Chimelong Resort

On Sat. April 23 we left for Chimelong Resort for a three day holiday with Ryan, Jill and the kids.  We left from the Shenzhen Bay border crossing and then a driver picked us up and drove the 2 hour trip northwest of Shenzhen.  The resort is in the Panyu District, in the city of Guangzhou, which is in the Guangdong Province!! The park is spread over 60 hectares, and has a daily capacity of 50,000 people.

Hunter running to meet me as we arrived at the Shenzhen departures.

This border crossing is nearer to Ryan and Jill's, and is also somewhat less crowded than at the Lo Wu crossing.  It was fairly busy as it was a long weekend.

Keegan patiently waiting for all the formalities to be over with!!

Here we are waiting for our driver to arrive.

We're still waiting for the driver.  We finally connected in a different area!

Mr. Lee our driver.  He is a former police officer in Shenzhen.  I'm certainly glad he was doing the driving.  The traffic is crazy and they seem to do whatever they want and use their horns instead of breaks!!

Entrance to the hotel lobby.

Hanging out while we get checked in.

This is a mock up of the hotel and convention center.  We were in the block on the right.

Heading to our rooms.  The grounds were really beautifully landscaped.

This was our room.  It was so nice to have a big bed and be able to get out on either side again!!

In the lobby there is a restaurant area and right out the windows are 5 white tigers.  Everyone enjoyed watching them, although they look kind of dead here!!

Beautiful animals.  These were almost pure white.

There's nothing like having a chip or two and watching tigers right outside your window!

The first evening we went to the circus.  They have an international circus and it was very entertaining.

I don't know how many it seats but it was like a small stadium.

They were entranced with it all!

This was a flock of flamingos that just followed behind their trainer all around the stadium!  At the end finale a flock of pelicans came from the back of the building right over us to land in the water below.  They had all the usual circus things plus a water act similar to one of the Cirque de Sole ones.  The whole thing was well done.

The next morning we headed out to the Safari Park.

I don't know why they liked this garbage can so much, but it was a big hit with the kids!!

Cool guys at the bird show!

The color of these parrots was absolutely gorgeous.

I had to take a picture of this.  This couple sat next to us at lunch and they had twin boys, but what fascinated me was the lack of diapers!!  Jill said that most people in the north of China don't use diapers but the pants are cut out and that it!! I don't think l could handle that, but l guess it works well for them, and it's cheaper!

Lunch at the park.  Noodles and rice!

Even though there were lots of trees to help shade you, it was warm, although not as humid as Hong Kong thank goodness.

To see the African animals you ride on this train, or you can rent a car and drive through.  The animals like giraffes, zebras  etc. are just roaming around. There are apparently about 200 white tigers in the world and half of them are in this park.  They have quit a breeding program with a lot of cubs born there.

The next day we went to the amusement park.  This is the entrance.

Keegan being greeted by the tiger mascots.  People are always taking pictures of the kids and wanting to hold them.  Some are so pushy and the kids don't like it and Keegan will say No Picture!!, but some will  just try to grab them.  It's kind of scary to think the'll just try to pick up your kid.  When Ryan and Jill were waiting for a ride some the school kids were saying look the're white!!  It's kind of weird to think
that being white is an oddity in this day and age.

This roller coaster has a vertical drop of almost 90 degrees, and when you come out of the turn at the bottoms it pulls  g's.  Nuts!, and Ryan and Jill went on it 3 times!!  They have all the usual adult rides.  If you like rides its the place to go to.

Hunter and l on the water boats.  There are also water guns for people on the outside to shoot the riders with, and there were some school boys who thought they'd get us good but we managed to get them fairly wet with our guns!!  I'm afraid this is my kind of ride now!

Bumper boats!!

Miniature water gunners!  There are a lot of rides for kids from Keegan's age to in between kids.  It was a great park.

Keegan loves to drive!

He loves riding the real buses, so he was very serious about driving this one!!

He was ready for lunch.

This was a stunt show.  It had quit a few good pyrotechnic blasts and a few good stunts, but otherwise it was a little lame!  Hunter loved it.

The last morning the kids went to the crocodile farm.  We didn't.  They raise crocks there for show, and meat and products made from the hides.

How would you like to try and walk through these fellows!!  I can't say l like alligators, or crocodiles.

I took these next pictures from the car window to give you an idea what it was like on the way to the park.  You never seemed to get out of city.  All along the highway except for a couple of areas it was buildings and factories. A lot of the factories in China are in this area.  In some the workers live above the factory.  There seemed to be a mixture of old buildings and newer apartments.  The buildings are lower and there are few high rises.

This picture is of one of the street lights in Shenzhen.  It  counts down in seconds to when the light will change.  Now that is something Hong Kong doesn't have.  Blaine said they are like this in Taiwan also.  The traffic is crazy in Shenzhen. 12 lanes across and they make u turns where ever they want and butt in ahead of  you, and then there are the scooters and electric bikes that go where ever!! Nuts!  I thought Hong Kong was crazy but they are totally civilized compared to this.  Kylie says wait till we get to Beijing!  China drives on the same side as Canada and l didn't even notice at first because l was sure we were going to get smucked, but we made it and had a good holiday.  I am constantly amazed at the beauty that is here and the   huge buildings etc.  So much old and new all mixed together.