Window of the World (also known as Colorful World) is a small, cultural theme park located in northern Changsha, the capital of Hunan.
Address: 485号 Sanyi Avenue, Kaifu, Changsha
Bus Numbers: 348, 132, 136, 109 (and possibly others)
Cost: 90 Kuai per person, children (under 1.4 meters) and elderly persons are 45 kuai
According to pretty much every website that has written about Window of the World in the past, Window of the World was built “with a total investment of 360 million yuan. It is the biggest cultural theme park in middle China.” However, the park has degraded and, except on holidays, is largely ignored by the public. Many reviews you find online are hugely negative and if you ask any foreigner if it is worth your time you will hear a resounding “no!” But, being Disney World junkies, and considering the fact that Zoe had never been on a roller coaster before, we couldn’t resist!
1) Rides: Yes, it has roller coasters! And they are OK. It has one traditional coaster with a drop and three loop-de-loops. I would say this about a medium size coaster. The problem is that it is kind of rickety. When we went though the first loop, it seemed to hit the brakes a couple of times and even though we were all the way in the back I could feel my neck go crack-crack-crack. It kind of put a damper on the rest of my day and I guess I could include my massage the next day as added on to the park cost. It has one ride that takes you probably 10 stories high and drops you ala Tower of Terror. That was awesome! They also have another ride I call crazy magic school bus because it looks like the simple school bus ride you might find at your state fair, but this one ends up weacing you in and out and around and upside down. Standing in line we were actually getting kind of nervous because it looks really intense. But I think this must be the newest ride in the park because it was very smooth. This was an awesome ride too. They also have a beautiful two-story carousel. Those are probably the biggest ride attractions. They have over 30 rides in the park, but the rest are mainly fair quality or are childrens rides. I think we rode maybe 5 or 6 rides the whole day. Most of the bigger rides have someone taking pictures you can buy afterwards.
Yes, that is Seth making an animal baloon on the ride.
Other Attractions: The park is most famous for it’s world icons in miniature. These include things like Mount Rushmore, The Leaning tower of pisa, the lighthouse of Alexandria, a variety of castles, and more. Most are (or were at one time) well done. The problem is that many have been abused or just neglected and are either moss-covered or falling apart, or both. Some are completely gone (like Buckingham Palace). But a few you can still get some cute pics with.
These are my favorites:
“Aww, how romantic! Just like Roman Holiday!”
“Oh! God! The Pain!”
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It turned into Only You!”
Other: They have a parade, not really worth the look (unless you like girls in fruit bikinis). The butterfly shop is the only place you will find some unique gifts. The peacock garden is neat, you can feed and pet dozens of peacocks and emus.
Special Events: They usually have some kind of special event running. Last week it was angry birds where you could launch stuffed angry birds into slingshots and try to knock down the pig towers. I was looking forward to that. But, alas, they changed it over the holiday weekend. Right now they have a special dinosaur exhibit (which I love dinos, so that was cool) but it is really small. And they are having some kind of fruit/veggie party. They had a huge tomato fight and a race where the kids ean through squished watermellon. I don’t know. Maybe it appeals to little kids, but it didn’t appeal to me so we skipped most of it.
Picture Moments: They have some nice costume shops and good scenery to get some photos taken. I couldn’t resist (I never can) so we had some cute ones made.
Summary: We had fun. It isn’t the best theme park (at all), but it was a fun way to spend a day and it is close to home. We might even go back some time if we are really really bored.