Xiamen, Fujian, China – Saturday, April 19th, 2025
I didn’t expect much from the Fantawild theme parks. With over forty parks across China (all in secondary and tertiary cities) they are the most numerous theme park chain in existence, yet it’s a superlative attribute that doesn’t inherently promise quality. It’s like being McDonald’s, or, for preference of a Chinese fast food chain to make this example, Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, with over 45,000 locations. They’re just good enough to be reliable when you need something familiar in an unfamiliar place, and the Fanta parks seemed to offer enough off-the-shelf Vekoma and Jinma Ride coasters to beat the small mystery amusement parks that speckle public parks and speculative real estate developments across the rest of China.
On my most recent visit to the Middle Kingdom, I didn’t have any theme park visits planned into our itinerary, but the ubiquity of the Fantawild parks made it that I had a couple of opportunities to squeeze a quick visit in; these would be my first three Fantawild parks. Originally I had hoped to do the Dreamland and Oriental Heritage parks located in Zhengzhou, where our first destination was planned but this turned out to not be feasible. In large part that was due to a layover in Xiamen getting rescheduled and then delayed for a large chunk of the day. But as luck would have it, a 30 minute drive from the Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport was another set of near-identical park clones to the two in Zhengzhou, with virtually the exact same coaster line-up. I had a little over three hours total from when they opened to when I needed to head back to the airport, so not very much time at either individual park, but just enough to ride each of the coasters and to get an overall impression. A later visit to a Glorious Orient theme park, at the time the newest in the chain, gave me further opportunity to dwell.
Fantawild takes copy-and-pasting parks to a new extreme, not just cloning individual attractions but entire park master plans across a handful of different concepts. As I found, this isn’t necessarily to the detriment of quality, since they’re able to save research and development costs and spread them across multiple parks. This is especially true in media production, as Fantawild owns their own computer-generated media production company that produces traditional content as well as media for its theme park attractions. The quality is surprisingly high, and there’s a lot of it. Although the cost effectiveness of this strategy is undermined by the fact that it probably takes five to ten identical low-capacity Fantawild dark rides across multiple parks to equate to the same visitor throughput of just one high-capacity Universal Studios equivalent.
Regardless, I was impressed enough to throw together a set of reviews for the three Fantawild theme parks I experienced in the spring of 2025, starting with the two in Xiamen.
Fantawild Dreamland Xiamen
Think of Dreamland as the original “castle parks” of the Fantawild chain, with a more eclectic fantasy theme supporting various staple amusement rides. While Disney’s castle parks set the archetype that all subsequent theme park designs must measure up against, Fantawild’s Dreamland parks evidently set the baseline from when they were still trying to figure out how to build a functional theme park. The thematic design is thus overly colorful and noisy as it tries to do too much without a clear purpose or mission statement in place. The basic ride selection also leaves more to be desired. It’s little surprise then that Fantawild Dreamland was my least preferred of the three parks I’d sample, although it was a good one to spend an hour to start with to better understand how the Fantawild chain has grown and improved since then.
Terror Twister
With crowds building at the front gate shortly before opening, I knew I’d have to be strategic to get everything I wanted out of my $40 Dreamland ticket within my budgeted one hour. As soon as I was inside the gate, it was a power walk back… way back… to the Terror Twister, which I (rightly) assumed would have the worst wait of the three main coasters. Luckily, I just barely managed to be first in line for the day, which gave me the choice of the front row on this Maurer Rides SkyLoop model. The was the last authentic model built in China (or anywhere else) in 2015 before Beijing Shibaolai’s Magic Coaster copycat design took over the market.
It’s easily the most intense coaster I would experience at a Fantawild park this spring. Hanging upside down 150 feet in the air while staring down the barrel of the forthcoming heartline twist is certainly a sublime sensation that I wish could last much longer. Yet less than fifteen seconds later, after experiencing vision blur around the high G-force bottom curve, and left dizzy laying on my back as we wait for the catch car to lower us back to the station, I’ve already decided that I’ve had more than enough.
Stress Express
Directly next to the Terror Twister was my second target, yet another compact production model steel looping coaster from a European manufacturer that traverses parts of its layout in both directions with sustained positive forces that can leave you seeing stars. I was actually able to get a solo ride on this Vekoma Boomerang, which sports the new train and restraint design that made it an acceptable if not exactly inspiring experience. The ride’s name, Stress Express, might be the most interesting thing about it. The English title captures a level of expressive rhyming that’s uncommonly clever among Chinese ride names, yet nevertheless implies a deeply unpleasant experience that anyone who comprehends the meaning of these words would understand it as something to stay far away from. Also perhaps accurate.
Mount Tanggula
Just as many American (and, by extension, European) theme parks all have a ride or themed area that romanticizes the western frontier, so too do many Chinese theme parks, only with the geography swapped from southwestern deserts to the mountain ranges of Tibet. Mount Tanggula is Dreamland’s localized take on a Frontierland anchored by a Big Thunder Mountain mine train coaster. The layout is a clone of Vekoma’s 785m production mine train identified by the dual side-by-side lift hills at the center, but in this case built by Jinma Rides. I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference if not for the mine car ride vehicles appearing a little smaller and more toy-like. The mountainscape is fairly immersive in scale, with numerous large canyons and tunnels for the coaster to speed through and to keep the layout hidden, but not in detail, with most of it being drab grey concrete rockwork with little of interest to see along the way. My final one and done coaster at this park.
Qin Dynasty Adventure
Even with an effective rope drop strategy that resulted in minimal waiting for the three coasters, with the lengthy walking distances across the park I was still coming in close to the top of the second hour when I wanted to head over to the second Oriental Heritage gate. But a large attraction show building for something called Qin Dynasty Adventure had piqued my curiosity, and after a quick internet search described it as an “Indiana Jones-style dark ride” I knew I had to make one more stop.
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty to unify China, so it’s not surprising it was the basis of a major dark ride, as it’s both a mysterious historical subject that can make for a good adventure setting, and satisfies several crucial Chinese cultural requirements for political reasons. The Qin Dynasty Adventure certainly matches the scale of the Indiana Jones Adventure,
yet once again falls short in the details. Most of the scenes use darkness to hide the walls and spot lighting to highlight one or two key spook house gags, shrinking the apparent size of the attraction down considerably. When things do open up into larger scenes, it’s either blanketed in mapped media (high quality media with live actors) and/or copying the scenic art direction from an international attraction. In one scene we get a near-exact replica of the treasure room from Revenge of the Mummy, and the finale attempts to duplicate the rolling boulder effect from Indiana Jones Adventure. As the boulder approaches, the vehicle suddenly reverses direction and momentarily backs out of the scene, before resuming forward to duck underneath the now-stationary boulder. Knowing how the original effect works, it was instantly clear that the designers had tried to copy the intent of the scene without being able (or even understanding) the illusion that makes it work.
It was the capstone of a somewhat disappointing ride experience that nevertheless showed promise. If the designers could build a ride on this scale while actually thinking about what story they wanted to tell for themselves rather than just blindly copying from other sources, something good might be possible. I’d have to visit some newer Fantawild parks to see how they’d fare.
Fantawild Oriental Heritage Xiamen
Leaving Fantawild Dreamland was more challenging than getting in. As far as I could tell the entrance gates reverse into exit gates at a certain time of day, but as it was barely an hour after opening and with no re-admittance allowed, the staff assumed I was a confused, dumb foreigner and wouldn’t let me leave until I made it absolutely clear through my translation app that I understood what I was doing. The newer Oriental Heritage theme park is at the other end of a large plaza, much like at Disneyland. Also like Disneyland, the second gate is more directly based around local culture and identity, although unlike Disneyland, the second gate is far superior to the original park.
Walking into Oriental Heritage, I immediately note a much easier to follow park layout, with a studied sense of architecture and landscape design,
albeit nothing that seems out of place in any other cultural heritage attraction across China that are aggressively constructed in the name of national identity. The key difference at Oriental Heritage is the addition of thrill rides: that picturesque pagoda at the opposite end of the pond actually houses an enclosed drop tower. I didn’t have time for that one, and other attractions based on legendary characters such as the Monkey King or Nezha (the latter the basis for the current highest grossing animated film of all time) were either closed today or didn’t fit my schedule. This is China’s version of Disney’s America, only they had the political wherewithal to build it not once, but a dozen times. Sweating as I continued to power walk across the park, I knew I’d someday need to return to, if not this exact park, at least some other Oriental Heritage theme park in China.
Jungle Trailblazer
This ride was scheduled to open at 11:30am. I underestimated the time needed to find it in the back of the park, where the strict cultural theme is loosened a little to allow for a big wooden coaster. Still, I managed to get there just in time to be at the front of the queue for a front row ride (okay, with a little strategic maneuvering when the opportunity allows that’s justifiably part of the local culture, aided by my foreign privilege pass).
This is one of twelve Gravity Group / Martin & Vleminckx wooden coasters built in China, and one of seven out of that set to be named “Jungle Trailblazer” at a Fantawild-owned park. Surprisingly, these rides are less susceptible to cloning than nearly anything else at Fantawild, and this particular installation has a completely custom layout. It lacks a corkscrew inversion or a high-profile 90 degree banked camelback hill that highlights some of the other installations, but based on video comparisons I think this one might be a strong contender for the best layout design of the bunch.
After the 107 foot lift, the rest of the layout stays very close to the ground for an aggressively serpentine experience winding through a tropical landscaped setting, coming the closest to deserving the Jungle Trailblazer moniker. My online impression of the other Jungle Trailblazers is that they tend to meander over an open plot of land or throw together an assortment of generic elements, but this version was clearly after a very particular sensation, and once it bites it refuses to let go for as long as it can hold.
A particular highlight is a low speed hill that quickly pitches 90° to its side shortly after the first drop, combining whippy back-and-forth rotation with a surprise hint of airtime. A sustained series of high speed curves and S-bends in the middle section has a very satisfying sense of rampaging flow. This eventually climaxes with a second 90° banked curve wrapping around the lift, relatively gentle yet with some amazing visuals from being buried deep inside the wooden superstructure.
Unfortunately after that point the ride starts to peter out, with the last few curves and hills struggling to maintain speed lost due to the jostling tracking quality. My initial front row ride was actually fairly comfortable, but I could tell the Timberliner train was struggling to handle everything the layout throws at it. I quickly went around for a second lap, assigned a little further back in the train, and that was much less enjoyable. With more time I would have taken advantage of the low crowds to get a better handle on Jungle Trailblazer, but two laps, one mostly great, the other middling, would have to suffice.
Galaxy Express
This is a Vekoma Family Suspended Coaster of the Orkanen-style model. (Ignore the English name which makes zero sense with the rustic setting.) This was my second experience with this particular model, and I was reasonably impressed by the ride quality. If you’re not into more aggressive coasters, this would easily rate as the best coaster between both Xiamen Fantawild parks.
Similar to Jungle Trailblazer, after the first drop and a signature 90 degree banked curve, the rest of the layout emphasizes a low-to-the-ground chase with a slalom-like flow between S-curves and helices. It’s a short ride, but with a little more landscaping built up around it, this would be a good junior counterpart to Nemesis or Black Mamba.
Coming around the last curve, I was surprised to notice that the suspended cars are actually capable of swinging out to the side, albeit with a heavy motion dampener that requires a lot of force to budge, and thus causes it to stick at an awkward angle for a few seconds before settling back in place.
The Legend of Nüwa
A robotic arm dark ride based on the Monkey King was closed today, so I fell back to its next door neighbor, The Legend of Nüwa, to close out the remainder of my time in Oriental Heritage. When I found that this was a 3D motion-base dark ride (similar to Universal’s Spider-Man or Transformers), I braced myself for a procession of nothing but 3D screens with a little bit of rockwork in between and a parade of Big Bads who all try and fail to reach out and grab you.
And yes, that’s pretty much what The Legend of Nüwa is… BUT, it manages to be that specific kind of ride so well that I still found myself fairly impressed by the end. First of all, the CG media, and LED screens it’s displayed on, are very high quality. The story was somewhat incomprehensible to me, but it’s all Chinese high fantasy with battling gods, demons, and other animalistic deities, that makes for entertaining viewing.
One sequence I had to marvel at featured a pair of demons beating each other to a pulp inside a cave. The vehicle moves sideways and backwards to the next screen, but instead of changing settings, it maintains the same perspective to give the sense that we are moving through a single space; where we see the demons fighting now is where us riders were a few moments ago. Other scenes cleverly transition the action onto screens overhead, creating a more immersive use of space that breaks us out of the usual trancelike forward gaze at the 3D spectacle.
Yet as I was recording the whole thing, the even bigger marvel unfolded slowly as I watched the recording time tick upward. At around five minutes I figured the action was wrapping up, which is the typical length for these styles of high-tech, high-action dark rides. But instead we discover all new characters in different settings. And then return to the original characters for one last big, epic fight to settle the score once and for all. By the time we finally get to Nüwa’s “thanks for all your help” speech (I assume, it’s a theme park ride), my recording was ticking right up to the ten minute mark.
Ten minutes of continuous action on a 3D motion-based dark ride! That must be some kind of record. Of course dark rides rarely rank their superlatives in the same way roller coasters will, but getting that extra length does translate into a different kind of experience. Scenes are able to breath without feeling like they have to get to the point and move on, the story is able to take more unexpected detours, and there’s enough time for a full denouement before disembarking.
It also has some drawbacks: the focus on nothing but big fantasy battles gets a bit repetitive after some time, and certain scenes would have benefited from tightening. Plus, the motion platform gets a little nauseating, which has typically been a limiting factor on many theme park attractions. I noticed the movement is tuned less aggressively than what you would get from a similar Universal ride. It also will spend a lot more time parked in front of a single screen than you’d ever find at a comparable attraction, where scene length is determined by the ride’s dispatch interval. By my estimation in the queue they sent one vehicle every three minutes, and while that may partially be due to typically slow operating procedures, it may also be baked into the design.
Maybe if I was more proficient with my Chinese I’d have a better appreciation of the story (I’ve never been much into the high fantasy genre), and the heavy screen use is a limiting factor. But on a pure technical level I was impressed with what they achieved… and annoyed I had to leave for my flight immediately afterward. I made it a priority to get to another of the newer, cultural-based Fantawild parks. I wouldn’t have to wait long for the opportunity to present itself.
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