20 Sep 2019
Four new theme parks open in two months as Fantawild revels in retelling Chinese history
BY Andy Knaggs
Fantawild has opened its fourth Chinese theme park in a little over two months, with Jingzhou Fantawild Oriental Heritage in Hubei Province being the latest.
In July, both the Changsha Fantawild Park in Hunan Province, and the Jiayuguan Fantawild Silk Road Dreamland in Gansu Province opened their doors. They were followed in August by Fantawild Oriental Legend in Hebei Province.
Each of these theme parks takes inspiration from different aspects of Chinese culture and tradition. For example, the Jiayuguan Fantawild Silk Road Dreamland focuses on silk road and Great Wall culture, while Fantawild Oriental Legend is the first high-tech cultural theme park to have Chengyu culture – a set of experiences, moral concepts and admonishments, usually each expressed in four characters – as its key element.
The latest park – Jingzhou Fantawild Oriental Heritage in Hubei – presents traditional Chinese culture and the Jingchu culture of Hubei, and it drew 10,000 tourists on its first day, the company said.
It contains 41 themed attractions and rides and more than 200 landscape designs, many inspired by ancient Chinese legends and myths. Among these is the "Palace of Chu", which combines live performance with virtual reality to display the music and dance of the state of Chu, and "Qu Yuan" – a holographic theatre that aims to revive the life and work of one of the greatest poets of ancient China.
Blending culture and high technology, the "Oriental Heritage" park series seeks to tell the story of the history of China. But Fantawild has much more in the wings, and says it will build further parks that move the story along, based on two further themes: “The Road to Modern Era” shows the modernization of the country, while “Tomorrow's China” is about the future.
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