Beijing to Have Worst Theme Park Ever?

Dan Edwards | Jun 22, 2010 4:10 pm | 8 comments | 4669 reads

The question of what to do with expensive Olympic infrastructure after the games has plagued every host city. The financial tribulations of the Bird's Nest are well-known, and administrators of the site have tried a variety of strategies to lure more visitors, including recently announced plans to open an Olympic-themed restaurant inside the stadium. Similarly, the surrounding Olympic Park has played host to a variety of events since August 2008. Now, in a move that promises to set a new low in China's already impressive array of terrible theme parks, authorities have announced plans to open a “Green Dream Park” to the northeast of the National Stadium.

According to today's China Daily, the Green Dream Park will be the “world's largest Transformers-style creation of abandoned vehicles and recycled clothing, furniture and waste paper.”

The world's largest? How many of these "Transformers-style creations" are there exactly?

For RMB 80 (RMB 60 for seniors and kids under 140cm), visitors will be able to partake in a range of great activities allowing them to “explore how to make their lives greener in an interesting way.”

For example, visitors will have the chance to “recline on a folding sofa that accommodates about 10 people... made entirely of recycled paper.”

Now that does sound interesting.

The new attraction is the brainchild of Tina Zheng, who dreamed up the underwhelming Chocolate Dream Park on the same site last winter, pithily described by a Beijing.com forum poster thus: “It was sh*t. More like a sh*t theme park.”

The China Daily article also mentions a dinosaur theme park opening “near the Bird's Nest,” supposedly opening on July 1, though no details are provided.

At this stage it's unconfirmed whether plans to build a Recycled Chocolate Dream Park next winter are true. Rumors that the Egg may be relocated to the middle of the Bird's Nest in order to create a Harmonious Bird Home Dream Park Wonderland also remain unconfirmed at this stage.

Green Dream Park; Olympic Green (northeast of the “Bird's Nest” National Stadium); Friday, July 16–Sunday, October 10. RMB 80/60 (seniors, children under 140cm)

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patrick_bmx655's picture patrick_bmx655 Submitted by Guest on Wed, 07/07/2010 - 15:10

cowboy123 wrote:
That was a snarky article.

Also, Happy Valley in Beijing is a pretty good park IMO.

What is this "beijing.com" forum, anyway?

this is what i have to say as a worker of beijings great theme park

this is my problem as an extreme sport artist in happy valley
theme park. The day we arrived at happy valley i told LIUJINGFUNG the skate park manager to
tell happy valley theme park company, that the skate park was not safe to ride, that the
metal floor plates for the ramps are not angled properly and the transitions of the ramp are not suitable for extreme sports.
I now have waited two months.
Happy valley has created the most embarrassing skate park in china.
The only relief for the BMX riders and roller blade enthusiasts
is Woodward , now the best skate park Beijing has to offer.
Woodward is a camp and will cost 3000 yuan a week for campers.
Only happy valley Beijing can create the worst skate park
and then make things worse by telling everyone to play safely.
The skate park on a day to day basis will have ten screws popping out from the ramps
making falling extremely dangerous for the roller bladders/ or skaters.
The surface of the park, as in all happy valley theme parks is made out of bamboo, wood pressed together and them laminated. The ramps are getting really bad in this skate park. In Beijing they have repainted the ramps instead of changing the surface, hiding the danger and making the park shine in the sunlight, blinding the mid day enthusiasts.
The main reason why this park is referred to as the most embarrassing skate park, is that the transition
of every ramp made here in Beijing, was made wrong. The ramps are not concave enough and they do not allow the riders to “air” a term referring to flying over the top of the ramp.
In bmx and roller blade the way riders build up speed for tricks is by going higher and higher off the transitions or the ramps. At happy valley you cannot successfully “air” over the transitions of the ramps because of the way they are made.
Many Chinese people have told happy valley's LIUJINGFUNG to tell the people, in charge of this skate park to either fix the ramps or make new ones,
and to this day nothing has been done or ever will until nature plays its part in destroying these terrible ramps. With a good skate park Beijing will have good bmx riders and good rollerbladers.
The world is coming closer to the next summer Olympics in London 2012 and still unknown is the fact that street bmx will be a new addition to the bmx category in this upcoming Olympics. My hope as a bmx rider is that china has a bmx team capable to compete against the worlds top riders for gold.

danedwards's picture danedwards Submitted by Guest on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 10:21

Hi cowboy 123,

I guess it depends on whether you think charging people 80 yuan to sit on a couch made from recycled paper is actually "promoting environmental awareness" or simply ripping people off.

The Beijing.com forum is what you find if you click on the "forum" tab at the top of this page.

Cheers,

Dan

Register and post your own events on the beijinger website.

HuanChu's picture HuanChu Submitted by Guest on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 23:05

cowboy123 wrote:
That was a snarky article.

Anything to promote environmental awareness in China, no matter how "cheesy", is a good thing in my book.

Also, Happy Valley in Beijing is a pretty good park IMO.

What is this "beijing.com" forum, anyway?

Snarky? How so?

Did you ever go to the Chocolate Park?

A very smart man wrote:
Remember, the courage to be wrong is paramount in importance to the ability to be right.

cowboy123's picture cowboy123 Submitted by Guest on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 18:38

That was a snarky article.

Anything to promote environmental awareness in China, no matter how "cheesy", is a good thing in my book.

Also, Happy Valley in Beijing is a pretty good park IMO.

What is this "beijing.com" forum, anyway?

HuanChu's picture HuanChu Submitted by Guest on Tue, 06/22/2010 - 18:07

I guess Tina already forgot how well the Chocolate Park was received....

http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/english/metro-beijing/update/top-news/2010-02/503109.html

8|

A very smart man wrote:
Remember, the courage to be wrong is paramount in importance to the ability to be right.

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