Koo-Kung Hsiang, Yunelin, Taiwan – Sunday, May 15th, 2011
Even when I’m traveling solo, there’s an art to how I plan my own trip itineraries. It’s not just the logistics, but the journey should be arranged to tell some sort of story. There should be lulls and downtime at key points, with the busier schedules of smaller new discoveries towards the beginning, and simpler day plans blocked off at the biggest and best theme parks towards the end, so I’ll stay motivated and be less likely to cut corners due to fatigue. It’s nice to finish with a bang, and today I would be able to cap the tour with the only park in Taiwan to not only carry a B&M coaster, but have two world-class scream machines of any variety.
The one risk with that strategy is that as ride maintenance schedules become available it can mess with the elegance of a previously well thought-out plan. Of those two B&M coasters, one of them, Diving Machine G5, was scheduled to be closed for refurbishment for two and a half months, reopening on Monday, the day I was scheduled to fly back to Hong Kong in the morning. I didn’t know if it made it any better or worse that my artful schedule came so close to it, but still missed. Perhaps if I had rearranged things to put more distance between us it would have eased the disappointment. Upon my arrival, an untranslated message at the front gate had enough numeric hints contained within that I could guess I was indeed out of luck.
Janfusun Fancyworld is a relatively old amusement park by Asian standards, having opened in 1988, although in some ways the infrastructure feels even more outdated. I’d group with it with Discovery World in the class of overly-generic Taiwanese theme parks without much design interest or charm, although the green hillside setting gives it a significant leg up over its urban competitor. In both cases, you’re definitely only coming here for the coasters.
The park has a long winding entry route through this topiary garden, inexplicably given a “cute horror” overlay.
The attempt at humorous tombstones falls a bit flat.
I’m assuming this all way intended to promote their walk-throughout haunted house? A rather bizarre entry sequence nevertheless.
Up the hill a bit further, the first coaster track comes into view.
Except… it’s not completely silent. There seems to be signs of activity around the station. Could it be?
The queue is open! Diving Machine G5 returned from refurbishment a day ahead of schedule!
I couldn’t believe my luck. I hurry into the station and take a seat in the 8-abreast front row. Few things beat the feeling of relief when you get to sit down on a coaster you weren’t supposed to be able to ride, especially when it promised to be one of the highlights of the trip.
Diving Machine G5 opened in 2000 as a mirrored near-clone of Oblivion at Alton Towers, and the world’s second B&M Dive Machine. The biggest difference is that, while Alton Towers spent many millions of pounds boring a giant underground tunnel for Oblivon’s 180 foot drop, Janfusun Fancyworld spent slightly less money perching Diving Machine G5 on the edge of an enormous hill, with much less tunnel digging involved.
The ride begins with a short steep lift hill before a slow turn providing a breathtaking panoramic view.
It’s not just the terrain differential for the drop itself, but the entire valley extending beyond Diving Machine G5 that lets you see for seemingly miles perched from the edge.
It holds for a too-brief moment before the signature not-quite-90-degree plunge.
It’s not the biggest, but it’s still pretty good.
A small tunnel at the bottom uses the forced perspective of the high vantage point to make it appear much narrower and tighter than it actually is. Although it barely lasts a fraction of a second, the effect of rushing through this short dark passage is surprisingly effective. It’s disappointing that so many more recent Dive Machines have given up on using tunnels at any point in the layout.
The 8-seater shuttle then rises into a very high banked turn which towers over the water park.
A quick pop of airtime then up into the brakes.
This may be sacrilege for Alton Towers purists, but between the original and the copy, I prefer the copy. By quite a bit, in fact.
Since the layouts are virtually unchanged, a lot of the difference is psychological. But as I wrote in my Oblivion analysis, that ride is all about keeping things hidden and stimulating a progressively building fear of the unknown. Diving Machine G5 takes an opposite tact, putting the ride’s true height and drop very much on full display for both spectators and riders to admire. Given that vertical drops by themselves are no longer the mysterious novelty they were when Oblivion opened in 1998, the latter strategy seems to be much more effective, at least for me personally.
If you’re don’t board Oblivion with some apprehension, it presents itself as a small ride. The massive tunnel actually takes away the ability to properly judge speed and distance, and true scale of the element disappears in the dark. Between the acrophobic views at the top and the tiny tunnel that whizzes by at the bottom, Diving Machine G5 does a much better job at accentuating just how tall and fast it really is.
Importantly, the turn is a major element in its own right and not just an afterthought. Sitting on the outside of the wide shuttle, swooping that high above ground, it feels like if you were to put a wing coaster train on one of Millennium Force’s overbanked turns. Sure, it might be the difference between a one-trick and a two-trick pony… but that’s still a 100% increase in pony tricks!
There’s less drama and nuance leading up to the drop, sure, but it makes up for it by being a good, solid roller coaster experience no matter what decade you’re in. I’d rather have the authentic simplicity of the Taiwanese version than the artificial complexity of the British originator.
After my first ride in the front row, I went around for a second lap in the back. Like Oblivion the second row has very little upside beyond increasing the ride capacity. At some point I realized this attraction probably was the inspiration for the entire trend of Taiwanese parks making their one major thrill coaster some sort of vertically-based gimmick coaster: Gravity Max at Discovery World and Screaming Condor at Leofoo Village, both opening the year after in 2001, and Big Air with the opening of E-DA Theme Park in 2010. The only major coasters on the island to escape that trend are the Mayan Adventure Vekoma SLC at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, which opened in 1997, and Janfusun’s own Insane Speed B&M floorless coaster, being the only time a second thrill coaster was built at the same park. Speaking of which…
After finishing my second lap feeling satisfied that had I now gotten a ride I wasn’t expecting to get, my thoughts turned toward Janfusun’s other major coaster. I made a beeline to find it as soon as possible, lest weather, mechanical disruptions, or some other act of god found a way to keep me from completing the full set.
It’s quite a hike to the bottom of the park, but I eventually came upon my second big target of the day, the rather insanely colored Insane Speed.
Insane Speed opened in 2001, a year after Diving Machine G5. Not sure how a small park like this could suddenly afford two B&M coasters in back-to-back years, but it certainly helped push Janfusun Fancyworld way ahead of the competition where thrill rides are concerned.
There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy over the ride’s name, as every English-language coaster source I’ve ever seen calls it Insane Speed, but all the marquees and signage at the park simply say “Floorless Coaster.”
Although it’s not very large compared to some international floorless coasters, the ride still has a custom layout. The closest comparison is to Batman: The Dark Knight at Six Flags New England which opened a year later. Insane Speed is missing the zero-G roll but has a helix finale in exchange, and has a has rarer straight first drop instead of the more common twisting one.
It’s not immediately clear if they’re intentionally going for a Rastafarian theme with the color selection.
While taking photos around the station a kindly employee approached me with the assumption that I would like a photo of myself posing with whatever these characters were supposed to be. As you can see, I didn’t refuse.
The ride begins with a 131 foot lift.
Very unusual for a multi-looping B&M, Insane Speed has a flat 180-degree turnaround at the top of the lift, followed by a straight drop. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it’s a somewhat old-fashioned choice to begin the ride layout, as if copied from an older Arrow looping coaster model.
The rest of the ride is a very standard sequence of B&M maneuvers, starting with a vertical loop…
…a dive loop…
…a horseshoe turn threading the loop…
…a slightly flatter banked turn signifying the middle of the ride experience…
…then a pair of interlocking corkscrews with the serpentine turnaround between them…
…this slightly odd, bent transition coming out of the corkscrew, which looks more noticeable from off-ride than it feels from on the ride…
…a big uphill helix to burn off the remaining speed…
…and into the brakes.
Insane Speed won’t be making many top 10 lists unless you’ve visited very few theme parks located outside of Taiwan. Still, it’s a perfectly competent B&M coaster with no major drawbacks like roughness, which kind of automatically earns its place among the top attractions in Taiwan. With seemingly every other coaster on the island being either a vertical gimmick and/or a Vekoma of varying degrees of thrill/roughness, getting a full-sized B&M multi-looper was a comfortingly familiar way to close out the trip. With few people inside the park and an open re-ride policy, it seemed I’d be back on this ride a lot throughout the day.
Nearby, the Janfusun Sky Wheel towers over the lower portion of the park. Somehow this was my first of what was to be many in the genre of “massive Ferris wheels at seemingly random Asian amusement parks.”
The Janfusun Sky Wheel opened with the park in 1988, and stands an impressive 289 feet tall. While they could have placed it at the top of the park’s hill to even further maximize the viewing height, I think looking across at the rides scattering the hillside provides for the more attractive viewing experience.
Insane Speed shows off its entire layout from down below.
Diving Machine G5 continued to thrill riders with its hillside plummet.
Peering out across the landscape from nearly 300 feet above.
The water park didn’t look particularly busy on this overcast day.
A handful of other flat rides are found nearby.
And down there I could find the last remaining coaster of my Taiwan trip.
While Janfusun Fancyworld’s flat rides aren’t necessarily the most modern, they do have one of the better collections among Taiwanese theme parks. I gave a few of them a try, like the Huss Frisbee (here rather adorably called “Fris Bee“).
The Super Swing is an oldie but a goodie you don’t see too often anymore.
Obligatory S&S Space Shot towers.
A rare Huss Flic Flac ride.
And a swinging ship creatively called Great Poseidon, and a flume ride uncreatively called Flume Ride.
More rides are found in their indoor section called Kiddie Land.
The multi-level interior is colorfully festooned with ribbons and a massive LED curved ceiling. A bit better than the painted warehouses found in a few other Taiwanese park’s indoor zones.
It also has a beyond ridiculous triple-decker carousel. What makes it so ridiculous is that it appears to be just three of the generic Chance fiberglass carousels (the kind you find at random malls) stacked on top of each other, ensuring they now have triple the unneeded capacity.
A small magic show was just beginning. I’d imagine that being able to view the show from above and behind the stage must limit the magician’s roster of tricks.
This gigantic five-story fun house looked like something I had to try, just for that spiral slide alone.
I quickly came to regret that decision. Virtually every effect along the never-ending route was either turned off, removed altogether, or just plain stupid.
These foam poles fall in the latter category. While you’re supposed to squeeze through them, these were just hard foam which made it impossible for any adult to even attempt to go through. Had to go around…
The farther up I got the more scarce the effects became. The rollers on this roller floor were all locked in place. Many levels were just a long empty hallway. This was beyond tedious by this point.
Towards the top they randomly decided to add some spook house elements?
And the real kicker: I FINALLY get to the top where I’m hoping for a somewhat redeeming spiral slide to quickly get out of this fun house… but I’m told by the attendant that you must be less than 160cm tall (~5’3″) to slide down. Being well over that limit meant my only choice was to turn around and walk all the way back the way I came. A quarter of an hour I’ll never get back. (When trying to categorize the worst attractions I’ve ever tried at a theme park, this fun house has many attractive qualities to score high on that list, certainly near those that have caused physical injury.)
Lastly, Kiddie Land contains the park’s final coaster credit, KuKu Coaster.
The ride boards from inside, but virtually the entire layout circles around a small grassy plot just outdoors.
This custom Zamperla powered coaster was one of the less interesting versions of this ride I’d been on. Often these rides have long, meandering scenic layouts and/or can get a decent clip with some hard laterals, but this ride had neither.
Still, given that every other Taiwanese theme park I’d been to so far had some sort of Vekoma junior model as the requisite “family” coaster, KuKu coaster was at least a step in a different direction, even if it was also a step down.
At this point with all the coasters checked off, I opted to head back up the hill to get many more rides on Diving Machine G5. The ride had been cycling all morning and I had been able to get plenty of pictures of it…
But when I got there, I found it had been shut down and the staff had left the area. It didn’t seem to be a mechanical issue, they just didn’t seem to be running it anymore. I may have been pressing my luck by not riding it as much as I could while it was open. (Especially after wasting so much time in that “fun” house.) The ride was still technically supposed to be closed for refurbishment today, so it’s possible I stumbled into a morning “soft opening” period as part of a final test and adjust. Regardless, it’s an easy ride to see and hear from anywhere in the park, so I’d keep an eye on it for the rest of the day.
With my afternoon now much more open, I explored more of the park’s upper level.
Apart from Diving Machine G5 there are few amusement rides located up here. One of the attractions they do have however is the Janfusun International Coffee Museum.
The coffee museum was surprisingly comprehensive, although it wasn’t clear what the unique connection was the Janfusun that they would choose to build a coffee museum here. There’s also apparently a tea museum as part of the larger Jasfusun complex as well.
There’s even a couple levels of environmental replicas of locations famed for their coffee. The exhibits appear part of an early attempt at more experiential museum design, but they haven’t aged very gracefully.
I can’t recall if these last rooms were related to coffee or something else.
With still no sign of activity around Diving Machine G5, the nearby the Rainbow theater was letting in for a show.
The variety show had some more diverse acts than similar shows I saw in Taiwan. It still had the feeling that it wasn’t a show made for the park but was just whichever performers were available to book for the venue.
The Texan Train appears like a normal miniature railroad attraction, but due to the uneven terrain the park sits on it has the unusual distinction of being built on an elevated bridge for much of the layout. A monorail may have been better suited but I guess the train was still cheaper?
The train offers some decent views of other attractions in the park, especially during a close pass of Insane Speed.
With the park thoroughly explored, I ended up spending much of the afternoon simply riding Insane Speed over and over. With an open re-ride policy, I ended up getting over twenty laps throughout the day. It was the only attraction in Taiwan I’d end up riding more than three times.
A lot of enthusiasts talk about “zen rides” when they’re the only one on a coaster, but I find that being able to put aside intentionality of planning and time management for a few hours and simply ride a coaster over and over, whether or not you’re sharing that ride with others, is a much better way to practice mindfulness.
I sometimes have to remind myself that other people find roller coasters scary or thrilling; for me, while senses are heightened, it’s a good opportunity to be more present in the moment and try to take in all the little details and rhythms that the three minute cycle has to offer before it all repeats again.
A gravity-driven roller coaster is a complex yet elegant contraption, and it can take dozens if not hundreds of rides to really master every momentary nuance that goes into that contained experience.
During these sessions, I try to remind myself to be aware things like the kinesthetic impact of each element on my body, or the surroundings that compose the physical space the coaster moves through. The rapid motion of the ride is extra incentive to stay present, as a momentary distraction means I have to wait until the next cycle to re-capture whatever I missed.
Often my thoughts will drift back to an inner monologue of the ride experience, but I try to step out of that and be more receptive to the pure phenomenology of the experience itself. There’s always time to go back and add narrative to these experiences later.
Sometimes much later… like over nine years later.
As the day got closer to close, I still had one unfinished piece of business. While I probably rode Insane Speed enough to last me three lifetimes, I still had only my two morning rides on Diving Machine G5 (which I probably like a bit better). A couple times throughout the day I’d see them test the ride and even send a single trainload of guests on a cycle… then immediately close it again. I’d start to hurry over there until it became obvious it wasn’t going to cycle again for a while. Finally, I decided simply wait around the entrance for the final hour of the day and see if I might get lucky. I was beginning to resign myself to no more Diving Machine, until some activity finally happened…
One more front row ride, bringing my total for the day to three! Unfortunately, despite the small group congregating out front, the staff quickly made clear that I had just partaken in the ultimate ride of the day. Just like my experience with Gravity Max the day prior, I could have fared better, but it also could have been a lot worse. I could go back to Hong Kong satisfied with what I had achieved.
Despite missing two coasters, my eleven day Taiwan tour was successful beyond what I had ever realistically expected from it. Diving Machine G5, Gravity Max, Screaming Condor, and probably a few others were all rides I wasn’t likely to get if I were to roll the dice again, yet somehow each came up with my numbers.
I feel kind of bad for saying this, but the fact that my time in Taiwan was so successful honestly makes it the one place I visited in Asia in 2011 that I feel the least desire to return to. I loved (nearly) every minute of it, but I also feel like I did nearly everything I could really want to experience in this country, between the culture, nature, and theme parks. Part of it may have to do with the fact that, unlike China or other Asian countries, Taiwan’s theme park scene has really been in a near-complete stasis since I visited in 2011. According to RCDb, exactly one coaster has opened in the country since then, in 2014, and it’s another children’s coaster. I haven’t heard of any of the parks opening any significant new themed attractions either, save for an odd Gaudí-inspired water ride at Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village that apparently took seven years to build. At least it makes the extreme lateness of these reports not as bad, as anyone using this series to inspire their own travel to Taiwan will find things in mostly the same condition.
The other thing that surprised me looking back on these reports is how equally-matched all the parks in Taiwan are. There’s really not a single one that I would outright advise anyone to skip. The most generic parks have the best coasters (Janfusun Fancyworld and Discovery World), while the other parks with weaker headlining attractions have a much more unique overall flavor (Leofoo Village, Formosan Aboriginal Village, E-DA Theme Park). Even the family parks without a significant coaster presence have their own very specific charms that I would advise are worthy of a brief stopover (Window on China, Farglory Ocean Park). If you have a full week to explore, I think my strategy of starting in Taipei and circling the island, with natural sites like Taroko National Park and Yehliu Geopark along the way, was a pretty good plan to emulate. (Relying on private instead of public transport would be an easy way to compress the timeline. Discovery World and Janfusun Fancyworld for example could probably be done together in a single day if you have the means to quickly move between them.)
And whatever you do, don’t miss the night markets!
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