Jingjin New Town / 京津新城

If a place can be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity, then a space which cannot be defined as relational, historical and concerned with identity will be a non-place. Marc Augé, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity, London, Verso, 1995, p. 77-78. This report is about a « new town » near Tianjin called […]

[part 2] Shanghai World Expo / 上海世博会

Last weekend, on a sunny clean afternoon, I went back to the derelict World Expo site in Shanghai with Gui and Steph. It had been a while since my first visit and I wanted to see what had changed. Well, on this side of the Huangpu river, the former World Expo site did not change […]

« The World’s Tallest » Ferris Wheel / 世界第一摩天轮

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were a great source of failed projects, among which the world’s most ambitious Ferris wheel project. I went on this exploration about one year ago, with my friend Brïn, who created the blog burbex.org. I decided to finally publish it, because he just left China (without saying goodbye, by […]

Sweet Fragrance Lake Amusement Park / 香蜜湖游乐场

I spent the week-end in Shenzhen. This city is famous for its still very popular kitsch theme parks like Window on the world or Shenzhen folk culture village. Therefore, I am very fond of the place I visited1: an abandoned waterpark from the 1980s! An early waterpark in a growing megalopolis As you might know, […]

Golden Apple Paradise / 金苹果游乐园

Before I start this report, in such a context, I have to state something. People often ask me how I find the time to explore so many places. « Don’t you ever work? » Well, people, the thing is, this is my hobby. When I have free time, I don’t watch TV, I don’t surf online for […]

Guangzhou Space Wonders / 广州航天奇观

I went to Guangzhou for work this week, so I could not miss this opportunity to visit a very well-known derelict theme park about… Interstellar space! The park « Space Wonders » opened in 1997, following the general wave of theme parks aiming at pleasing the generation of « post-80 » children in China. The investment was very important, […]

« The World » Theme Park / 世界乐园

Still traveling during the summer, I arrived in Chengdu, Sichuan, and looked for abandoned places there. The idea of an abandoned theme park suggested by Gui made my day: Chengdu has a « world-themed » abandoned amusement park and… it is totally ok to visit it! Welcome to the first « authorized » urbex site I have ever visited […]

[part 2] Beijing Amusement Park / 北京游乐园

I am a big fan of Beijing Amusement Park, even if most of its former architecture is now gone. But the ruins of an amusement park always have a strong effect on some of us, making us fall back into childhood. Fortunately, this park will not be replaced by skyscrapers and will be rehabilitated in […]

American Dream Park / 美国梦幻乐园

While spending a few days in the region of Shanghai, I found this amazing place which reminded me a lot of the Beijing Amusement Park in Beijing: it’s an abandoned theme park which was once really famous and ended up becoming a derelict space, overgrown by wild grass. This used to be China’s American Dream […]

Fantawild Theme Park / 方特欢乐世界

The theme park that never opened… I already found a series of old attractions in Datong, but this time I saw an unfinished brand new theme park. Not far from my strange futuristic unfinished architectural projects, that you can read about here and here, I recently discovered another fascinating ambitious planning project: a theme park […]