Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park

Today, Beijing enjoyed another blue-sky day. To celebrate, Liz and I visited Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park (北京石景山游乐园). According to its Wikipedia page, the slogan for the theme park is “Disney is too far to go, please come to Shijingshan”. Before going, I had read mixed reviews about the park, so we decided that it would certainly be an interesting day one way or another. 

As I waited for for Liz to arrive, I noticed a spherical object; suspiciously similar to a structure I had seen many years ago while on a family holiday to Orlando, Florida. Apparently, this park has had some issues regarding copyright and a certain Disney family. 

An albino Bugs Bunny?

We paid the 10元 entrance fee and excitedly entered the Whimsical Kingdom (I am being careful not to refer to it as magic - I don’t want a lawsuit on my hands). Walking into the park, we were met with an ocean of people eating snack food. We weren’t sure if the park is always saturated with snack stalls, or if it was part of the temple fairs that occur during Chinese New Year celebrations. Either way, the snacks distracted the majority of the crowd whilst we made a mad dash for our first ride. It was a goldmine-type ride that had honestly seen better days. But it still gave us a few giggles. 

The theme park was opened in 1986 and it seems that some parts have not been refurbished or repainted since then. But I feel like this adds a certain charm to the experience and on some rides an element of danger that heightens the excitement factor. 

ur ass adventure has seen better days...

Rawr! 

Exploring the park, we stumbled across the “American Adventure”. This ‘Wild-West’ themed ride involved us sitting on a train and using laser guns to shoot at figurines of animals (such as the well-known American marsupial, the kangaroo) and rabid humans with Exorcist-style rotating heads. The random animals and utter strangeness of this ride certainly made it one of the highlights of the day. It has also helped me to have a deeper understanding of American culture. 

There were quite a few rides that were closed or out of order. Visitors must pay for each ride individually and coupled with the militant snack binging that kept occurring, the queues for the rides were not too long. 

At one point during the adventure, we came across a rather worrying sight. I spotted what appeared to be a person eating the contents of a plant pot. This clearly required further investigation...

In fact, you may be relieved to know that the plant pot is actually filled with ice cream, covered with a chocolate/sugary powder and decorated with chocolate rock sweets around a sprig of mint. 

The park provided us with a fun day out and a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the sunshine on a clear day. It is conveniently situated very close to its own subway station, Line 1 Bajiao Amusement Park. I would definitely recommend this amusement park to anyone looking for a fun day out…and I’m not taking the Mickey!

  

Hôm nay tôi đã đi đến một công viên giải trí. Tôi rất thích tàu lượn siêu tốc ^_^
Công viên giải trí này có rất nhiều quầy thực phẩm… tôi là con lợn tham ăn! =))