China 04/24 – Qingdao
That night we took the train over to Qingdao, another new city for me. Nothing overly exciting going on there in the coaster department but it was a surprisingly nice place, for China anyway.
The place is famous for two things it seems – beer and movie studios. Our closest experience to the latter was having Harry Potter flying above the bed.
And cursing us in the shower.
Day 4 – Qingdao Sunac Land
I use that term loosely because RCDB have combined three parks into one for ease of navigation. In reality this is another Sunac mall that has an indoor Sunac Land park, a Sunac Movie park like the (deceased) ones in malls next to outdoor Sunac parks AND a Sunac Water park. Each of the three are separately entranced, ticketed and contain a coaster of some description.
We had arrived too early for the main park anyway so headed over to the movie park which I was most interested in. I found this Jinma interactive dark ride coaster hybrid in research a few years back and the way in which it was described was like it was located in an actual movie studio tour/experience, so had been picturing more of an HB World type affair.
The reality is more pedestrian in that it’s just another a Sunac mall Movie park sadly. But is it even that? I was getting a vibe. No entrance sign actually straddling the entrance area, just a bunch of claw machines and, in the distance, darkness. Am I going to be accosted to ride some go-karts?
Taking a wander deeper inside was very familiar. It was dark, there were no signs of life, there were leaflets strewn about the place.
It once again turned into a bit of an abandoned park exploration, all of these pictures being taken with flash.
Spooky dragon heads poking out of the darkness.
This was the beginnings of a horror walkthrough, which I imagine could have been quite the experience to walk through by nothing but torch light.
This was the entrance to the coaster I wanted (and track above). Not looking promising, but I did find some sort of maintenance/cleaners check sheet taped to a wall somewhere that had dates and signatures up til the current month. We’ll be back.
Back over at the ‘main’ park, which was ready to receive, it’s free to enter so picked up a cheap deal for 4 ‘major attractions’ – only really wanted the two creds.
They have a crappy 9D experience here, which was promptly skipped.
#1 Laoshan Flying Dragon or ‘Suspension Roller Coaster’ was the first to open. Apologies for the bad photos in this place, the extremes in lighting were playing havoc and I was on the wrong phone.
Had mild intrigue about this ride, it’s a Jinma suspended with the new style track, custom layout, inversion. Think Vekoma STC.
I got the old Wanda classic of staff woman being very happy to have an actual customer, leading me down the queue and setting everything in motion. She got as far as pushing dispatch before being shouted at by some bloke and was then never seen again while he proceeding to run the ride. Hope she wasn’t fired.
Think Vekoma STC, but poor. It rode like ass, barely gaining any momentum throughout the layout against all the shaking and then clunked itself through the inline twist inversion in four countable and uncomfortable stages. I’ve seen signs that Jinma products have been improving in modern times. This was not one of them.
We then sat on a bench for an hour because there was nothing else to do and they wouldnt open the other cred yet.
And then they did. Told you they had a thing about beer here.
Custom spinner? Or at least a layout I haven’t come across before. #2 Free Tackle was different, it weren’t great.
Thus ends the park. Headed up to the water park, hoping they’d be lenient about outfit requirements should we want just ‘the cred’. All the ticket desks were lit up, but no one was home. The actual entrance was semi-permanently fenced off. I can only assume the place only opens in peak periods.
From the limited photos on rcdb, one of which, amusingly, is a duplicate that’s zoomed in and mirrored, along with a brief promotional video that was playing outside the main park, I have my doubts about whether ‘Air Sea Battle’ is a coaster at all. It’s powered, has water guns, I’m yet to see an elevation change, so in my head canon, this was no loss.
Headed over to the movie park again and they had actually turned a few lights on. A lone woman was running a desk and offering up some crappy 7D experience, two less Ds than the main park sadly, in what had already become a repurposed area.
The park is clearly in decline like several of the others, though it was claimed that the coaster would reopen soon for the school holidays, further backing up my theory about the water park.
No use to me, so RIP.
Time to get jiggy with some +1s
Beer City Neverland Theme Park
To use a Gavin Jones line, there were no pictures of these places online, so you’re welcome.
There’s a bunch of tents set up around the perimeter of the place, all about beer, it appears they host some form of festival here but clearly that wasnt going on at this moment in time. Nevertheless, after some corralling of staff, this pumpkin provided tickets for the lone cred and lone reason we set foot in the joint.
We already knew it was made by Qin Long, the biggest of theirs I’ve ridden so far! We still don’t have a name. #3.
Two laps and it vibrated hilariously throughout. Job done.
There’s a ‘beer culture museum’ across the road, but I had a date with destiny.
Qingdao Rio Car(no)val Theme Park
Elsewhere along the coast, lies a rather pleasant shopping district with a rather unpleasant rollercoaster.
Thankfully it was closed for refurbishment. That guy in shot was snooping around too, even peeking in one of the locked doors. Maybe he’ll have the revolutionary information out there before me.
So, done for the day, we took a pleasant stroll around the area.
And the perimeter of the park of course. There is/was an indoor/outdoor log flume thing.
And a Beijing Shibaolai built Volare. Yet to experience one of these, I was fairly confident that I didn’t want to. It had no station or cars, so it won’t be hurting anyone any time soon.
Jumped on the Qindao Eye (yes, spelt wrong) for some views.
Nice.