Attraction Review: Happy Valley Beijing

Ah, our final Happy Valley park of the trip - and talk about saving the best 'til last! Happy Valley Beijing had always been the Happy Valley park I'd been most excited to visit - mostly because the theming of Crystal Wings always looked FUCKING AMAZING in photos and I needed to soak up its gorgeousness in person. So, what better park to complete our trip to China?

Another city park. We visited a bunch of these during our time in China and no matter how many we spent time at I could never get used to the idea of seeing these awesome coasters zooming around the track against a skyline of skyscrapers and office blocks. I guess when you're from Europe you're used to your theme parks living in sprawling countryside landscapes so it's a little jarring!

The entrance area of this park is pretty...amusement park-y to be honest. It's not the prettiest put it that way. That said, the first thing you bump into is the incredible Extreme Rusher so I guess it has that going for it! It does the standard annoying Happy Valley thing of having staggered openings, so despite arriving around 10.30AM we still spent a hot minute just wandering around trying to find something open to join the queue for. We caved in the end and just hung out at the entrance for Extreme Rusher until it opened so we were first in line, yay.



Hot damn, this coaster is fabulous! Weirdly, the station stinks of garlic (I guess there's a restaurant underneath or something but still, super odd). We rode back row and oh my god, everything Bullet Coaster at Happy Valley Shenzhen lacked this more than made up for. The gut punching launch, the airtime, the smooth transitions, the lap bar restraints. Urgh, it's just so stunning in every way. I absolutely adored it, Top 20 coaster for sure!

Next up we wandered over to the park's brand new B&M family coaster that wasn't even listed as open on RCDB yet, yay bonus cred! The B&M family things are...weird. I don't get why you'd pay extra for that premium B&M label despite a Vekoma family invert doing pretty much exactly the same thing? Eh, China I guess. BUT, the best thing about this coaster is IT'S PINK! SO PINK! PINK EVERYWHERE! Honestly I was living for the colour scheme, so aesthetically pleasing. Sure it suffered from that weird Chinese theme park thing of having ridiculously detailed yet somehow completely bland and soulless theming, but who cares. PINK!


The kiddie land the coaster was in also randomly played happy clappy Christian music? I'm guessing whoever signed off the music for this land didn't speak the best English and just enjoyed the joyful vibe of the tracks. Either way, we loved it haha!

Wandered over to the fabulous looking Crystal Wings next. This area was soooo immersive - towering rockwork all around. The area was called something like Atlantis and the theme was king of Lost Continent at Island of Adventure mixed with some slight notes of Jules Verne. But again, up close there's not a ton of detail. Yes, the theming is massive and therefore impressive for that reason, but it doesn't interact with the coaster track that elegantly and feels a little cumbersome in places. The coaster itself is just a standard Superman flyer layout, so nothing much to report there. Shame really, it looks a lot better in photos!



It was around this point that we realised that this park was eerily quiet. Both Shenzhen and Shanghai had been pretty rammed, with horrendous queues in some places. Beijing was the opposite - walk on queues everywhere and often not a soul to be seen around. As a result, the atmosphere wasn't amazing. It was quite quiet and nothing really felt...exciting? Despite the awesome coasters haha!

Their SLC (shocking a proper Vekoma and NOT a Chinese rip off) was so gorgeously themed. Had a Shambhala style Himalayan vibe, with snowy peaks and bunting everywhere. So, so pretty. And it actually didn't ride that badly either! I honestly think the couple of really awful SLCs (looking at YOU Condor) have given these coasters a bad name, they're really not that bad.




The rest of the park felt pretty familiar given the other parks we'd visited on our trip. Standard It's A Small World rip off (although this one was pretty damn amazing, it had a Halloween section!), ridiculously wet Shoot the Chute, indoor area themed to Under the Sea and a mine train. I don't know if we were suffering from a little theme park fatigue at this point but we both had no desire to stay - even thought we had loads of spare time and had really enjoyed Extreme Rusher. I think when you visit a park as empty as Happy Valley Beijing was for us you realise just how important crowds and atmosphere are to how much you enjoy your time at the park. Happy Valley Beijing is a great park, it's got some awesome coasters, great theming and fun supporting attractions but we just had no desire to stay. Pretty telling of the whole Happy Valley chain in general to be honest!



I'm glad we visited Happy Valley Beijing, and given how much we loved the city and the fact that they're getting a B&M hyper in the near future it's definitely a park I can see myself visiting again in the future. Just hope next time there's a bit more of an atmosphere!

Talk later xoxo,

1 comments

  1. Didn't have as many rides when I went way back in 2009, but it was busier, so I didn't have any problems with lack of atmosphere. Might have helped it was Halloween, so they even had a few scare zones set up in the evening, and getting to see some of the spectacular theming lit up at night was a bonus.
    My favorite thing of the day was the show they then had set up in the theater attached to the park. It was a Chinese opera called the Golden Mask Dynasty, and it was an amazing, spectacular and emotional show that still ranks as one of the best shows I've not just ever seen in a theme park, but anywhere.

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