Splendid China

A few weeks ago, Laila and I went to Splendid China & China Folk Culture Villages located about 15 minutes from my apartment in Shenzhen. I had to take a quick bus as well as a short subway ride to get there. Admission was 120 kuai ($20) I believe. It was also one of our first 'hot' days of the year and like China everywhere, the place was packed!

As China's first cultural theme park, the park condenses Chinese history, culture, places of interest, folk arts, and customs - as well as folk housing – in the course of China's five-thousand year civilization, displaying Chinese culture from different angles and profiles.

You basically walk around the park enjoying stunning, replica scenery of China while appreciating Chinese numerous cultures. You can watch shows, have fun with traditional Chinese entertainment, eat traditional Chinese food, and get to know Chinese culture.

Basically the theme park is split in two different sections with replica, miniature attractions (on a scale of 1:15) to the left side of the park and replica Chinese villages on the other side.

Some of the replica, miniature attractions (there are over 80) spread amongst beautiful greenery and flowers are the following: The Great Wall, Terra Cotta Warriors, Mausoleum of Genghis Khan, Potala Palace, Forbidden City, Old Summer Palace, Confucius Temple, Mt. Taishan, Three Gorges, Shaolin Monastery, Hanging Coffins, amongst many others.

Among the replica Chinese streets, houses, and villages (there are over 50), are the Wei, Tibetan, Li, Va, Dai, Miao, and Yi ethnic villages. You can also see replica squares, corridors, quadrangles, buildings, caves, valleys, towers,waterfalls, bridges, islands, piers, markets, and theaters.

It's a really nice park and one of the things I was looking forward to the most was the Golden Spear Dynasty Battle on Horseback show. This live, original show is a historical play of nomadic warriors who led an army of 40,000 soldiers to defeat an enemy of 400,000 in a legendary battle, and conquered the prairie. With a mix of sound effects, horse-riding skills, fireworks, and more, you watch a battle scene on a 2 hectare field. Pics of this show are below:

Below are various pics of the park.

 

Below are some specific pics. Remember, all the pics in this post are replicas. It's a replica, miniature theme park. First, a pic of the Leshan Giant Buddha Statue in Sichuan Province.

 

Next the Temple of Confucius in Shandong Province. As you can see, the Confucius Temples I visited in Taiwan were modeled after this one and are strikingly similar.

 

The Great Wall.

 

Next, the famous Potala Palace in Tibet. Notice how high the foundations are. Construction started in the 7th century.

 

The Goddess of Mercy with Thousand of Hands and Thousands of Eyes.

 

Next, the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan in Inner Mongolia. Built in 1227.

 

The Forbidden City.

 

The Old Summer Palace in Beijing.

 

Next, the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang Mausoleum in Shaanxi Province.

 

Sorry for the long post, but you could have spend the whole day here as it was a beautiful park and lots to see – thus I wanted to show you a lot of pics. As one will see if they visit China, when China 'wants' to build something 'nice,' they have no rival I think. We were there for about three to four hours. But it was hot, crowded, expensive, and there was not much vegetarian food to be found, so we left to go eat and grab some beers elsewhere. But it was also nice to leave as we repeatedly felt like we were one of the 100 attractions with all the stares and picture requests (especially Laila) of the waiguoren (foreigners).