Abandoned - Wonderland Amusement Park

[Music] what's up guys my name is jake and welcome to abandoned episode 69 theme parks specifically disney have perhaps some of the most famous iconography in the industry their magic kingdom parks being the most iconic with their hub and spoke design with a main street leading to a castle they're obviously very successful and because of that there have been several imitations one of the most infamous being the nara dreamland park in osaka japan but whenever the topic of abandoned theme park copies are brought up on the internet dreamland seems to always be paired with another colossal theme park that was in a much different state yet just as unsettling and fascinating a site that is truly so surreal that i wouldn't blame someone for thinking that it's fake it is in fact a real theme park though and one that never made it to completion so with its story not very well known join me as i seek out the history behind this never-finished and long-abandoned copycat disney theme park called wonderland this episode is sponsored by curiositystream get access to my streaming service nebula when you sign up for curiosity stream using the link in the description below our story begins not in japan like nara dreamland but 1100 miles west in beijing china it was the early 1990s and the ringwood group an investment firm that began in china by businessman chanchi ruey roongarang was formed chanchay was seeking to build up a company through smaller investments and one day into major construction projects nearly a decade later after it was formed the rangwood group followed through with this as they embarked on what was likely their largest and most public project yet a brand new theme park during this era theme parks in america were booming disneyland and walt disney world had been going through a renaissance with massive expansion the walt disney company had also already been expanding internationally too with a park in japan just a few years prior and a massive property in paris on the way however with no plans for a china-based property and the country quickly demanding such entertainment with a rise in the country's middle class rangwood acquired sections of land within the village of qinzhang a site selected as it was just 32 kilometers or 20 miles outside of beijing with a population at the time of over 8 million people and a little themed entertainment in the area this park was poised to fill the gap even outsizing tokyo disneyland construction soon commenced in the mid-1990s with an opening sometime in the early 2000s now this is where things get a little vague and are left out for educated and contextual guesses there is no concept art known to be public nor does china publicly post zoning maps or development proposals especially with the fact this project was originating in the 1990s the truth is information is almost non-existent i am not exaggerating when i say there is basically nothing in terms of information or media regarding this park aside from the basic facts we do however have some context to work off of so i partnered with my friend tobin lee a very talented illustrator we collaborated to imagine what the vision behind this park was and this is our interpretation of what wonderland would have been since we don't know the exact property lines the total of 120 acres worth of land likely would have added up in this shape for the park breaking off from the grand entrance structures could have been smaller attraction buildings for rides of all types it really is a large property especially when you imagine how much could possibly fit in this massive plot of land generally the park seemed to have had a medieval and bavarian theme throughout beginning at the front entrance and spanning the length of the cover main street to the massive castle which would have acted as the hub speaking of main street you'll notice that just like tokyo disneyland the entirety of main street would be covered by a steel frame really though overall it seemed to have been a worthwhile attempt at something substantial in the area and work continued to move along the logo for the park also featured a purple dragon as their mascots with suspiciously similar disney fonts as their typeface construction however wasn't without its issues as some areas of the land were flooded after a particularly wet season this was just one of the many problems that plagued the construction process as the very land they were planning on building on was constantly in contention ringwood group was buying parcels for a multi-million dollar theme park from literal farmers once the local governments got involved with the pricing of such land however no party would agree on the true value of their property now yes this allowing problem could have likely been avoided if they had just eaten up the cost and paid the inflated prices however that land that was flooded back in 1998 was now designated as government protected land which apparently is just something china can do this meant a key section of the property to which the park was planned to be built upon was now out of the question and with new policy changes enacted by the local government in the same year the park was put into serious jeopardy by the year 2000 it seemed as though there was no feasible way to continue on without the necessary land with rumors of financial difficulties piled on top wonderland amusement park was put on an indefinite hold and the workers sent home the park was essentially abandoned and it stayed this way until 2008 when the rainwood group would try and resurrect the project they actually did continue to maintain some of the buildings up to this point with new paint and landscaping along with security however this attempt was going alongside a worldwide recession particularly bad in the west their land troubles also continued to plague them as it meant the park would no longer be the largest in asia actually those 120 acres had now shrunk to just 37 acres of usable land the structures already built had pretty much fully occupied this now disproportional site with the structures intended for a much bigger development around them incorporating these into a new park would be hard and the competition around wonderland had also vastly changed tokyo disneysea had opened in 2001 at 176 acres by itself which was absolutely massive even larger was the hong kong disneyland site which encompassed over 300 acres now of course none of these were in mainland china but parks like the 150 acre chime along paradise had also opened in 2006. really close to home happy valley beijing opened the same year capturing a huge market of theme park going patrons ringwood group had given up wonderland was just too much of a liability and was never going to capture the original concept that their investment was intended for so the park was left properly abandoned while the developers figured out a better use for the land this now meant a pretty massive unfinished disney style theme park was left to the elements the way the park was constructed was rather strange some buildings were nearly finished with their facades and steaming in place while others 20 feet away were either just frames or literally nothing and dirt so when arriving at the front gates it's a bit deceiving on what's actually behind these monumental walls but let's take a tour of this eerie park by starting on the highway with the pedestrian walkway connecting to the other side this was fully themed and actually looked rather nice it served the purpose of connecting additional parking across the highway since the lot at the front of the park was pretty small for asia's largest theme park once you cross the unfinished steel frame of the vehicle ticket booths you enter the expansive esplanade a massive circular entrance would then lead you down main street however these towering structures were also left as steel frames never properly finished flanking them on either side was the exact opposite two massive multi-purpose buildings fully themed and seemingly ready to be occupied the extent of the theming continued on with the smaller courtyards within the massive structures which honestly have a pretty high level of quality to them within the spaces seem to have been divided up into small shops and restaurants with the larger areas inside possibly intended to serve as a show building for a dark ride despite the rather clean spaces inside there was no mistaking the lack of care in its current state the facades had clearly been weathered with the mildew covering large parts of the plaster with locals stripping out valuables inside and farmers using the space's storage or even overnight refuge speaking of farmers when walking down main street the flat buildable land from the 90s had now been transformed and reclaimed by the local farmers of the area it's truly an astonishing sight to see crops being grown beneath the massive steel canopy of the never finished main street perhaps even more astonishing however is where these sight lines lead to which was the massive castle at least a hundred feet high the castle was the symbol of wonderland but also a symbol of failure standing as just the concrete and steel core of what would have been the grand centerpiece of the park it's unbelievable to see with somewhat of a close resemblance to cinderella's castle from walt disney world's magic kingdom or tokyo disneyland it's genuinely a creepy sight to see especially as it decays in the distance of the now makeshift farmland inside the enormous and vertigo-inducing spiral staircase would bring you to the highest summits of the castle providing the best views of this depressing park elsewhere on the site you can see that some work began on the larger attractions with some show buildings even finished however nothing was worth saving and this was apparent when rainwood group announced their plans for the property in 2012 demolition finally began first with the removal of the main street steel canopy by the following year the rest of the entrance portion of wonderland was completely destroyed and cleared away the entire site was cleared by may of 2013 after being abandoned for over 12 years the demolition was making way for a brand new luxury outdoor mall called the battling outlets the mall began construction almost immediately and opened to the public in june of 2015. the shopping center itself is very nice it's outdoors and has an upscale premium feel to it it seems to be popular and has almost 700 000 square feet of retail space so it's pretty big too all in all it represents a massive redevelopment to something that was much different prior but that's not to say all traces of the past have been destroyed and i have been intentionally admitting one fact of this mall that showcases that first i'll mention that for some reason the pedestrian bridge to nowhere that crosses the highway still remains it also still leads to nowhere and doesn't exactly fit the theming of the current modern outlet mall now even more bizarre is when you drive through the parking lot around to the other side of the mall there you'll be able to see the enormous castle that is still there yes that's right the largest and most recognizable structure from the abandoned wonderland park still stands even to this day since the construction of the mall it was painted as if that was going to make it look better and fit in with the landscape what has likely happened here is that the land has defaulted back to either a farmer who does not have the means to pay for the demolition of a hundred foot tall abandoned castle or even more likely that the land has fallen into the hands of the government who simply does not care to remove it it does appear however that the land is sometimes used for overflow parking from the mall so honestly who knows it's fascinating to watch this weird story play out many see it as a showcase of china's ghost cities and the complications of china's private land ownership especially in the 1990s and while the land aspect of that is true and did play a hand at its failure it really was just poor timing the company was literally building a theme park with the land not even being fully acquired so yeah that was a recipe for disaster and ultimately a lot of money and materials were just wasted but it makes sense as to why they wanted to build this so quickly really i see it as an attempt to capitalize on china's exploding middle class a way for an investment company to which they were to put their products out there before disney ever had the chance and grab a segment at least at the time of the very small theme park industry would it have succeeded or would it have just become another nara dreamland or nearby xi jinxin amusement park like most disney copycat labelled parks do well disney ultimately opened shanghai disneyland in 2016 which became the most prestigious theme park in china it also proved the demand with over 11 million people visiting a year which was the market wonderland had been chasing now of course that's hundreds of miles away from beijing but even with another major theme park like universal studios now operating there it's very possible that even if they did open the copycat title placed on the park would have forever plagued them much like the struggling local and aforementioned shijinchen amusement park i think really the most notoriety the park ever received was more of its failure than its promise though even with it gone it still really does have a presence in the area well i mean of course it does so not until that massive castle is torn down will the skyline of the small village outside of beijing be free of the reminder of the weird and creepy past of the wonderland amusement park if you enjoyed this episode of abandoned then you also probably enjoy other creators who make educational videos and short documentaries like mine nebula is by and for creators like myself as a place to publish content that we're excited about but might not do as well on youtube if you visit my channel on nebula you can see my videos a day early and watch them including this one ad free partnered with nebula is curiosity stream a long-standing supporter of creators like me curiosity stream is a streaming service filled with thousands of curated high-quality non-fiction titles and documentaries across all types of topics since i went down a bit of a rabbit hole on china for this video shows like wonders of asia and the china-focused episode of curious minds were not only entertaining and interesting but great companion pieces to the rest of this fascinating country i've been a big fan of curiosity stream for years now and what makes this deal even better is that curiosity stream has partnered with nebula so if you sign up using my special link curiositystream.combsf you'll get 26 off an annual plan but until december 24th you can get up to 42 percent off for the limited time christmas sale that's just 11.59 for the entire year which gets you access to two incredibly unique streaming services anyway guys my name is jake and thank you very much for watching [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 681,761

Keywords: Disney, abandoned disney, theme parks, disney theme park, walt Disney world, tokyo disney, nara dreamland, fake disney world, abandoned theme park, abandoned ride, abandoned castle, fake china, copycat, Wonderland amusement park, Beijing china, never finished, concept art, disney park knockoffs, disney world in china, Jake williams, bright sun films, documentary, HD, clean, family friendly, 2022, 2021, new, abandoned, creepy, disney castle, disney park, history, what happened

Id: OFt_W5s0Yy4

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 17 2021