Photo TR: Longjia Amusement Park (November 22, 2014)

I got out of bed early today to go buy train tickets to go to the city of Zhangzhou over 3 hours away. I went to a place called Jiaomei, which is a suburb of Zhangzhou and is about halfway between the Zhangzhou city center and the beach city of Xiamen. I went to Longjia Amusement Park. Longjia Amusement Park is part of the Longjia Hot Spring Resort. I saw this park on the way to Xiamen three months ago. As it is next to Jiaomei railway station, I figured I could easily visit this park as I would not need to rely on transportation other than the train ride to Jiaomei.

The amusement park sits on the opposite side of the train tracks from the rest of the resort and no tickets are required to enter the amusement park. Tickets are required for the main part of the resort. There are about a dozen rides here. The biggest ride is a large Ferris Wheel. Seeing this wheel from the train three months ago is how I knew this park existed. Other rides include a powered coaster, wave swinger and a merry go round. There is a water park here, but it closed a long time ago. There are paddle boats, but they have been out of service for a while. The powered coaster was put into service in March of 2013 and a few other rides were new, but some parts of this park, like the water park, were very faded. The park had a small crowd today. The amusement park, despite being part of a tourist resort, is basically a typical Chinese park. Nothing special is here in regards to rides, but I am sure that locals enjoy it. I happen to like the park here. It is very small and yet feels like a fun place. Amusement parks are about fun. Not being several hundred acres or multi-million dollar rides. They are simply about entertainment and, if you like parks, Longjia Amusement Park can be a fun outing for you.

I have arrived at Longjia Amusement Park in Jiaomei, Zhangzhou.

A little merry go round is one of the approximately dozen rides here.

A small powered coaster is here.

I see this often here in China.

Here is a shot from my ride on the powered coaster.

Here is the dragon coaster entertaining other guests.

An old water park is here, but it closed sometime ago.

This sign means do not enter the water park.

These boats have not entertained anyone in a long time.

Although I didn't see the phone, I wonder what it was complaining about.

Back to the rides. This is one of the newest rides here.

Here is the waver swinger in action. Chinese people love these.

The biggest ride here is this Ferris wheel. This will finish off the TR.

I feel like there is one of these parks on ever street corner in China. Really seems like they are a dying breed (not a bad thing?) and I would expect to see many of them close over the years and more newer, bigger parks are being built.

There does seem to be a lot of parks here. Keep in mind that China has 1/5 of the world's population. The parks in China are much like parks in America 100 years ago. Most of them seem to be part of a larger complex with swimming pools and other things. Also, like parks 100 years ago, many of China's parks (at least the ride areas) are very short lived. If you research parks on RCDB, you will find that parks from 100 years ago maybe last 5 or 6 years.

I think the Chinese are going to have to be more original in building rides. I think that most people will notice that the powered coaster or jungle mouse at this park is the same as the one at the park down the street.