Malcolm's Second Trip to China: Chuanlord Holiday Manor

Chuanlord Holiday Manor, situated not far from Guangzhou, is currently largest park in China by coaster count and as such had to be included in the trip. For reasons that will become obvious that record may be dubious for the non-enthusiast but more on that in a bit. Not the best photo to open with but a sign they're still growing.

Having been quickly brought into the park by a very efficient get team, we were given the opportunity of a free zoo ticket, which I took in case I got around the park quicker than planned. From the statues at the entrance that this was not going to be another cookie cut Chinese take on a western park as done by Happy Valley.

This park has a surfboat similar to Jindouwan and realising how slow they moved people through it, we decided to head there first and I'm pleased to say that this one ran much better. The operator clearly knew how to get us round without too much back and forth that we were subject to previously.

The second coaster was another powered dragon. Ride, tick, move along.

Opposite the dragon was the reason why the park has such a high count, 2 pairs of wave shuttle rides. In short 4 counts in a piece of land not much more than 10 square metres. We got lucky as the number they have running is tied to the number of people in the park, and when we entered it was behind a rather large school group.

So this group of enthusiasts spent quite a bit of time here queuing for each of the rides in turn, until we all got all 4. Although the ride looks pretty basic, it's actually good fun and smaller parks really ought to consider getting these. We had a great time. They're counted because they have a hill in the centre and require momentum to get over them.

Best name for dodgem cars.

Literally racing through the rides, having done 6 in barely an hour, we headed over to the north side of the park for the next coaster, a rather good jungle mouse. Another ride that should be brought to the west.

Number 8 was another spinning mouse, which had some operational issue when some of the group failed to catch the chain fully and slipped back down the lift hill (they were at the bottom of it I should add). But by the time I'd gotten to it it was running ok although we didn't spin at all.

Coaster number 9 was the largest and hardest to fit into, a corkscrew coaster with a restraint system that wouldn't click unless someone stood on the harness to get it to click. The ride was instantly forgotten, the smaller rides in this park are much more fun.

Andy feels at one with the dragon

And Jeff feels two with the bull

In an attempt to get to coaster number 10 (yep double digits) we had to head around the back of the lake where we came across some construction of a new roof. After a brief delay we were ushered through to explore the remaining rides.

This was coaster number 10, the universal coaster or as those who have ridden similar, "the piece of shit ride". Chance toboggans exist in small numbers in the west, and are notoriously rough there. To have them copied by the Chinese could only lead to them being rougher. To then add a circular loop that whips your neck makes this a ride for sadists. I'd ridden one of these in Shanghai in 2010 and it was the most painful coaster on that trip so to have to ride another wasn't something that I wanted to do but the competitive factor of the hobby made it something I had to do.

It was closed and I was happy.

The park is actually constructing an eleventh coaster, which was a sky loop copy that had been previously built in Beijing, and was on my itinerary for later in the trip before it was dismantled and shippe down here. I found it amusing that the advertising for the ride featured people falling to their deaths.

As compensation for having nothing open on this side of the park the staff invited us onto their new drop tower ride, which was also being constructed...I mean they built the ride but were still working on the queue line. This was ok, with a nice bounce program.

I think I rode this coaster, not sure. That's how forgettable it was.

Creepy clowns.

Having got round the rides really really quickly due to great operations and not a lot of people riding I decided to go and explore the parks zoo. Now I'm not a fan of zoos so wasn't expecting much here.

I did like the fact they let their turkeys roam around the paths.

The walkways are part elevated allowing a great vantage point over the spacious enclosures and with the giraffe an opportunity to get close. This one was up for being stroked and was popular with the visitors. I'd never touched a giraffe before.

Dirk and Bjorn had also entered into the zoo and found the tame giraffe.

Disappointed that this was a wild deer. Had it been a tame impala I'd have made that into a musical pun.

The bears rare surprisingly lively, having a good play and wrestle.

The llama didn't spit at me. This often happens.

Monkey mum and monkey baby.

The zoo was ok, and whilst not all the animals were there (I spent ages trying to find the lions, a creature not known for their stealth ability) they seemed happy and weren't pacing back and forth like you usually see. Some of them were so happy that others in the group managed to get enough video of them having sex to make an animal porn film.