Well here is a strange experience for the thrill seekers among you. Yesterday we went to Nanchang Around the World Park which is only about a 10 minute drive away. We have been seeing the tops of strange towers that just peep through the trees on a hill that is by the main road near the campus. We noticed them last time around and just thought that they were random Chinese weirdness and basically forgot about them. This time around we found out that they are the tops of replica European castles and Moorish temples that make up this weird little theme park. So we thought "this looks like a great morning out for the family."
So we jumped a cab and headed out into the brand new world. Well not so brand new as it turned out. The gate was quite impressive looking slightly French or Italian with coats of arms and a replica of Cleopatra's Needle as the centre piece of the circular drive. The weeds poking up everywhere only added to the sense of majesty...as did the lady knitting on a directors chair in the shade of the gate. The ticket collector of course, obviously very busy.
The inside of the park was clean, empty of any other punters...and strange, really strange. Not strange in a bad way. Just strange. I will let the pictures explain what I mean.
The gates and coat of arms.
Another gate view, with the grand mansion in the back ground.
Once through the gates the lawn of naked ladies awaits.
Emperor Suleiman the magnificent (I think) in front of a three stage rocket launch pad and a medieval castle. I wont insult your intellect by pointing out the obvious connections between the three...
Just past the castle we found Mickey, Donald (notice the black hair!!! Chinese Donald??) and a playground!
However much to Penny's dismay the excellent looking playground equipment was upon closer inspection rusty dangerous and inhabited by large black ants. This is a real pity as apart from the playground above we are yet to see a slippery slide in all of China.
Goldilocks?
They went that away.
Indiana Jones set? Maybe this where Suleiman came from.
You gotta admit it would have been cool to hang out here as a kid.
New ruins...cool huh?
Ironic that it looks worse when it is actually in use...
Behind the fake temple ruins was the adventure playground...sorry but I aint goin on that. I'm sure if you scrabbled around in the grass at the base there would be a pile of bones from the last group to dare the apparatus of the beast!
The nice view of the big blue mansion house. Quite elegant really.
Although the back could do with some work.
We finally climbed the stairs to the monument on the hill opposite the entrance to take in the view...
and what a view it was!
Well I did tell you it was strange. There are about 34 things to see in the park however as everything was in Chinese we couldn't really tell what half of the exhibits were. Apparently the statue of liberty is in there along with the Sydney opera house. We spent an hour wandering around and saw maybe 20 exhibits (I guess they were exhibits). A windmill, a row of strange houses - kinda gothic and creepily empty and decrepit- some fountains, and numerous statues to name a few.
Well It was run down, overgrown and strangely interesting. Michelle and I both liked it although it's not really a place for a little tacker like Penny to explore. So maybe we will return to the strange otherworldly fields of -"NANCHANG AROUND THE WORLD PARK."
1 comment:
Yeah it was weird-ski alright. Although we plan to go back cause' it was kinda good weird-ski.
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