Urban Exploring: Abandoned Chinese Theme Park

This past Monday was President's Day and since my detail-oriented wedding from the weekend was over, I had the day off! S did too so we took a day adventure together. We drove less than an hour (towards the tourist area of Orlando) and visited an abandoned Chinese theme park.

Now, I can't exactly explain how I came about being able to explore this abandoned park since it is gated off and no trespassing signs are posted, but that's half the fun, wondering about the mystery, isn't it?

We came in the back way where most of the structures were wooden and decrepit. Many of the Asian style gazebos were chipping, and the historical replicas were broken piece-by-piece, most likely souvenirs taken home as a keep sake. 

Whatever statues that couldn't be moved in the abandonment were left to be vandalized and over grown by foliage. The greenery adds to their beauty, and the graffiti made me feel less lonely as I walked around the empty spaces. I could hear my shoes crunch the acorns and echo across the park. The silence was eerie being that I am used to roaring crowds while exploring theme parks. 

It was so serene to explore the park with no other visitors shuffling in front of us or speeding up behind us. There were no lines for the stone gardens, no photo-bombs in our portraits. The only people we came across were another set of urban explorers, toting their cameras as well.

The graffiti made me sad because I couldn't do something like that to a park that had original stone work, hand carved replicas, and Chinese entertainment when it was up and running. 

There were models of the Great Wall of China, The Forbidden City, and the Potala Palace. Most were falling apart at the seams like the one above, and others like the Great Wall were left standing, all except the tiny people figurines that used to stand on it.

It was a beautiful day to walk around, snap photos, put my hair up. It was peaceful and exhilarating at the same time.

It was nice to take this mini-trip to a close place that felt so different from home. I came home feeling refreshed and inspired, until of course the class work piled up again.

I think I spoke too soon in the post earlier this week about adoring my college. Within a day, I started feeling overwhelmed with my course load. Five classes has never phased me before, but being this is my last semester with numerous groups projects and our capstone project, planning our college's career fair, I am in over my head this week. That explains why I've been a bit quiet on my end of the blogging pond! I am looking forward to a weekend of catching up on projects and catching up on errands. 

Adieu, Yelle