Chaoyang Park

What do you do when the stars align and the "powers that be" create a Beijing where the air pollution is low, the sun is shining and there is a gentle, pleasant breeze that allows you to bask in beautifully comfortable surroundings? Where do you go on those rare occasions when the gloriously golden sunlight beams down lovingly on you and the fresh air merrily caresses your lungs and encourages you to venture outside into a fantastic albeit rare, clean environment that yearns to be explored and enjoyed? 

- You visit one of Beijing's many parks of course! If you are feeling extra adventurous, you can go to Chaoyang Park which (to my knowledge) is Beijing's largest public park. It has its own small amusement park (with fairground/carnival rides), football and basketball courts, water park and lakes. You can watch people perform tai chi, flying kites and playing jianzi (in which the players must keep a weighted shuttlecock-type object in the air without using their hands).

I got lost inside this mammoth beast of a park a mere few weeks after moving to China. It's still too painful to go into too many details. Let's just say that after several hours of trying to locate friends, I soon began to panic. If only I had bothered to watch some Bear Grylls episodes. But I didn't want to resort to drinking my urine in the park. Instead I turned on my survival mode and used all the resources I had brought with me - a bag of Tsing Tao beer cans and a packet of chewing gum. I was alarmed to notice that a gaggle of stray cats had decided to stalk me around the park. They could sense my vulnerability but thankfully I struck upon an excellent idea. After a couple of cans and a quick brainstorming session, I happened to think about the Hansel and Gretel story in which they ventured into the woods but left a trail of breadcrumbs to follow in order to get back home. I had not left anything that would direct me out of the park, but in a twisted version of the fairytale, I decided to follow the trail of phlegm globules that had been hacked up by other visitors and placed sporadically around the pathway. They would have to eventually lead me to one of the exits. It was dark when I stumbled out of my temporary prison. I had not managed to meet my friends, but I did visit many, many areas of the park.

Anyway, my first experience of Chaoyang Park was not enough to scare me off from return visits. In fact, on the 16th August I decided to go the Chaoyang Park with Liz and joined in with an organised water fight. The "Water Wars" was run by a group called Imagine. People were organised into teams and Liz decided that our team should be called Team Pug. A Filipino girl called Ella and her friends also joined our team. Most of the people there decided to throw water at anyone - even their own team mates so there was definitely friendly fire involved and the water supplies quickly ran out.

Ready with war paint on!

There is something extremely liberating about throwing water balloons, firing water pistols and launching a large plastic container of water over complete strangers. I spent the majority of the battle guffawing heartily at how funny it was to watch everyone getting totally drenched (including myself).

After a couple of hours, the organisers decided the water fight was over (perhaps they were tired of refilling the tubs of water that would need replenishing every ten minutes) or maybe a water fight just meets its natural end after two hours - the water balloons were all gone, the water guns had broken and people had taken to filling their drink bottles with any dregs of liquid they could find (I am almost ashamed to say that at one point I decided to wring out my T-shirt into a plastic bottle in the vain attempt that I could get more ammunition).

It was such a fun afternoon! After the water fight, Liz and I fancied going to the newly opened Pizza Express in Solana. On our way, Ella invited us to play laser tag with her and the rest of Team Pug. How could we refuse? We got changed into camouflage T-shirts and ran around the woods of Chaoyang Park while trying to shoot each other with laser guns. 

After an hour, we were exhausted and decided it was definitely time to gorge on pizza - we had certainly earned it. We took a photograph so that we wouldn't forget Team Pug and the battles that we had fought together.

Days where you can enjoy outdoor activities really make you appreciate low pollution levels and also remind you how amazing Beijing is. Let's hope there are more opportunities like this day!

Bonus photo: Mum and Dad in Chaoyang Park (June 28th 2014)

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!

  

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Công viên giải trí này có rất nhiều quầy thực phẩm… tôi là con lợn tham ăn! =))