Category Archives: Architecture

One of the animals at the Africa region.

Jill, Gulzar and I ventured into Africa.

I have to say that this is probably nothing like Africa and I found it to be quite disturbing.

The simplicity and the primitiveness of the display left nothing to the imagination and gave no hint to the fact that many parts of Africa is very 1st world and very diverse.

Sadly, in this park, there is no chance that anyone knowing these facts when they visit Africa and see what they have.

I actually didn’t take many pictures because there were only a few mud huts and nothing that showed the reality of what is happening in that part of the world.

After taking a few pictures of the animals, we left quite quickly and didn’t really enjoy this part, obviously.

Also, the blatant racism of the African sign really disturbed us so we left pretty quickly and tried to put it out of our minds so it didn’t ruin the trip.

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One of the pyramids, complete with hawkers!

Egypt and Jerusalem were close enough together to put into one single post.

They were quite fun and the displays were fairly realistic.

We had fun walking around and checking out the massive statues and the semi-massive pyramids.

Even though the pyramids were 1:25 actual size, they were still pretty massive and pretty impressive.

At one point, a Chinese father climbed up on one and his wife took a picture.

We were thinking of doing the same but the sign specifically stated “No Climbing” so we thought better of it.

A hawker tried to get us to ride the camels but we also decided against that since the poor animals at the World Park looked to be pretty badly treated, sad and it was horribly hot in the sun.

Jill and I realized we were supporting this treatment by just being there but didn’t want to go any further than that by paying to ride the animals.

Jill had been to Jerusalem in 2010 so we took a picture of The Dome of the Rock and she particularly enjoyed the water around the Dome as there is nothing even close to a body of water that size near the Dome.

We realize that this is a park and they have to make do, and adjust as needed, and I’m glad they did because it allows for so many humorous posts.

None of it is meant in anger or resentment but just in pure humor.

Well, other than the blatant racism of the sign pointing towards Africa and the Native American in a headdress from the first post.

Those are meant in horror and disgust, even if it is accepted for a second, in a park that has many visitors per year.

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Me in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We entered the French part of the World Park and sighted the Notre Dame Cathedral.

It is quite a site, even if it is 1:25 scale, as the windows are quite beautiful and the buttresses are definitely flying.

Sorry, architectural humor there.

We then walked a bit more and saw the Eiffel Tower.

Well, a smaller version of the Eiffel Tower.

It was quite impressive and we happened on to a photoshot as we approached.

The woman was in a full gown and the guy was in a full suit.

And it was probably about 95-100 degrees at this point.

We were hiding under the umbrellas of a near by cafe and we were boiling.

We have no idea how they were doing this without breaking a sweat.

We watched them during the photo shoot and it seemed quite romantic.

After the photo shoot ended, we decided to do our own little photo shoot around the tower and were quite happy with the results.

Jill is, after all, quite beautiful and looks wonderful in photographs.

Me?  I take wonderful photographs.

There is a big difference.

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El Tajin.

We next traveled to Latin America and checked out the sites.

There weren’t very many but they were fairly well done and some of the Chinglish translations left us laughing and happy, if not more educated, on what the monuments were designed for.

However, I can’t imagine people going to the World Park are truly interested in a history lesson and any type of information is better than none.

I think that there wasn’t a lot about Latin America as that part of the world doesn’t seem to have the tourism pull that the USA or parts of Europe has for most Chinese at this time.

I’m sure that as they start to travel to Latin America more, they will add more sites and exhibits.

I was sorely tempted to climb the pyramid that was designed for sacrifices to Apollo.

Maybe my USA education is sorely lacking, but I’m fairly sure that Apollo and Mexico didn’t have a lot in common.

However, I may just have to go back and read some more history books to become better educated.

I have obviously lived in China too long.

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Jumping for joy because we are back home in San Francisco in front of the Golden Gate Bridge!

Day 4: USA! USA! USA!

To add even more confusion to the Russia to Thailand exhibit was the entry to the USA exhibit from Thailand.

I know that my geography skills are lacking but I’m fairly sure they are not connected by any land mass and are not really connected in any significant way other than in this park.

Honestly, I wish they were because I’d love to have elephants roaming the land in the USA but I’ve yet to see it so far.

Most of you know that Jill and I are from San Francisco so we got a kick out of the Golden Gate Bridge exhibit and Gulzar was nice enough to take some pictures of us in front of it.

In case you all didn’t know, Jill has a website specifically designed to help people who want to visit, and even people that live in San Francisco, find out what to do, where to stay, and how to get there.

It is called SF Tourism Tips, and we’d both very much appreciate if you would click the link and subscribe to it, or like it on Facebook, and use it whenever possible.  Here is the actual link:  http://www.sftourismtips.com/

Jill also has a SF Tourism Tips Facebook page if that is easier for you and your friends and family:  https://www.facebook.com/sftourismtips

Also, if you can share it on Facebook, or with your friends and family, that would be wonderful as it will allow us to continue our world travels and become financially independent in the next few years.

Thanks in advance and now back to the blog post!

The NYC exhibit was a bit strange, since the Twin Towers were still standing, but it was fairly well done and we enjoyed checking it out.

I really liked that you could see The Eiffel Tower over the New York Skyline from different viewing angles.

We then ventured over to Washington D.C. and checked out all the sites there.

We loved that the we could see a little Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Monument.

Who needs to go anywhere when you can have all of the world right in a tiny little park?

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Gulzar enjoying herself.

For some reason, Russia then turned into Thailand and the land of elephants and alligators.

I get that there are elephants in Thailand but I”m not quite sure how Russia and Thailand connect and I’m definitely not sure how alligators connect to Russia at all.

However, TIC as we all say.  TIC, by the way, means, “This Is China.”

It pretty much explains anything that doesn’t make sense.  I’m sure when foreigners visit the USA and our customs confuse them, they have a similar saying so it all makes sense to some degree.

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The Red Square comes alive!

We bought our tickets and entered the gate.

There is really nothing like entering a European castle gate when you enter a Chinese park.

This kind of silliness and hilarity keeps Jill and me laughing all the time and keeps us excited about finding places like this in Beijing since we never know what we will see next and it usually is rather amazing.

We bought some ice cream and checked out the map, with the rather pale skinned Native American in headdress, to figure out where to go.

We decided to head over to Russia and see what the Red Square looks like in China.

Gulzar just graduated with an MBA and her cohorts are all visiting Moscow, at this point, but she wasn’t able to go with them, so she wanted to take a picture or two of herself and send it to them to surprise them.

We were more than happy to oblige.

Supposedly they used 5,000,000 red tiles to recreate the Red Square.

It was definitely a good introduction to the World Park and all the fun we were about to have today.

After that we headed over to the arena, where they were putting on a dance performance, and the carnival area where I decided I’d look like a real American and hold up a gun.  It was only a carnival toy gun for the games so no one was scared and no damage was done.

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The castle entrance to the World Park!

Jill and I were getting ready to vacation in Turkey and Greece in a few days but decided we’d visit the Beijing World Park before we left for a month.

We invited Gulzar, our roommate from Xinjiang, to come with us since she would be leaving Beijing soon and we wanted to spend some more time with her before she returned home.

We also thought it would be a rather hilarious place to visit since we were going to see the real sites in Turkey and in Greece and to compare them would be quite fun and absurd.

Well, we were not wrong in our assumption.

It was one of the strangest places we have visited, so far, and it was a lot of fun.

Most of the places are done in a 1:25 scale and are pretty fairly reproduced according to the real place.

We decided we’d start our tour and then walk around so we could see the whole world and not miss anything important.

The next few days will be separated into each different area of the world and the buildings/bridges/scenes from each part that we visited.

Some will be quite well done, while others will be pretty strange, but all were fun and a joy to experience and take pictures of and be around during the day.