Resort Ranking – The Fantawilds (2025)

We’re definitely overdue an update on this old classic. Since my original guide in 2020, Fantawild have opened at least another dozen parks and I’ve managed to bring my total up to an almost absurd 25 individual Fantawild park visits. They’ve also diversified in their styles of park a fair amount since the original trilogy of themes, which is exciting, and there are plenty more interesting and unique attractions to spotlight as their dark ride game has gone from strength to strength.

Rather than expanding on the original ranking in the same style which only looked at a handful of attractions each, I figured I’d try take a similar approach to the old Happy Valley/Six Flags ranking posts (both also overdue an update). This means separating each park that I’ve visited into two main categories – the coaster rankings for the coaster fans, and the dark ride rankings for the dark ride fans.
Check those posts for a list of all the rides that can be found at each. I’ll aim to flesh out the review section for individual attractions over time as well.

Overall Resort Ranking

Now let’s combine the scores and see how the results turned out. When it comes to multi-gate resorts I figured it makes sense in most cases to base it on the best score of any individual park at that location. Having more next door is at best a bonus, at worst a distraction. This should highlight which locations have the most overall appeal right now, and we’ll look at a bit of location logistics along the way again for good measure.

#19 Fantawild Adventure Tai’an (#17 for coasters and #23 for dark rides)

Well somewhere had to come last and it’s poor old Tai’an today. It just so happens to be the oldest Fantawild park that I’ve visited, and potentially that’s still operating, as something weird is going on in Shantou. I actually really liked this park, it had a very chill atmosphere and a great setting with the Taishan Mountain backdrop that the city is predominantly famous for. I’ve spent more time than not being stressed out in Adventure parks over the years, usually because there’s something better to do that day, so visiting one as a standalone gives an opportunity to take it in a bit more.

There’s nothing special in the lineup, just the standard Dino Rampage, headbashing Suspended Looping Coaster and Mine Train combo, which is why there’s very little appeal against any other parks in this list. However I did manage to combine it with a morning at Sun Tribe, another park with plenty of Chinese dark ride intrigue and more bad coasters, so that’s something to look out for. If that’s sold it to you in any way, Tai’an is best visited from nearby Jinan, which itself is only 90 minutes from Beijing by train and found along the common Beijing – Shanghai route.

#18 Fantawild Adventure Shenyang (#17 for coasters and #22 for dark rides)

The only other solo Adventure park I’ve visited is Shenyang, under much different circumstances. Everything else I wanted to ride in the city was closed, so popped in for a half a day and didn’t really pay it much attention to be honest. Just a tick box exercise, while wishing I was somewhere else, but it does the job it needs to.

Based on images alone, Tai’an wins this by a mile, but Fantawild Adventure Shenyang has a couple more dark rides on offer to try and compensate. As for what else is nearby, the main draw for visiting the city would still be the Hotgo resort, although half of it remains unopened. Shenyang is half a day away from Beijing, in the opposite direction of the rest of the country, so not ideal.

#17 Fantawild Dreamland Qingdao (#19 for coasters and #15 for dark rides)

This also feels harsh as it was another great day out and, for being the most city-centred of almost any Fantawild park, managed to hide it rather well. For any coaster fan it’s an easy skip and while home to a couple of very good dark rides, there’s just better options throughout the chain to experience the same, and more. The unique card up Qingdao’s sleeve is the interactive Chicken Fight Back, but it’s not going to change lives.

Qingdao has multiple small Sunac parks within a mall, but not much else of interest on the theme park front. It’s also several hours of detour off of any major Beijing – Shanghai route, so a bit of an ask, unless you’re also into beer or movies. Quite a pretty city for Chinese standards though with a cleaner, coastal feel, as seen from the waterfront Ferris Wheel.

#16 Fantawild Dreamland Xiamen (#24 for coasters and #16 for dark rides)
#16 Oriental Heritage Xiamen (#10 for coasters and #19 for dark rides)

Figures, of all the multi-gate combos this often feels like the least remarkable one. A lot of that is down to the headline wooden coaster being a bit disappointing, but the combo puts you in an awkward spot. There’s slightly too much to do across both parks in one day due to likely awkward time slots on some of the major dark and show rides. While Jungle Trailblazer is still the main draw for Oriental Heritage, you probably don’t want to miss Jinshan Temple Showdown over in Dreamland.

Location-wise this also checks out, as it’s a good few hours in any direction from other major theme park destinations and even more off route from your average Chinese city hotspots. I day-tripped it from Shenzhen, which was far too long, but it’s probably best done from there or Guangzhou.

#15 Oriental Legend Handan (#13 for coasters and #14 for dark rides)

I was intrigued to find out what the ‘Oriental Legend’ brand specifically brought to the chain, especially as it was the only one at the time of my visiting. Turns out not much, this is essentially an Oriental Heritage park with a near identical lineup to the Changsha park and as such it doesn’t have any specific draws when compared to other locations. Just a great standalone theme park with good, clean Fantawild fun.

Speculation suggests the park name needed to differentiate from another nearby Oriental Heritage in Anyang that never opened, but as of 2025, Fantawild have opened a new park with the Oriental Legend name and it does now carry some differences. It will be interesting to see if the trend continues.

It’s located almost exactly between the cities of Handan and Anyang and can therefore be reached from either. Both of these cities are on the train line from Beijing to Zhengzhou (hosting two more Fantawild parks) and then onto Xi’an, so a reasonable stop off / halfway point from a major tourism route.

#14 Silk Road Dreamland (#23 for coasters and #3 for dark rides)
#14 Fantawild Adventure Jiayuguan (#21 for coasters and #21 for dark rides)

This pains me, but we can’t argue with the numbers and my love for Silk Road Dreamland is highly specific to the fact that it’s a uniquely branded Fantawild park with two unique dark rides in Legendary Dunhuang and Silk Road Saga
Also a bit of a cheat entry, these two parks don’t form part of the same resort and are found at opposite ends of the city of Jiayuguan. But let’s be realistic, if you’ve come this far, what else are you going to do in Jiayuguan?

The location is only for the most dedicated of souls. It’s about 8 hours by train from the nearest theme park or well established tourist destination in Xi’An. I opted to fly from there instead and it’s a pretty interesting area for other things, while also being very unlike the rest of China. It’ll knock a few days out of your itinerary at least.

#13 Fantawild Wonderland (#7 for coasters and #18 for dark rides)

I’m not sure what the specific intention around the Wonderland brand is yet, with this being the only one for now. The park has a playful mix of styles from across their portfolio, old and new. The key takeaway from me was that the ‘old’ has all been lovingly updated and brought into their modern era of technology and showmanship, such as on the remake of the Wizard Academy dark ride. The headline coaster is one of the strongest in the chain for me, but it’s also at Six Flags now, so that’s no doubt going to influence some decisions.

Xuzhou is a bit of a stretch from any major city, but is another that falls rather neatly on the Beijing – Shanghai route. In terms of Fantawild parks specifically, it’s also on a line between Huai’an to the east and Zhengzhou to the west, both of which are yet to come on this list, so there’s a good dose of variety to pick up between those three.

#12 Oriental Heritage Changsha (#12 for coasters and #13 for dark rides)

Tied with the above on numbers, I’ll give this park a bonus point for personal bias. Changsha seems quite middle of the road on both the coaster and dark ride fronts, within the chain. But let us not mistake middle of the road here for not being an amazing theme park in its own right. It beat out the Handan park by just one spot in both categories, while having the same headline attractions of Magic Gallery and a Vekoma Space Warp, there’s just a little more going on in the supporting lineup.

Changsha is quite centrally located and convenient for a more ‘advanced’ Chinese theme park route. It’s not likely to be on many lists for most people’s first couple of visits but it puts you within striking distance of a number of big names in the coaster world and a couple of intrigues in the dark ride world. There are also two more Fantawild parks in nearby Zhuzhou which can comfortably be reached by car from Changsha as well.

#11 Oriental Heritage Jingzhou (#15 on coasters and #9 on dark rides)

This placing highlights again just how bad a lot of the coaster lineups are at these parks, as Jingzhou still has absolutely no specific draw other than on pure count inflation. The dark rides are doing all the heavy lifting here, with Battle of Red Cliffs being the real reason to visit, it was for me at the very least. There’s also a good number of other classics here to tick off at the same time though. The main thing to watch at this park, in my experience, is how sparse and inconvenient the timeslots for all the major attractions can be.

If you cut a line straight from West to East, Chengdu to Shanghai, you’ll find this park just left of the centre. Jingzhou itself is best reached from Wuhan, particularly onwards to Chongqing and Chengdu itself, where you can find plenty more theme parks, Fantawild and otherwise.

#10 FT Wild Land (#11 on coasters and #12 on dark rides)

A fascinating anomaly of a park for now, home to both a unique dark ride and very good Vekoma thrill coaster, and the only Fantawild to bear this name so far. All of that could change in the future however. Regardless, FT Wild Land is a very pleasant park with some impressively themed areas and buildings to be explored, with a bit of a twist on the more regular Fantawilds. I like it a lot.

Taizhou (not to be confused with a different Taizhou to the north of Shanghai) is south of Ningbo and can reasonably be done as a day trip if already visiting Ningbo for other Fantawild parks. They’ve also opened a Boonie Bears Bay park within Taizhou if you want to stay over.

#9 Oriental Heritage Wuhu (#4 on coasters and #19 on dark rides)
#9 Fantawild Dreamland Wuhu (#22 on coasters and #16 on dark rides)

Tied on points with the above but I’ll give it the edge for having two parks for the price of one (and a half-ish, for a two park ticket). With Fantawild this often comes with the caveat that you can’t speedrun most of their parks to full completion due to timeslots and big shows, so 2 days is always the recommendation if you want to soak it up, or don’t plan to visit many other parks with the same attractions.
Dreamland is all about the dark rides, the best of which usually outshine the Oriental Heritage offering. But over there you’ve got a unique Jungle Trailblazer and one of the better ones at that. Solid all round resort for what is fast becoming a bit ‘old school’ Fantawild.

One of the closest resorts to the Chinese theme park hot spot that is the Shanghai area. I’ve always found the nearby city of Nanjing to be a great stopping off point, from which you can comfortably hit this park, some major Sunac parks, Dinoconda, even a Glorious Orient park. The possibilities are endless.

#8 Oriental Heritage Jinan (#8 on coasters and #10 on dark rides)

A more complete Oriental Heritage experience with a slightly worse (in my opinion) Jungle Trailblazer, it was the first Fantawild I truly fell in love with for the aesthetics. Where Wuhu requires you to visit two gates, Jinan packs both a woodie and the best dark ride of the era into one condensed experience. This particular park, also the original of it’s type, appears to be treated well by the chain, receiving a number of additions to the lineup since opening, which isn’t that common overall.

This might be driven by a rare close proximity to local competition in the slightly infamous Quangcheng Euro Park not far up the road. There’s also now a decent Sunac park on the other side of the city with more wooden rollercoaster goodness and Jinan is a good stopping point or crossroads towards the north for a number of parks we’ve already seen, while only being 90 minutes out of Beijing.

#7 Fantawild Dino Kingdom (#14 on coasters and #4 on dark rides)

Technically another tie with the above, but I’ll give it half a point for being the only Dino Kingdom (for now). This one still falls into the ‘not really worth it for the coasters’ category, but the rest of the park more than makes up for it with at least 3 (for now) unique dark rides. It’s also just a great all round experience, they really went all in on the theme, as the local region is famous for fossil discovery, and there’s dinosaurs antics to look at everywhere.

Zigong is in a seemingly growing hotspot for theme parks, Fantawild ones in particular, all located around the city of Chengdu. It’s now possible to daytrip three different variants that all opened within the last 5 years and though there was a recent major coaster loss, there’s quite a bit of competition nearby too. And pandas.

#6 Oriental Heritage Mianyang (#16 in coasters and #1 in dark rides)

The last park on the list entirely carried by dark ride lineup, which just so happened to come out on the very top of that list. While not interesting in the slightest, at the very least there’s 4 coasters for the count here, tied most with any Fantawild. As one of the more recent and refined versions of Oriental Heritage parks, there’s plenty else to keep you entertained however.

As with the above, Chengdu is your main base for this park, Dino Kingdom and now Oriental Legend Ziyang.

#5 Gloroius Orient Huai’an (#5 in coasters and #8 in dark rides)

The current flagship brand of the era has plenty going for it, even if the storytelling is a little hard to digest for a theme park. Anything with a Fighter Jet in it has the best steel coaster Fantawild can offer right now, and potentially best coaster full stop if all the woodies have significantly slipped since opening. Then some of these latest dark ride projects are technically brilliant, they’ve really outdone themselves in many ways.

Huai’an is reachable by train from Nanjing, which itself is served well from Shanghai and a good hub for many other theme parks in the region. It’s also reasonably well positioned on a route up toward Beijing, not a million miles from Fantawild Wonderland and there’s another couple of interesting parks for dark rides closer by.

#3 Fantawild Dreamland Zhuzhou (#3 for coasters and #6 for dark rides)
#3 Fantawild Adventure Zhuzhou (#19 for coasters and #24 for dark rides)

Thinking about these next two a little more in the context of a top 5, I’m going to go against my own ‘only based on the best score’ rule and mark them down for their neighbour parks as they both came rock bottom of the list on their own. As such the Adventures really don’t add much of anything other than a niggling urge to try and rush both parks in a day for maximum value and coaster count, or settle for what will feel like a comparatively subpar experience that’s nothing more than an intrigue for a second day.

The true breadth of the resort also lives and dies on the performance of the Jungle Trailblazer, which is debatable these days, with a seemingly established pattern of deterioration. And you can ride it elsewhere. But if it hits, it hits hard.

Zhuzhou was mentioned above in the Changsha advice, a fairly central location for a China trip a little more off the beaten path. You can complete the original trilogy of Fantawild brands with relative ease from this city.

#3 Fantawild Dreamland Zhengzhou (#1 in coasters and #6 in dark rides)
#3 Fantawild Adventure Zhengzhou (#24 in coasters and #24 in dark rides)

When averaged, these tie with Zhuzhou and that seems fair as they are essentially cloned resorts, the only two of their specific combination in the country. Strengths here for me in a slightly better Jungle Trailblazer that’s also a Fantawild exclusive layout (provided it still runs well). Weakness in having the lowest ranked park for both categories next door. It’s almost best left ignored, but go on, you may as well suffer it and do it better than I did.

Zhengzhou is another very central location, just positioned further north. Bit of a trek from Beijing but serves Xi’an quite well as a stopping off point. As with Zhuzhou you can get a third type of park in the area with relative ease, as Oriental Legend Handan is the next nearest Fantawild by train.

#2 Glorious Orient Ningbo (#6 for coasters and #5 for dark rides)
#2 Oriental Heritage Ningbo (#9 for coasters and #10 for dark rides)

Ningbo is one of the superior Glorious Orient parks in terms of lineup, both within and next door. The park also includes Hangar Breakout, the smaller and more nimble of the war-themed 4D motion-based dark rides. And then it has an Oriental Heritage, with all the staples.

It sounds pretty perfect now I’m talking about it and is the main reason I broke my own rules on the two above. Shame I’ve had the worst experiences of any Fantawild here and that I can personally vouch for the wooden coaster being a bit brutal these days. But the strength of Ningbo is that it won’t live or die on your experience with Jungle Trailblazer, as this is the only resort with another top tier coaster to back it up.

It’s also the closest resort to Shanghai, though in a bit of an awkward spot, the wrong side of a massive stretch of water in Hangzhou bay. The namesake city of Ningbo is actually pretty far away too, at around 90 minutes by Didi, or a slightly shorter, cheaper and more complicated combination of train and Didi. It takes a bit of dedication, but is probably worth giving a couple of days for what should be the most comprehensive Fantawild experience right now.

#1 Fantawild Asian Legend (#2 for coasters and #2 for dark rides)

I do love an anti-climax. Five years on I’ve ended up crowning the same winner. If Ningbo is the most comprehensive resort then this park remains the most condensed Fantawild experience going.

Whilst I’ve loved seeking out all their other attractions across the country since, I don’t think anything quite compares to this particular combination of unique dark ride discovery and insane wooden coaster. As a huge fan of both, this still represents the purest essence of Fantawild for me and though I sincerely hope otherwise, we may never see one like this again.

As before, the only problem with this park being different to all the rest is that it’ll make you want to try another one. And that remains a good thing.

Still not really near anything else worthwhile in the theme park world. Though it tops the list, Nanning probably shouldn’t be your first port of call in China. The nearest sensible city is Guangzhou, and there’s plenty going on in that region, so it works best on a southern trip of some description.