Travel Notes Beijing Happy Valley: One Route Round the Park, Six Roller Coasters
Happy Valley sits in the southeast corner of the fourth ring road in Chaoyang, on the old site of the Beijing coking plant. It opened on 9 July 2006 as Overseas Chinese Town’s fourth-generation theme park, and covers 560,000 square metres in seven themed areas: Fjord Forest, Atlantis, Lost Maya, Aegean Port, Shangri-La, Dessert Kingdom and Happy Time. It draws more than four million visitors a year.
The six worth the queue
- Extreme Flight: China’s first launch coaster; the catapult reaches 135 km/h over sixty metres in about thirty seconds. The queue regularly runs past an hour.
- Sun God Gong: a pendulum ride swinging through 120 degrees with riders fifty metres above the ground, alternating weightlessness and added weight.
- Crystal Wing: a flying coaster in which riders lie flat, on track some eight hundred metres long and thirty-two metres at its highest.
- Odyssey: Asia’s tallest flume, lifted twenty-six metres, diving at eighty km/h and throwing water more than ten metres into the air.
Shows and seasons
The big one is 《Golden Mask》, a dance epic built on the Sanxingdui civilisation, mixing acrobatics, magic and sound and light, running sixty minutes in a two-thousand-seat theatre. 《Maya Disaster》 is a live-effects show that re-creates the end of Maya civilisation with water and fire blasts at fixed times each day. After dark the light parade circles Happy Time with LED floats and plenty of interaction.
The calendar runs roughly as follows: the Spring Festival lantern fair with Zigong lanterns and folk performances, the Halloween Fear Night in October with haunted houses and extended hours to twenty-three, and the summer water battles in July and August around the Odyssey.
Every area has its own argument
Fjord Forest is Nordic timber and pine; the entrance square uses Gothic spires. Atlantis takes Greek myth, with the central machine — a sixty-metre “energy ship” shaped like Poseidon’s trident that overlooks the whole park. Lost Maya copies Mesoamerican pyramids and temples with hieroglyphic relief made with the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Aegean Port reproduces the white and blue of Santorini. Shangri-La borrows Tibetan tower houses and prayer flags, with a coaster track ringing an artificial snow mountain. Dessert Kingdom is cartoon candy in bright colours, and Happy Time is twentieth-century Americana with neon and old cars.
Doing the park in one loop
Start at Fjord Forest and go clockwise: Fjord Forest, Atlantis, Lost Maya, Aegean Port, Shangri-La, Dessert Kingdom, Happy Time. That is about five kilometres on foot and six to eight hours. Popular rides queue for over an hour, so either buy the Happy Pass — 50 yuan for one priority entry — or use the app’s virtual queue.
One rule catches people out: food and drink are not allowed inside except for baby food, but an empty bottle is fine and there is free drinking water throughout. Rain jackets cost about 10 yuan at the gate and you will want one for the flume.
Practical information
- Hours: 1 April–31 October 9:00–22:00; 1 November–31 March 10:00–17:30; evening sessions usually 17:00–22:00
- Tickets: 299 yuan full; 195 yuan child (1.2–1.5 m) and senior (over 65); 159 yuan for an evening ticket after 17:00. Annual passes: silver 499, gold 699, diamond 999 yuan
- Booking: through the official WeChat account or OTA platforms such as Ctrip and Meituan; book three days ahead
- Metro: Line 7 to Happy Valley Scenic Area, exit C, about 200 metres on foot
- Bus: routes 41, 31, 674 and 680 to Overseas Chinese Town or Houfengqiao South
- Driving: parking to the south of the park, about 2,000 spaces, 6 yuan an hour, 50 yuan a day
- Note: children under 1.2 m need a companion on some rides; pregnant visitors, people with high blood pressure or heart conditions and drunk visitors may not ride
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