China 04/18 – Shenyang

Day 2 – Hotno Park

Grabbed a taxi the next morning and asked to head for the Hotgo resort. It contained another friendly driver but he was somewhat useless and must have smoked about 30 times during the journey.
The somewhat useless part came half an hour into the journey where he pulled over and asked a man on the street where Fantawild was.
Whoa whoa whoa,
whoa
whoa.
There’s no way I’m going to another Fantawild Adventure in a hurry (HA!).
In his mind, Hotgo was in the same place. In reality, I knew he was way off.
He opened up maps on his phone and got us to find the route for him and then set off again.

Another half an hour later we had left civilisation behind and a massive castle with a couple of B&Ms appeared on the horizon. I fully expected them not to be ready as the construction progress was almost moving backwards by that time, but I wanted the woodie in the same resort, so told him to follow signs to the already completed Jungle World park. As he got near he pulled over to what looked like construction workers sitting around in the road, but he maintained these were local taxi drivers.
Turns out the whole resort was closed. Turns out I’ve discovered a new adversary and stumbled across the only big brand park in China with a seasonal opening calendar. None of it wast open at all until the following weekend, so cheers to the website for being completely useless.

The driver now had no clue how to leave the area we had taken so long to find and, while I got out my list of backup parks again, he jumped out of the car and into the passenger seat of another passing taxi for a chat.
“Where to next?”
“Botanical Garden mate.”

Got a rather spiteful view of Time Travel on the way out of the area. The rollercoaster I had come so far to ride, only for it to slip through my fingers by a mere week. To add insult to injury, I didn’t realise how good it actually looked until I saw it in person. It seems to follow the terrain very well.


Day 2 – Shenyang Notanical Garden

This place wasn’t too far down the road and we were soon pulling over at the side of the road by a big bridge that crossed over to the entrance.
Desperate to get back to civilisation, the taxi bloke had already acquired another passenger before we had even left the vehicle. Thanked him for the detour and jumped out.

Crossed the bridge into the massive entrance plaza and spotted the ticket window. Asked about the rides. Nope.
Turns out I’ve discovered 2 new adversaries in China. All closed for the wind.
Not wasting any more time with that then. Back over the bridge and into the car park where apparently a bus should be along soon. On closer inspection there was no way a bus was going to bother entering this run down car park with barriers everywhere, so waited by the side of the road while a dog barked at us for half an hour. Another taxi would have sufficed as well, but it was a desolate place.
Salvation appeared on the horizon. A bus back to the city.

This terminated at the main station, directly opposite the hotel we had left many hours earlier. Well that’s the morning gone. Next backup park?


Jumped on the metro.
Went to the wrong mall. Had ice cream.

Went to the right mall.

Day 2 – Sinbad Happy Castle

This place had a certain charm to it, reminding me most of Berjaya Times Square. Interesting setting inside a building, but a bit tacky really.

It felt so good to actually get on something for the day, so Children Coaster (dont think it’s called Jungle Explorer, but who am I to argue with the internet?) was an instant hit. Only 1 lap of magnificence though.

Another spinner was up next, high up in a mall alongside some bad windows looking out over a construction site of a city. Oh yeah, that’s where the resemblance comes from.

Were joined by a local couple, who received a swift nod, so had a full car on this version. It actually span a lot and the guy was loving every second of the girl’s reaction. Not bad.

Took a lap of the park to see if anything else interesting was lurking.
It wasn’t.

Just to be sure, rode this suspended monorail which takes a lap of the park. Nope.

Somewhat satisfied, called it a day.

Day 3