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Beijing World Park

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My lovely brother and gorgeous nephew came to visit me whilst I was living in Beijing and stayed for about a week.  I wanted to change some of my usual sightseeing tours and take them to some places that a [then] ten year old would be interested in.  So, first stop one day was Beijing World Park then the Beijing Auto Museum.

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World Park is a theme park about an hour out of Beijing which attempts to give visitors a chance to see the world without leaving Beijing.  Before we even made it to the entrance a lady was taking our photo and then just after we bought our tickets (a little pricey at 100 RMB adults and 60 RMB children), she had made the photos into key rings and made a good sale with us buying all four.  The park is focussed on five continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America and contains about 100 scaled down replicas of famous landmarks from around forty countries and regions around the world.

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We went to the park early one Sunday morning and whilst the park is said (on the net) to receive 1.5 million visitors annually, they clearly were not there on the day we visited; counting the three of us there were about fifty people in total in the park.

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We walked over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and had a great view of the Opera House which is located next to a Maori Hut and Maori Tiki stone statues.

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Some Chinese couples were having wedding photos taken in the lead up to the Harbour Bridge and at the Champ Elysees.

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It is said that close attention to detail was paid in modelling the landmarks after their originals.  The Great Pyramids are comprised of over 200,000 white marble bricks and Red Square is replicated by paving the model with over five million red bricks smaller than mahjong tiles.

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Some of the replicas are good; others not so.  The park is a little bit tacky and a little bit quirky but I am glad I went; who would of thought you could see the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Beijing let alone the US White House or other famous Washington sights.

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The park is enormous and for the elderly or disabled [or lazy] you can hire a small electric car to drive around the park.

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The best part of the park is definitely the English translations of Chinese signs.  I was amused to read all about the financial district in New York called ‘Will Street’ and the famous ‘Hardrson River’ as well as the ‘Manhafttan’ skyline and of course the ‘Sydeny Harbour’…love it!

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World Park is located at 158 Fengbao Lu, Huaxiang (www.beijingworldpark.cn).  One famous landmark I was a little unsure of was the big mountain with the scary green monster along with a smaller santa clause at its side…must Google that later!!!

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You can purchase a map of the park for 1 RMB from a lovely Chinese man outside the park front gates; it’s worth it just so you know where you are going and so you don’t double up.

Beijing Auto Museum

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Next stop for my brother and nephew was the Beijing Auto Museum which is about a forty minute drive from Beijing and located at 126 South Fourth Ring West Road (wee.automuseum.org.cn).  My brother said he and his son really enjoyed this [I had to work unfortunately so could not go] museum.  My brother loves antique cars so he really enjoyed seeing all the old cars and Braydon (my nephew) loved it too.

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It comprises five floors of antique cars including Model A Fords, Formula One vehicles, Classic Chinese and Soviet vehicles to name but a few.

BAM4The few interactive sites are fun and it seems a great couple of hours for children and auto enthusiasts.

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