[billcollins531]

Well it's been quite some time since I've posted anything on this forum, but I figured you would like to hear about this.
I just got back from a great 3 week trip to China which I enjoyed very much. I had the opportunity to visit a Chinese theme park in a remote city called Qiqihaer near Mongolia. It's the only theme park in the entire province.
Safety regulations have no real meaning in China... I almost did a barrel roll out of the bumper cars multiple times.
I only got to ride a few things, but I tried to take pictures of as much as I could in the short time that we were there. Later today, as I upload pictures to facebook I'll try to post as many pictures as I can on this thread. I hope you enjoy, and feel free to ask me any questions.

[RctWeekly]

I'm sorry but what does this have to do with carowinds?

[Mountain3307]

Bring on the pics, I'd like to see them

[billcollins531]

Long Sha Park, translated means Dragon Sand.

Long Sha Park by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

Little things like this were everywhere throughout the park.

Pagoda by graham.bargeron, on Flickr


Police by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

Beautiful park.

Long Sha Park by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

The main walkway.

Long Sha Park by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

Wasn't able to ride this, but it looked pretty similar to our own Ricochet. It was the only coaster in the park, therefore the only coaster in the entire province.

Ricochet? by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

RIP Log Flume

Log Flume by graham.bargeron, on Flickr


Game Stall by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

I was really surprised as to how large this ferris wheel was.

Ferris Wheel by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

You can really see how they're trying to go green. This is new for the Chinese, they just started going green within the past 2-3 years or so.

Going Green by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

This looked pretty cool. The cars were elevated and would swing around the axis. They would swing so fast that they'd be totally sideways.

Car ride by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

A lot of the students I was with say they used to have lots of fun in this playground. Remember the huge one in Carowinds? With all the tunnels and whatnot?

Ball pit by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

An intense game of Chinese Chess.

Chinese Chess by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

These were a lot of fun. Safety belts aren't required, you can hit head on, and there's no real direction you're supposed to go. Oh, also, each car can go like 15 MPH. Makes for a sore back the next day...

Bumper Cars by graham.bargeron, on Flickr


Spinning Ride by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

Cool ride. The only seat belts were these back supports that were set into place when the ride started.

Spinning ride by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

Don't eat a lot before going on this one...

Spinning ride by graham.bargeron, on Flickr


Spinning Ride by graham.bargeron, on Flickr


Spinning Ride by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

The blue ride you see in the background was intense. You were put in these chairs of doom only to be spun around at a fast pace. It didn't look enjoyable...

Chair Ride of Doom by graham.bargeron, on Flickr

Skee Ball!

Game stall by graham.bargeron, on Flickr


This park also hosted a zoo with a wide variety of animals. I feel very privileged to have been able to visit this park! It was a lot of fun.

[billcollins531]

For the two people who are slightly interested in the park, here's some more info.

http://www.chinatravel.com/heilongjiang ... gsha-park/

Here's a map of Qiqihar.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... ar.svg.png

We were close to the Russian border, and there was a small military base in Qiqihar. So they would fly fighter jets out and circle the borders every day to make sure Russia wasn't doing anything. I just thought that was interesting, hope you weren't too bored by all the pictures!

[Jay]

Definitely wasn't bored, great stuff! Did you get a chance to go to any of the other parks there, or do any "culture" things? You said you spent 3 weeks there, what else did you do?

[billcollins531]

Oh yeah, we were definitely able to experience the Chinese culture. A lot of people try to compare the American and Chinese cultures, but they're really so much different it's hard to compare similarities.

We were there with an organization to teach english in a Summer English Camp. We had students coming to the camp ranging from the age of 10 to the age of 18. We spent over two weeks in Qiqihar teaching these kids english. The students are so used to sitting in a strict class all day (literally all day. From 6AM to 9PM, no exaggerations), what we did was like a breath of fresh air to them. We were doing TPR, total physical response, so we taught them American dances in some classes, played Uno, taught them American football, and in the mornings we would have around 2 hours of what I thought were boring classes. To them however, the classes were a lot of fun, compared to what they were used to.
Some nights we would have evening activities, and when we didn't we were able to do stuff in Qiqihar (which is surprisingly about the size of Atlanta). Qiqihar is famous for its barbecue, which is miraculously cooked over charcoal. Very delicious stuff. Almost every night we were treated to nice dinners by government officials, school directors etc. We were able to get a lot of different food experiences, such as pigs ear, cow tongue, jellyfish etc. Tofu was served at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Since Qiqihar was kind of remote, most of the people hadn't ever seen foreigners much less Americans. We were on TV and the nightly news. It was pretty cool.
Later, we were able to go to Beijing to tour for a few days. That was very interesting as well.

All in all, it was a fantastic experience. I'm already planning my trip for next year!