China 09/23 – Glorious Orient + Oriental Heritage Ningbo
After leaving Nanjing we passed through Suzhou once more to collect bags and stuff before taking another train down to Ningbo, the final basecamp of the trip.
I was here back in 2017, on my very first proper trek through China and wasn’t a fan of the place or the parks. Didn’t make life easy for myself back then, using public transport for everything and it took some ridiculous amount of time to get out to the Fantawild resort that calls itself Ningbo. But it’s so stupidly far away, in a no mans land between a bunch of other lesser cities.
Taking a direct car this time, from the right end of the city, was still well in excess of an hour, and by far the most expensive fare to date. Why, though?
Day 13 – Glorious Orient Ningbo
New park, that’s why.
There’s just something about Ningbo. You can’t see here because we’re riding the bow wave, but this park, like it’s neighbour in 2017 appears to ONLY attract a TON of tour groups of the worst theme park guests you’ll encounter in China.
They’re obviously on some package deal, there might even be some government cultural scheme to get the village elders out and experiencing the wider world, Fantawild love to win awards about that sort of thing. But they generally appear have very little interest in being there, spending the entire day shouting at each other about whatever, whether on rides or otherwise, and making the queues an unnecessary ordeal.
This is what you want to see though, power on ahead and find an empty ride with the staff smiling and waving. Their day is about to get a whole lot worse.
Sharp Shooter is a bit of an odd one, setting the tone for most of the park really. The playful looking exterior leads to a more sinister undertone. Basically we’re going to war with the Japanese, but it’s kiddified.
So you’ve got this small world vibe from the characters and figures, and it’s pretty cartoony, but it’s all guns and bombs and happy tunes.
The ride system itself is like a Buzz Lightyear, but with trains rather than an Omnimover. You get your own little two seater pod and a swivel stick to turn where you like. The first of that style I’ve seen from Fantawild and it’s pretty good overall, if you can look past the theme.
Like that.
No more distractions though, I’ve got to get to this Vekoma before it becomes a living hell.
Yes, #1 Fighter Jet is the name of the game. The Vekoma Top Gun launch coaster exclusive to Glorious Orient properties for now. There’s three currently operating and two more on the way, this was the 2nd to open by a couple of months.
This is what we want to see, the final section of queue heads indoors where you get a classic Fantawild ‘have a seat while we’re slow and arbitrarily don’t run the ride for a while’. Every attraction is treated like a show in that regard, something to be initiated rather than continuously operated. Empty though.
Which, on a single 8-seater train can get pretty bad, I imagine. Still keeping pace I jumped in the front row to find out what it’s all about.
The launch sequence is rather nifty. You pull out onto the deck of the aircraft carrier and pause for a moment before being wrenched down and off the end of it. It appears Vekoma have finally fixed my little launch bugbear – it doesn’t do that ugly little tap on the back of the head as it initiates, it’s smooth all the way, lovely.
That first element is pretty glorious, a rolling inversion directly into an airtime filled top hat, a pretty rare and special sensation for now that I very much appreciated. Keep on innovating.
From there the layout focuses a lot on tight turns which are pretty positive-heavy, though not overly so for me on this occasion. This is still in keeping with the Fighter Jet theme of course. There’s a couple of pleasant moments that break those forces, much like I found on Wrath of Zeus earlier in the year, in which a heavy head is suddenly relieved by a graceful inversion.
The mid course breaks up the flow too much for my liking, and it’s likely entirely unncessary in it’s current state. I’m guessing this part of the design was significantly influenced by the tiny trains and wanting to keep capacity up as high as possible but, contrary to everything else that’s been going on, why would a plane slow to a crawl in mid air before resuming?
Other than that it’s highly competent, if a bit short on airtime for my own liking even when it does try. Opening with such a highlight of an element does lead to the rest of it never quite living up to that. It didn’t leave me begging for more, but I respect the hell out of it, kinda like a lot of these Vekomas that aren’t Fønix.
Backtracking to #2 Sky Track now, with crowds beginning to arrive, a slightly less tasteful +1. The Beijing Shibolai Junior Coaster Rev B is a pepped up Wacky Worm layout. Same figure 8, but with more profiling and less Wacky. I’m sure it’ll take the world by storm.
These things already have taken the world by storm, and it’s to our detriment. Could you fit in that?
And to finish off the coaster collection in quick succession, not too far around the corner was #3 Frontline Charge, our second of these Junior Boomerangs on the bounce. Can we make it a third?
Custom.
Creds complete I was more excited to experience other new dark rides, Railroad Warriors in particular seemed to have a lot of potential.
Keeping up that wartime theme in the queue.
It’s a 4D motion based car ride extravaganza, one of the latest from Fantawild. Even Nuwa is getting old now. The most striking initial feature is that it has machine guns mounted to the front.
I had this ride translated as Railway Guerilla originally, the gist of the story is that you’re in this assault vehicle and you need to blow up a train before it deliveres supplies and/or people in a manner that would support the Japanese war effort rather than your own. Cheery stuff once more.
So there’s a lot of positives here. It looks pretty great in a lot of places, there’s a lot more physical sets, animatronic led scenes, which have been less of a thing for Fantawild for now. They’re branching out and continually attempting to up their game. I like that. The use of the ride system itself, coupled with the guns and the theme, leading to moments of basically strafing and cutting down bunches of Japanese soldiers through gaps in the broken rubble of a railway station, is clever. Some of the media based action is pretty spectacular as well.
I can appreciate all that, but it’s not my cup of tea, having this re-enactment of real world scenes of war in a theme park, and then literally ending with photos, videos and banners of veterans in a ‘thank you for serving our country’ type affair. It’s likely perfect for the Chinese setup of ride something once and never again. But you’re not gonna do a rollercoaster tycoon punch the air and run back round to experience it all again.
Next on the rotary was a flying theatre, unimaginatively named Let’s Fly, the same as all their others. What does this one have in store for us?
The queue is overwhelmingly filled with the history of transporation, so perhaps that’s a clue.
In true Fantawild fashion, you skip past all that at speed and stand and wait in a mostly unthemed spot, a few of the tour groups were seeping into every corner of the park by now and this had a bit of a painful wait as a result.
You can see why once you get to the ride area. They batch you onto multiple floors where you get a little speech about what to do with loose items, how to buckle a seatbelt etc. before they open the doors. Once unleashed, utter chaos. Because they’re always loudly talking at each other no matter the situation and of course paying no attention to the guy with the megaphone giving intstructions, there’s no semblance of understanding as to what they’re doing.
None of this was helped in this case by the weird fact that purpose made cubby holes between each ride vehicle were not allowed to be used. Instead they had a small plastic bucket between each, about the size of an A4 piece of paper, which quickly became an absolute mountain of stuff, spilling out into the ride area. Plastic bags of tomatoes for lunch. Cauldrons of soup. Every weather related item of clothing known to man. All piled on top of my bag at this point because I was the only one to do it properly.
One of my biggest issues with Flying Theatres has always been this. No matter what part of the world you’re in there’s a huge disconnect between narrative and commencement of the ride. The faff, never ending faff of having to load one of these and get it going just leaves me feeling so exhausted with life that I just want the damn thing to be over with by the time it’s begun.
None of this was helped in this case by the weird fact that it’s just another sightseeing extravaganza. Given the queue and theme of the park I had thought we might get something a little custom. Look at some old trains and stuff. Nope, just a poorer quality version of that which we had been experiencing at the Sunac properties, with this really annoyingly repetitive loop of music every 6 seconds or so that’s trying so hard to emulate a sense of wonder.
It was ass. Donkey?
I’m conflicted with the park at this point, it all looks so good. Why am I not enjoying it?
Look at the integration of the play areas. There’s so much thought put into certain things.
Ok, another dark ride, Hangar Breakout. Longest wait yet, again in an unthemed cattlepen, before literally urging you to race past some theming, an elaborately decorated dinner table, and an entire preshow room which they basically never use, to get to the ride.
Things were all a little familiar here. It’s another motion based car ride, though not with 3D glasses and with smaller vehicles.
The gist of the story is that you’re in this assault vehicle and you need to blow up a plane before it deliveres supplies and/or people in a manner that would support the Japanese war effort rather than your own. Cheery stuff once more.
So there’s a lot of positives here. It looks pretty great in a lot of places, there’s a lot more physical sets, which have been less of a thing for Fantawild for now. They’re branching out and continually attempting to up their game. I like that. The use of the ride system itself, coupled with being crashed into by planes, leading to moments of quite violent responsive motions, is clever. I was really picking up on the fact that every moment is impeccably timed with the on screen action vs what the vehicle is doing. Some of the media based action is pretty spectacular as well.
If there’s anything to rival the Dollywood rocking chair I think it might be these things.
Now we’re talking. Zhiyuan Zhiyuan ended up being my favourite of the big dark rides.
Learning. Some show was going on by the time we reached it and finally had the place to ourselves again.
The Zhiyuan was a protected cruiser built for the Imperial Chinese Navy and the ride is more of a history lession than a re-enactment.
It’s a magic boat ride system, I guess most like Shanghai Pirates of the Caribbean, you’re moving through water but the vehicle still seems like it can do whatever the hell it wants.
One of the first scenes involves a British shipyard, which is where the ship in question was built, complete with Rule Britannia soundtrack, which was an unusual surprise.
We later find out that this bloke spent all his money on partying instead of the defense budget.
As such, when the ship goes to war, in rather spectacular fashion I might add, geysers and everything, it loses and sinks.
You then get this amazing scene passing under the detailed wreckage on the seabed and it’s all emotional like ‘she was such a fine vessel, gone before her time, she now lies at the bottom of the ocean, waiting, for a better future.’ Not sure why but that bit got me in the feels. Well, moreso than shooting people at the very least.
It ends a little weird in that it decides to show you that better future. In what I expected more of the park to be like, with it originally being panned as China’s industrial revolution, rise to civilisation, that sort of thing, not just fighting people, there’s a video montage celebrating all these different scientific and technical developments.
Loved it overall though, plus that’s a pretty spectacular looking entrance.
And with that, all the major attractions in the park were complete and it was decided that that experience couldn’t be topped. I also had this niggling in the back of my mind the whole day. There’s another park next door. A park that spited me. There’s a woodie next door. A woodie that spited me.
Boooo.
Oriental Heritage Ningbo
I HATED this place so much in 2017, like one of my worst theme park experiences ever. My first time in a Fantawild and they were dead to me, what is this stupid Chinese company that can’t operate a theme park (I’m now their biggest fan). The crowd issues I’ve already described were coupled with all outdoor attractions being closed for ‘weather’, in the most lamest of excuses. It felt like I put in such monumental effort, and it was super stressful, and didn’t pay off.
Now that’s literally every holiday in China. Gotta make the best of it.
#4 Stress Express, it’s like they know it themselves. The place was absolutely dead, new park is now king, so I had to just stand at the foot of the stairs for this waiting for them to realise people might actually want to ride the rides today.
Well I didn’t want to, but I did. +1.
This was what I wanted. Sholud have been my first #5 Jungle Trailblazer, instead it became my last. In fact I’ve now ridden every woodie in China, which feels pretty special.
This wasn’t pretty special. It’s a clone of the one in Oriental Heritage Jinan, so I had no anticipation of surprises at the very least. It’s a middle of the road Jungle Trailblazer, not my favourite and not the worst, so really, really good. But oh dear, They have not looked after it.
It was riding like Thundercoaster. So rough that vision was blurred and it sucked most of the fun out of it. The layout really hauls, through what should be some epic airtime and firing you into the inversion before you know what hits you. It has the really good signature bumpy bouncy straight section of multiple pops as well, before losing a little juice at the end. I still had a good time, mostly laughing at the state of affairs and knowing what it should have been like. But perhaps those days are already behind it. Is this why they buy Vekomas now?
Oh well, not wanting to marathon that led to courtesy laps on some old friends. I checked out the timings on Jinshan Temple Showdown first, because that was a must, and then calculated what else I could squeeze in before the next ‘showing’.
How does old Devil’s Peak stack up to the other robo-coasters of the trip?
I actually got a working pre-show! I feel so honoured.
Anyway, I think it’s my favourite. It’s a little less refined than Harry Potter as a product, but I just like the atmosphere and flow of it more. You get some real creepy moments just sort of lurking and hanging there in the dark caves, ambient sounds and spooky music, not knowing how it’s all gonna kick off. The screen based antics are ok, our boy Sun Wukong kicking some fantasy monster ass. Though I argue Forbidden Journey is just a highlight reel that doesn’t make chronological sense, I suppose this one is a highlight reel of moments from Journey to the West, but at least there’s a sensible timeline.
Outside of that, it goes real ghost train in the physical sections, again just really atmospheric and to me feels a little more considered than AHH, DEMENTORS. Great stuff.
Did I say Legend of Nuwa was getting old already? This one is. It’s gone.
I actually got a working pre-show! I feel so honoured.
But no, it’s gone. It’s dead. The ride system was limping along like an old dog and barely, barely moving, for all of the action. Having just bore witness to technological marvels and precision on the new ones over the way, this was so tired and lifeless that I don’t understand it.
I questioned myself in 2020 when riding the most recent version of Nuwa whether the range of motions in the vehicle had the ability to kick more or less ass. Because that one was kicking so much ass. Turns out I’m right, there can be a huge difference in how it behaves. But why?
I keep trying The Plummet and it keeps disappointing, so let’s just stop now. An Indoor Drop Tower should be very me, but it’s weak, the story doesn’t make sense and now this one in particular at least is completely cooked. It spent at least 5 minutes after the cycle had ended moving at 0.01Mph back towards the floor, while the staff look embarassed and awkward and this stupid sound loop keeps playing over and over.
So much so that it nearly made me miss the star of the show. I sprinted back to Jinshan Temple Showdown and they ushered me in through a shortcut to catch up with the rest of the crowds making their way through the ridiculously good-looking queueline, jump-scaring another guest as I appeared through a gap along the way.
Ahh, I love this thing. You haven’t heard anyone gush about this attraction for far too long, so here it is again. You board this massive boat in an ancient water town and are treated to a very leisurely but beautifully presented trip through the surroundings, while being spun the tale of Lady White Snake.
Details are woven into every aspect. Rather than just the screen, action, screen, action you get on all these other rides, there’s separate goings on, projections of people just going about their daily business and other quirks. It just feels so alive.
The ride culminates with everyone departing the boat and standing to watch this epic showdown with live actors, water projections, fire, and a catastrophic flood to close out.
I think, think, they have different length/budget sequences of this depending on how dead the park is. And by the same principle, this affects whether or not they have actors in the ride section too, that varies for sure.
And with that, all the major attractions in the park were complete and it was decided that that experience couldn’t be topped.
I dunno what to say about Glorious Orient. It’s wonderfully presented and technically competent, but I didn’t gel with it. It’s like if the London Resort became Britannia Land and half the rides were themed to interactively gunning down Nazis. Can’t knock the execution of the ‘theme’ park, but is that a theme you want?
I’ve been slightly obsessed with the place for a couple of years now, and it just wasn’t at all what I expected. I suppose I’m just far too used to, and enthralled by, the fantasy aspects of the other parks. Fighter Jet and Zhiyuan are awesome though, and we’d never get those, so knock yourselves out.
Oriental Heritage is already a shell of its former shelf, so it seems you really need to hit these parks in their first two or three years of operation. They’re such a candle in the wind, and I think that’s part of why all of this stupid nonsense excites me so much.
Help.
We opted for the budget route back to the city, namely a slightly shorter Didi journey to the geographically nearest train station, then a train. Takes a bit longer, significantly cheaper. I said there was something about Ningbo, as the route passes through the most third world looking part of China I’ve ever seen. The station itself had one half completely closed off, meaning a stupid walk round to the other side and then the ticket counters were the only ones in the country on this trip that had a queue. No one uses them any more, the staff get physically upset at having to do their job when you go to them, because everyone else uses the app or that thing called the internet. But no, here there was a faffy queue, like the good old days and it ended up being a massive waste of time on top of the extended journey. Oh well, culture.