When I was living in Shanghai, China 7 years ago my mom came to visit me and as we were looking for things to do my mom found a themepark really close by to where I lived and we decided to go there. We had an amazing fun day back then and had a lot of fun going on the various rides. When we came back to Shanghai in September we decided to go again! We had gone to the botanical gardens before that and were not really sure what to do next so we arrived pretty late, around 16:00. We got in line, bought our tickets and made our way back inside of the place we half way forgotten about already, but boy was it a great afternoon!
The park
JinJiang actionpark is located near Shanghai Stadium, a place still used for concerts and other activities. it’s about 10 minutes walk away from there and it’s easiest to reach it by foot unless you are by car/taxi. there’s a row of windows to buy your ticket from. The prices for JinJiang is around 130 CNY (around 16 euro) and there’s some rides you have to pay separately for. (like the ferriswheel).
Jinjiang Action Park was built in 1985, covering an area of 113,000 square meters (28 acres). Every year, more than one million visitors would come there enjoy the wonderful entertainment facilities.
The rides (from travel china guide)
Peak No. 1 is a giant inverted boomerang, manufactured by Vekoma with the one in Jinjiang Amusement Park being the fifth set in the world. The advanced design and high-tech manufacturing technology raise the orbital altitude to 60 meters (197 feet) high and the speed to 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour. The most incredible thing is that Peak No. 1 combines the plummeting of a space shuttle and high-speed rolling of a roller coaster together, giving visitors multiple excitement on the 734-meter (2,408-foot) track.
The Roller Coaster in Jinjiang Action Park is a large forward-backward reciprocating ride. It can carry 24 visitors at a time. The two ends point upwards, which makes it look like a dragon in the air. Sitting in the cabin, visitors will have an amazing feeling of rolling in the sky. What an exciting adventure!
The Shanghai Ferris Wheel is the first giant Ferris wheel in China that is higher than 100 meters (328 feet). The overall height of it is 108 meters (354 feet) and the diameter is 98 meters (322 feet). It would take about 25 minutes to run a circle. The Ferris wheel contains 42 cabins, and they are all deliberately designed to be unique, colorful and bright. The decoration inside the cabins is roomy and comfortable. Equipped with computer-controlled high power illuminations, it looks like a colorful moon during the night.
The Canyon Rafting is an ultra-large overwater entertainment facility in Jinjiang Amusement Park suitable for all ages. Sitting on the raft floating down the river is like traveling among the green hills and rivers in the mountainous region. The flows are alternately gentle and rapid. Peculiar cliffs along the river will definitely attract your eyes. You may see a waterfall hanging on the precipice in front of you during the rafting.
My visit
When we came there it was slightly hectic, we bought our tickets and made our way inside. I do think that (especially compared to Disneyworld) JinJiang is a little out dated, everything looks like it has been there for years without any care of what it looks like but then again, it is! We right away jumped into the horror house carts, just to get away from people for a moment and to relax. I had forgotten how lame this ride is, remembering after it’s over that we rode it the first time we were there. The cart is absolutely tiny and you have to get into it together.. it goes with a slight rush but then slows down pretty much. There’s barely anything to see, with the occasional thread caressing over your head or a naked mannequin lighting up in the corners of the pitch black hall. but to me it’s hilarious, you expect a lot of scared and they don’t come.. to me it just makes me howl with laughter and I was crying by the time we got out and I had to sit down to catch my breath. A+ from me!
They have a motorcycle roller coaster that we went in 7 years ago but missed this time, basically you sit in it like on an actual motorcycle and with a back brace on so you don’t fall off and they shoot you off like you’re racing it! I hurt myself badly the first time and we wanted to go but ended up not being able too. Most of the rides in this park are as I stated before, outdated. Sudden starts and stops and a lot of noise but if you’re not faint of heart and love to laugh, go ride them! I love this park.
We also rode the ferriswheel and I absolutely loved it too. Jinjiang is located between skyscrapers and the highway, so it’s noisy and there isn’t much to see but as soon as you rise above the highway you start seeing Shanghai and the amazing amount of lights it holds. I loved just staring out along the city while we were slowly going around. It’s 10 rmb extra but I felt like it was really worth it. By the time we got out of the ferriswheel the park was closing and we made our way outside slowly and our eyes fell onto a food court located halfway inside the park that hadn’t been there 7 years ago. We were hungry so we made our way in!
The food court
Located outside just as the park there were many stalls with foods, normal food like dumplings, schnitzel ‘pizza’, stir-fry but also fried/grilled frog, ice cream in toilet bowls, various fish/shellfish. So naturally it was hard to pick, we had some trouble because usually in Chinese food courts you need to buy a card to charge money on, after not understanding the guys from the schnitzel pizza place they called a Chinese man to help us in English. We bought the card and were off to order. The snitzel first, we shared it and it was delicious. Just a slab of meat, tomato sauce, cheese, pineapple, some ham and on the grill before the cheese was melted with a blow torch. After this we were still hungry though and decided to pick another sort of food. Mom went with a sliced meat and garlic which was absolutely delicious and I picked the sausage pictured above. Rice and sausage cooked on hot stones, wrapped together. I loved it.
My thoughts
If you’re in Shanghai and you want to have some fun in a theme park, do go to this one. It’s a lot of fun for not a lot of money. It definitely doesn’t have the waiting lines of Shanghai Disney resort but it is still worth the money, spend some time at the food court and try food’s you didn’t think you would ever try. It’s fun, just don’t buy the frogs and turtles in key chains. That’s just animal abuse.
