Deer World Theme Park

[There was a picture here but WordPress won’t allow it so yeah…sorry guys]

I first discovered Deer World Theme Park on one of the Chinese TV Channels with my uncle whilst just hanging around in the flat. Nobody was really watching until my uncle switched the channel. A person was talking through his exciting adventure through ‘Deer World Theme Park’ and about all the family-friendly ‘rides’; riding on deer, going behind the scenes to feed them and the deer enclosures; massive plain fields with juicy green grass on them-not the brown-ish type you got in the city. There were swimming pools, playgrounds, and a wonderful restaurant nearby! (Unfortunately, yes, venison was the only meat available…) And the spokesman said it was open seven days a week! It seemed a great place to go for an animal lover like me! And don’t mention Beijing Zoo, it’s not a zoo; it’s a torture chamber for animals.

How wrong I was about that! The Park was hundreds of kilometres away from Beijing, and there is always traffic, whichever motorway you are on. However, by the time we got there it was already dawning lunchtime and we came to a half-deserted tourist spot, quite empty. There was a fenced off residential area with lots of colourful English houses; not a person was to be seen. All the shopping centres were closed and the only sound you could continually hear was the howling wind. I was guessing this was some plan in the making.

The area in which Deer World was placed was on a rough farm road leading out of the little abandoned village. Annoying potholes covered the majority of the rough rubbly terrain, laden with big stones. Finally, we came to a sign saying “This way to Deer World Theme Park” with a hand-written squiggly black marker arrow, which pointed to another dirt road with tall oak tree leaning over it. After about a minute we came across the Theme Park; the guard was sleeping and it was quiet and lonely; where were all the people the person had said there would be? Quietly passing the sleeping guard we drove the whole way round the area…

It wasn’t as big as they had said: the big plain fields of green weren’t even there’s, just the nearby area. The main entrance hall was still being built; we could smell rough plywood and cement. As we went round, it got worse: the swimming pools had no water filled in them, and were already covered up with dirty autumn leaves. There were deer, but unkempt, smelly, hungry and generally a horrible sight to see. Still no one was coming. Disheartened, we went the whole way round until we came back to the entrance. The guard was now awake and staring blankly at a car as we drove through the gates. At least he didn’t try to ask us for money (20RMB, or around £2) otherwise things could’ve got a little rougher than intentioned…

If you’re still even slightly interested…or what to see for yourself how disastrous this undeveloped place is:

http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/feature_2/TourismOpenDay/Huairou/t1290983.htm

Luckily, we didn’t completely waste our time driving their: the restaurant truly is delicious and has a ping pong board, and we also visited a movie set in the deserted village; luckily it actually had people in it this time. It was great! (The film set, not the theme park of course) I highly suggest you go there, it was really exciting…

Well, there you go. The remaining food places we went to will be written about very soon, including the Chinese Pizza Hut we went to whilst I was starving to death…

Bye! -MW