When people think of an amusement park, they usually envision a very joyous place filled with other visitors, characters from their childhoods, and thrilling rides. If done right, this type of place can be truly magical, offering a great and fun way to spend some quality time with your family and friends.
However, not everything always turns out the way it is intended. For example, this amusement park in Beijing, as one Redditor recently shared, is anything but magical. The place looks like an obvious and cheap copy of other, better-known, and more successful theme parks, and, despite their attempts at it, this one feels neither fun nor safe. Scroll down to see what it looks like!
More info: Reddit
Amusement parks can be the most wondrous places, but the key is making them entertaining and, most importantly, actually safe
Image credits: u/uspn
A traveler online shared his experience of visiting Shijingshan Amusement Park in Beijing, China
We probably all know of and might’ve even had a chance to visit places like Disneyland or Universal Studios Theme Park. They practically radiate fun and are filled with tons of attractions that all of their visitors can enjoy, allowing people to forget about the outside world for the day.
Well, it seems that the creators of Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park were also more than aware of these wondrous places and attempted to create something similar. However, the final result turned out to be pretty far off the mark.
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
The park had really cheap tickets and no waiting lines, but that was because it had barely any visitors
The Redditor who shared these pictures of this Beijing theme park is u/uspn, also known as Bjørn Christian Tørrissen or simply uspn on Instagram. "I make my living doing programming, but I make my joy by traveling and writing," he told Bored Panda when we reached out to him for an interview, adding that he loves to look for hidden gems around the world that many people overlook, assuming they wouldn't be interesting.
The traveler wasn't too surprised with the success of his post, as the tales from his journeys often attract attention online, but it brings him joy all the same. "I also like sharing on Reddit because the comments people respond with there are often pure gold, helping me write even better the next time."
According to Bjørn’s blog post, where he gave a more detailed recounting of this experience, his trip to China took place in 2014. During his stay in the country’s capital, Beijing, he decided to visit the local amusement park. What he found was definitely amusing, but probably not in the way that he intended. "I found this park in Beijing as I returned to the city after a longish visit to North Korea," said Bjørn, talking about how this was a perfect way to wind down after a pretty mentally exhausting trip.
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Most things looked like they were cheap copies of the things found in Disneyland or Universal Studios Theme Park
As per Steven White of The Mirror, the park opened in 1986 and was initially designed to be a straight-up Disneyland copy. That was up until 2007, when Disney decided to sue this amusement park, as even its slogan said, “Disneyland is too far; please come to Shijngshan!”
Now, the words on the poster that welcome you to the theme park are "Happy, Healthy, & High," which is arguably even worse. But, continuing with what Bjørn wrote, it sets up your expectations just right because, aside from a very low ticket price and not having to wait in lines as there are no people, nothing else can actually be called good in the usual sense of the word. "At a couple of the rides, I actually had to wake up the person selling tickets and/or operating that particular attraction. It's not the most dynamic place to work," added the man, painting a clear picture of how inactive the theme park was during his visit.
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
A good deal of rides were closed, with most of the functional ones appearing rather unsafe
We asked the traveler what from this experience has stuck with him the most. He answered by explaining that the park appears to be run by the government, and since it's not required to make money for anyone, what was probably once quite a nice place was now pretty abandoned and left to fall into decay. "There wasn't one particular thing about the park that struck me as unique. It's the whole thing."
In his blog post, the author described everything, from the beginning until the end, as looking like a cheap “Disney/Universal combo ripoff.” The decorations looked bad and dirty, the streets were nearly completely empty, the ponds were green, and the rides, with their poor condition and all of the unattended trees growing around, were not inviting nor raising a sense of trust even one bit. One of them even had an actual bird’s nest set up on the rails, and, as Bjørn told us, it was quite enjoyable watching a couple of men having to climb up there to take care of that situation.
Some of the rides that seemed trustworthy enough to try proved to be only half-functional, and the decorations inside were a letdown, as expected. In most places, the creators tried to make the park appear as American as possible, but as Bjørn wrote, the design team in charge likely knew as little about the USA as the average American knows about China.
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
The decorations were old and dirty, but they seemed to be made to resemble what the average Chinese person thinks American culture is
While Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park’s reviews online are surprisingly good, scoring 4 out of 5 through 120 reviews on Tripadvisor, most of the positive experiences shared there seem a little too good to be true. The negative ones, however, point out that Bjørn’s experience wasn’t a one-off occurrence.
Plenty of people online who had a chance to see this place for themselves called it semi-abandoned, creepy, laughable, bizarre, and downright terrible, overall dubbing it as the worst open theme park out there. Many talked about the place being overgrown and empty and most of the rides not being operational even in peak season. One person even shared about falling out of the Tea Cup Ride, and the park didn’t take any action to reimburse them in any way.
Summarizing, Bjørn said that this is not a place to visit if you're looking for a traditional theme park experience. "But if you look at it the right way, it's a fascinating place. Plus, it's really cheap, so all you invest is pocket change and your time."
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
Image credits: u/uspn
So, in the end, while the Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park might have looked not half bad back in the 80s when it was opened, today, it seems that it is just as bad as it sounds. That is, if you're expecting it to be anything like the real Disneyland, but it’s not every day that you get to visit a nearly abandoned theme park. If that kind of urban exploring is your jam, then the place is open and waiting for you! Just be sure to keep safety as your top priority because, from what we gathered here, it’s not guaranteed.
What did you think about this theme park? Would you want to check it out yourself? Tell us all about it in the comments below!
The commenters were very amused by this park in quite the opposite way than its creators intended, adding that it looks like something you'd find on Wish.com
