China 05/24 – Shanghai

Back in Shanghai, we’ve reach the end of the line. There’s one more launch coaster here that’s been eluding me for a while now, I’ve never actually been to the park so it’s lower down the spite scale, but it is getting quite annoying.
Landed in the hotel, it was raining, phoned Steel Dolphin, not open of course.

Was only a few months ago that I was in Shanghai, and it was raining, but managed to mop up a couple things on the Eastern side of the stupidly massive city. This time there were a couple of backup options far out to the West that caught my eye. Indoor ones.

Day 15 – Wanda Children’s Park

I’m not exactly sure when this one appeared on the coaster hunter radar, don’t remember spotting it when researching previous visits and didn’t realise Wanda had a foothold in this city, albeit a not very good one.

Inside was a baby spinning coaster that looked rather cute.

But the curse of soft track obstructions strikes again, slightly less decorative this time. Why?

And that’s the park.

Wanda Auto Theme Park

Over a bridge, in an adjacent mall, there’s another one.

And a slightly more interesting one at that.

Mainly because it’s home to this, whatever this is. It’s like a Jinma version of the stupid spike coasters but better capacity and it actually operates. This is what I clocked on the trawl of coast2coaster and immediately thought ‘I want that’.

They had complicated wristband options on the door but you could pay per ride, at the ride, using QR codes which worked. Getting better.
I immediately paid for both sides, to the alarm of the staff.
The advice of ‘you should try one side first to see if you like it’ fails to consider that liking things isn’t a factor in this game any more.

I did kinda like #1 & #2 Speed Racing anyway, it’s by no means offensive, more a bit something and nothing. It goes real slow along the whole first straight and turn, but gives a decent burst of acceleration along this return stretch with a bit of ducking and diving.
The other end is just more slow turns and then it ends though it looks quite cool/weird, there’s a bit of theming like a crashed car in the wall. Biggest gripe is that it doesn’t do anything about the racing aspect. There’s was no indication of victory when we beat a small child on the second side.

They also have this thing, which looked awful.

And a simulator, which looked intriguing, so waited for the appropriate time slot.

Asia-Europe Rally had decent attention to detail, the entrance walls were plastered with newspaper cuttings about all the different characters and vehicles that were going to feature in the film.

Vehicles look quite good and are on carpet. Somehow they rise above the carpet when it’s time for action.

The action was, as proclaimed, a race across the world. Very farfetched, silly and wacky, these old timey cars and caricature characters crossing all sorts of terrain and famous landmarks while constantly trying to foil each other. It started in China and ended in Paris and the main guy won, or was it us.
Decent quality anyway, this would have done well at any actual Wanda park that’s lacking a dark or show ride.

Park complete.

Trip complete.

I’ll leave you with this haunting image.

Summary

New creds – 35
New dark rides – 51
New parks – 14
New Fantawilds – 6
Best new coaster – Beyond the Cloud
Best new dark ride – Legendary Dunhuang
Best new park – Oriental Legend
Planes – 3
Trains – 19
Automobiles – 53
Spites – 8/43 (18.6%)