Farewell to Beijing Amusement Park

Located in southeast Chongwen, just inside the Second Ring Road, the Beijing Amusement Park is the second-oldest park of its kind in the capital. Today, after 23 years of entertaining, the park is officially shutting down.

In reality the park’s bright pink gates have been closed since mid-May – according to China Daily, park employees went on strike as soon as they heard rumors of the impending closure. The park owners then decided to keep the gates locked until today’s “official” end of business.

As yet another neighborhood landmark set for re-development, the park’s retirement has provoked an outpouring of sentiment from locals. When the gates first closed, disappointed park-goers left flowers and scrawled goodbye messages on the gates. The scene was quickly “harmonized” however, the nostalgic messages replaced by dismal grey paint and a defeated air.

Even before its closure Beijing Amusement Park had a distinctly dilapidated atmosphere – the ticket booths were faded and peeling, the railings and gates rusted. Despite the nostalgic feelings of wistful Beijingers, ticket sales over the past year have hardly been healthy. According to China Daily, one agency reported selling an average of ten tickets a month. In contrast, sales for Haidian’s popular Beijing Happy Valley amusement park, which opened in 2006, numbered in the thousands.

Locals can only wonder what will become of the land after the park is gone, although with “cultural heritage preservation” taking the form of high-end retail in Qianmen, and potentially Gulou, it seems only a matter of time before all-pervasive consumerism makes every corner of Beijing shiny and new.