7/24 Happy Valley Amusement Park

The ride to Happy Valley is similar to the ride to Discoveryland in Dalian. The area is away from the city and being developed. You can see the construction and landscaping underway. Cathy explained that China's abundant resource is people, so where we would normally think of using more efficient ways of watering the grass along the roadside (sprinkler systems), China hires people to hold fire hoses and water.

The kids are happy in Happy Valley. It is a miracle that we even made it, since the concierge tried to tell me the park wasn't built yet. Behind Nick and Ella is the wooden roller coaster called Fireball. In line, the people are staring at us, pointing, smiling, whispering to each other. Some are bold enough to say hello and tell Ella she is beautiful. Some take pictures, sometimes they ask, sometimes they don’t. I am used to this behavior by now, but think about back home. The faces in line are ones that I would expect to see at the grocery store in Oregon, at work, at the farmer’s market, anywhere. But here, we stand out again as the only non-Asians in the park.

I read that when China was preparing for the Olympics, they worked on adjusting some of the behaviors of the locals. One behavior was spitting and the other was lifting their shirt. This man didnt get the memo. And there are amny more men like this everywhere we visit, some of them with bulging bellies...

We are excited to learn that Ella is tall enough to go on the Gyro-Swing, not to be confused the the traditional swings which she is NOT tall enough to ride.

We order shaved us and find that it is served with some kind of gummi shavings on top. I give it to Ella to eat, and she takes it happily.

The kids are not tall enough to go on the Diving Coaster, but they enjoy it from the sidewalk. The coaster sprays water as it passes over the crowd. It is a great way to cool off!

The park is pretty clean, but I did notice that there were not enough trash bins or recycling.