow, it does the classic bouncing around in the outside seats that’s a bit of laugh.
Think the highlight for me was the above pictured keyhole inversion. It looks like those dumb slow inlines these things have, yet somehow it’s even more drawn out and at the same time much more comfortable. Like the world’s longest Zero-G. It doesn’t crush you or leave your shoulders falling into the restraint even though it holds you upside down for laughably long amount of time.
Next cred was the saaaaaaaame oooooooold mine train. With the newer track style.
At least the scenery is different.
Just some kids area.
That water coaster with the big ass tigers. I found out from being here that it’s actually named after a real place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Leaping_Gorge
I turned down paying a pound for a poncho in the queue thinking I’ve done a couple of this layout before, it ain’t that wet. The ride host seemed surprised at this and double checked to make sure I didn’t want one.
Ok, should I be nervous now? Nah, let’s do this. Boat to myself.
Drop was fine, as expected, time to drift slowly back to the station.
KABOOM. Huge geyser goes off. Rains down on me moderately hard. Aww, really?
KABOOM. Not again.
KABOOM. Getting uncomfortably wet now.
KABOOM. Just seen a bunch of locals watching me – KABOOM – “look at the white man riding the” – KABOOM – “water ride.” Ahhhh.
Station staff looked smug on my return. Good thing it was considerably warmer down this end of the country.
Blue Fire was spiting for now, they didn’t know when it would open.
So found a flying theatre.
Don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the amount of these I’ve done now so they all blend into one a bit. It was alright.
Specifically it was about all the sightseeing attractions of Yunnan province, which is meant to be the pretty part of China.
From this park alone, I’d agree.
The monorail in the park was less than ideal. Took almost half an hour for it to turn up as it only had one train. Then it wasn’t stopping at all the stations, defeating the purpose of it as a transportation ride. Then it also kept slowing almost to a halt and juddering vigorously at several seemingly random points during the circuit.
Had some good views though. And there was no rush. Happy to just chill in this park.
Rapids looked a little lacking compared to the rest of the place. Didn’t do it.
Hey, Blue Fire is running.
I like these. The original always faded a bit in my mind, leaving me thinking it was a bit something and nothing. So each time I ride one it’s a pleasant surprise.
The loop is cool, the airtime in and/or out of the midcourse and on the twisty hill is fun and the final inversion kicks ass.
Main difference here is the big elephants and the pre-launch section contains a load of historical pots and weapons scattered about with seemingly little thought.
Did this show next. Very cool.
Two tribes fighting it out. One of them is doing well in life and resides inside this fort, the other aint doing so well and wants a piece.
Had some cool horse stunts and trickery. Perhaps a bit too dialogue heavy for me overall.
It sucked that they left the doors open so people were still rocking up three quarters of the way through to then sit on their phones.
Ending was amazing. The tiger god rose up into the sky, breathing fire and wrecking both tribes because he was angry at their dispute.
So they got scared, everyone became friends and they all did a jig together to finish.
Ferris Wheel for more views. Huge.
Fallen in love yet? I had. Contender for my favourite park in the country. As a place to be, rather than for things to do.
But things to do? Lots more of this.
Got one last ride, completely alone, just as it got dark and they’d switched all the lights on around the park. Had one of my magical theme park moments on the lift.
But it wasn’t really the ride this time, just, everything else.
For the evenings entertainment they had 3 back to back shows.
First one was a light show on the wheel. Visually very impressive, got a bit repetitive.
Then there was a water projection one.
Story about a bloke with a bow basically having 3 boss fights to win back his woman.
Cool thing was – one of the boss fights was against the elephants from Launch Coaster.
More fire!
Last up was these hundred-odd drones doing their own light show.
Never seen something like this before, so I thought it was really decent.
Happy 2020. Yes, I’m starting to think so.
(Future note: little did I know how the year would turn out).
Farewell peacock. It’s been a pleasure.
Day 5