Leo’s Kingdom 5 First Time On Site

Off for our first site visit…

Donning hard hats we pile into trucks to be driven across the street to the site. James our Themepark Operations manager accompanies us decked out in some kind of webbing vest thing, adorned with many pockets and a military grade laser pointer. We later find out these are a favorite of Chairman Li,  often we can figure out where he is by the little green dots flying around.

Doggie

Immediately onsite I am reminded of how differently things are done here then in the states. Everywhere you look materials and tools are piled and or dumped. The ground is a literal mine field of wood, steel and concrete pieces. Jagged edges, holes in the floor and exposed piping make this a place you best watch your footing else an unscheduled trip to the hospital… Its a massive concrete structure soaring off in all directions with cranes and work vehicles buzzing around. The workers are a miss mash of types many wearing military style garb and others in suits. I always get a kick out of a guy in a suit laying bricks.

For now it is almost impossible for me to reconcile this site with the plans we were shown just a half hour ago, about the only thing that makes perfect sense is the the two central dome areas which are even now in the process of being covered with their steel and glass roofs…

Domes In Process

Top Side3

Doug On deck

Doug in the Lake

Primo On Deck

Our first stop is on the ground level of the structure where there will eventually be a giant lake as illustrated here in the model…

Thas A Big Model 6

We are told its depth will  be between 14 cm and 3 M.

Seems to me that would be something we should already know for certain as whatever water is placed here will be on the roof of our theme park. I am sure the ” architect ” has already considered this…

Top Side1

Top Side2

From up here you can actually see just how far down the structure has been dug out. Ground level of our park will actually be around 5 stories below this point sure hope they thought of drainage.

Long Way Down

Gurlz Work Too

For the first part of our walkthrough we are treated to a constant barrage of loud proclamations from James, translated of course. He is very proud of what he keeps referring to as the Esskelletons we later realize he means escalators. Apparently there will be a lot of them and James wants us to know where each one is… My impression so far is this may be the only thing he knows…

After about 20 mins of this we are treated to what will later be known as a ” WTF ™ ” moment when Doug politely but firmly ask Sarah to tell James he doesn’t care where the F*%(*&ing Eskelletons are, can we please see the Themepark! I know for a fact now we are going to have fun here!

We head down into the structure. As you can see from the pics this place is only partially complete, a lot of work to be done…

Debris For All

Obviously no real lighting as yet so it feels quite cave like. From the temporary structures we see, I assume whole groups of workers must be living down here while the build…

Dark Down Here

We enter through the 5M area walking towards the central space where the Theme Park will live. I am glad to know we will not be doing much with this area as its pretty claustrophobic. At 5M height it is much better suited to a retail environment then a Theme Park.

Nice Perspective

Coming out from the 5M space the scale of things starts to become more apparent.

Dark Down Here

Dark Down Here

There is no floor as yet, and as you can see the ceiling is a bare concrete structure as well, going to be challenge to make that work.

Watch Your Step

As you can see the space is truly massive, but even as large as it is, all these columns are going to be an issue.

Under the Domes4

We dub this view Main Street as it seems to be a natural flow point. Later we will realize its not going to be that simple. This structure is odd, there are almost no natural design flow / force lines. Major structures don’t line up and even things like the domes are not equidistant or symetrical. Would really like to talk to that Architect.

Main Street

Watch Your Step2

This picture is funny to me as it turns out the Asian man, smiling in the white shirt there ” cannot remember his name ” is the only one on Lian Bang’s team that actually had experience in the Theme Park industry. He will of course disappear shortly after this site visit, I believe he made the mistake of telling the Chairman he couldn’t do something…

from left to right, Doug, Chris, Danilo, Brian, ?, and James. I of course am behind the camera.

Where are we again?

There really is a lot of debris down here.

Watch Your Step4

from below you can see how complex these roof structures are, periodically the workers above will demonstrate why we wear hard hats by dropping things…

Roof Structure

Seems Complicated

More views from below the Domes, these areas will be the most important in my mind as only here will we be able to build anything with significant height.

Under the Domes1

Under the Domes2

Under the Domes3

The site tour winds down as we begin to fall out from Jet Lag. Its off to our hotel to drop off luggage and move on to the next event of this first day in Shijiazhuang, the infamous ” Client Dinner “.

More to follow…