Description: Although brochures seem to imply Splendid China and China Folk Culture Village are very close, they are actually in the same park covered by one entry fee of 120Y. The parks are open from 8am to 5:30pm and took about 5 hours for me to cover. Located on Shennan Road, they are easily reached by buses 113 and 101, as well as the subway.
Splendid China contains scaled replicas of the major tourist attractions located all over China. Although the maps provided divide the park into the Scenic Spot Area and Comprehensive Service Area, trying to follow the path was useless. I would sit down and look at the map and the list of sights until I could find the correct name. They also provide a list of the ‘world’s most” which included:
The world’s most ancient stone arch bridge, Zhaozhou Bridge.
The world’s largest garden, Yuanmingyuan.
The world’s steepest peaks, Mt. Huangshan.
The world’s biggest palace, Imperial Palace.
While they also used superlatives such as ‘most wonderful’ and “most splendid,” I rather felt that was open to interpretation. As far as the others, how would I know any different?
The area called the Comprehensive Service Area is where the structures such as pagodas, temples, and palaces are located. These are the man-made architectural wonders.
I have visited two different sections of The Great Wall, and have seen some aerial views on television programs. The opportunity to fly in a small plane over the great wall to look at the length, the pattern it follows over the highest terrain, and the dense forest it traverses would be incredible. This replica was close enough. I took in many views of this area and having been there, the workmanship and likeness was very impressive. Details from the steps to the guard towers were excellent.
Having visited the terra-cotta Warriors, Temple of Heaven, and Tiananmen Square that my photographs could never bring to life, I found these replicas to be equally delightful. Visiting such large sites does have the disadvantage of not enabling the tourist to get an idea of vastness or size. The replicas also had scaled models of Chinese people giving you a better idea. When I have the chance, I hope to pull out the photos I had taken of the places I visited to compare them with the ones I had taken here.
I had been to the Summer Palace. I knew it was on a lake that is home to the famous marble boat. The replica includes the gardens with miniature plants, the lake, and the marble boat. The Yungang Grottoes closely resembled the ones I had seen right down to the weathering by time. The eaves of the Yellow Crane Tower had dragons, and the terra-cotta Warriors had the missing parts, broken statues, and the area that is still under excavation.
The next entry covers the Scenic Spot Area and China Folk Culture Village
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