I went on the Grand Opening day. July 16th 2006. ZhangZiYi herself was present to 'Open the Door' to the park. And.. Proudly.. I might be the FIRST Malaysian to step in the park too :) hehe.
Well, the effort for being the first in the park was not easy. Look at the CROWD !! (After reading the paper, it was mentioned that there were 50,000 visitors that day) The que was long. But hey, this is like a Malaysian Book Of Record moment.. "First Malaysian in Kingdom of Discovery"... heheh
Here are the tickets... Priced at RMB 160 per pax... You will gain access to every attraction in the park. (excluding food and sovenirs... that's how they earn money. duh)
The map !! As you can is, it is surrounding a Lake and something like an island in the middle. Well, I soon found out (At 9pm at night) what is the purpose of the island... The park itself is divided into 6 parts... Main Discovery Plaza, Castle Zone, Forest Zone, Factory Zone, Dessert Zone, Toon Town.. (Don't know the real names as they are in Chinese... But.. it sounds like that. (Enlarge the map above to have a closer look)
After waiting Outside for nearly an hour.. I am IN !.. First stop, Castle Zone. Where there are some 'Castle Themed' rides... Flying broomsticks (sound like Harry Potter), Haunted house.. (It was scary... not) and skill games (to win prizes... )
Wow... Castle town... Does feels like being in a castle. There are people dessing in Knight suits and Horses situated around the castle. It is kinda cool. I went in the Haunted House here. The Que was 1 hour long.. and the 'ride' was just 5 mins... It wasn't really scary actually.. My first 'ride' here.. and it was quite disappointing... :( sad..
This is what they call the Flying Broomstick. Do any part of it look like broomsticks ? Beside the fact that it can 'fly'. Anyway.. Malaysian folks, you can get this ride in Genting, Sunway Lagoon, Pesta Penang. Same thing. I manage to get on this ride at 8:30pm (no que at night), as the que for the ride is so long, I did not go up in the morning.
Some fair maids and handsome warriors dessing up to match the castle settings. They are all impressed of the horse.. not sure why..
This is the entrace to the Forest Zone from the Castle Zone. Here, you will find Forest related fun-rides, namely Venus Fly catcher, Tree Top Champion and some other (Check the map above).
This is one of the ride in the forest zone. If I am not wrong, this is called the Octopus in Penang Pesta back in Malaysia. What it does to to spin your carriage, while spinning around the arms, up and down... Very good ride if you never experience a major headache before. (Warning, no intake of food/drinks 4 hours before this ride... hahahah, joking)
This is the Tree Top Champion ride. 2 in a carriage, try to 'climb' up the 'tree' by tugging on the rope in the middle. 2 minutes ride. It is actually mechanical, you do not need to use force to climb it, as long as the machine detects that you are pulling on the rope, it will take you up. and when you let go, it will bring you down. (Tips, how to have fun? Go up and down as many times as you can in 2 mins.. I did 4 rounds.. can you beat that?) Anyway.. more fun for children, especially those below age of 40.
aha... That is the Island again. In the middle of the park. As I said, I soon found out what is it at 9pm that night. For now, keeping it as a secret from you all. No, it is not a place for us to visit using a boat. Hey, what is that behind there ? Roller coaster (on the right) and a tall tower (on the left)? That, is Factory Zone. The MOST adventurous place in this themepark I would say.
Roller Coaster !! They called it the Crazy Cobra. It moves at 80km per hour.. up and down the structure, spining, turning... This is the first time I saw a roller coaster THAT BIG. Anyway, it was closed until late in the evening. I did not have a chance to ride on it. But according to those who went up. IT WAS AWESOME !
My first ride in the Factory Zone is the "TeaCup". It is actually more for kids. Look at the girl (my colleague's daugther). I think she might be thinking :"Hey, Uncle. I think you are a bit too... erm... grown-up for this ?". Anyway, i regret going up that thing, I had a major headache after that. Can't stand straight for nearly 1 hour.
My next ride here was the "Fish Market" . I am not sure if the name is right, but this was painted on the side of the machine. Basicaly it is a Big boat with 2 rows of seats. You are practically tied down to the seats and the 'boat' will spin... Yes, spin to the front and to the back... Hanging you upside down, spinning at all vertical directions. My eyes nearly popped out of the eye sockets... The pressure was so high when you are hanging upside down with the force of the whole boat swinging down.
oh.. what's that ? In Disneyland, this is called the SPLASH MOUNTAIN. I see wet people everywhere. Some of them, because they where on the ride and some of them, because they were watching too close. See the picture above ? The next second, all those people on the stairs were all WET! hehehe...
This is our group picture, AFTER the ride. We are all WET, WET, WET.. It was kinda fun !
This is what happen if you did not get away fast enough on the Stairs and the bridge. I was taking a video with the water coming to get me here. To make it more dramatic, I stayed until the water was close enough, and guess that I deserve being wet. (I have the video, those interested, can get it from me.)
Night came very quickly. And, for some reasons, my stupid compact camera refused to work. Anyway, the night scene was really nice.
The lights, fountains.. and much more. My camera died after this shot. I can't take anymore pictures after this... But luckily I still have a stupid camera phone..
ARGH ! The place is on FIRE ? No.. it was the fireworks.. It started at 9:00pm sharp.. and it lasted for nearly 20 minutes. HUGE fireworks that can only be seen on very large and important festivals. It was really beautiful. I only caught this using my Nokia 6125's built in camera.
Here are some fireworks picture taken using the Phone video. I cut them out to make this list of pictures.
Well, it was a GREAT experience. I really enjoyed it and will visit again in August. :)
