Happy Valley, Beijing's biggest theme park, opened on Sunday. It attracted about sixty thousand people the first day, but faces serious problems.

Despite the rain, about ten thousand tourists swarmed into the park in the first two hours.

According to information from Happy Valley, the park received about sixty thousand people the first day, more than their reception limit of fifty thousand people. They did not expect the number to be this high.

Although the park didn't open until 9:30 a.m., there were already long queues in front of the ticket office at 8:30 am, said a happy employee of Happy Valley.

Happy Valley was popular on its first day, but behind the warm reception on the first day, problems have emerged.

Four attractions are postponed, including an attraction heavily advertised earlier.

The long time waiting for one single attraction is really testing with the unexpected crowds. Many people spent more than two hours waiting for one attraction. In addition, the park's Best Pass, similar to Disneyland's FASTPASS, did not work as expected. Some visitors asked for a refund for their tickets because they could not stand waiting any longer.

Another reason for people asking for refunds is because the through ticket is not worthwhile. A through ticket of 160 yuan for about forty attractions appears to be relatively inexpensive. However, accounting for too many people waiting, generally a visitor can only enjoy about five attractions during the peak season.

As for professionals, what they are concerned about is whether China's theme parks can bring forth new ideas and attractions. China's exploration of tourism commodities has been almost completely empty, says Professor Wu Bihu, director of Peking University's tourism research and program center.

It is reported successful overseas theme parks renew more than 20 per cent of their attractions every year to retain customers. 

(CRIENGLISH.com July 11, 2006)