Window of the World

Give us a day and we'll show you the world! That was the hook that grabbed me and so off we went to Shenzhen in search of the ultimate in knock-offs - fake landmarks!

After a long train ride and another lax customs check (complete with DIY baggage scanning) we had arrived in communist China. We had been warned so much about the pick-pockets in China that we were a bit on edge. It was perhaps a bit unwarranted, as although they weren't exactly friendly, we never felt threatened at all during our (brief) stay.

Shenzhen is like a sprawling Hong Kong. They don't have the space limitations, so the buildings are bigger and sprawl much further. There was an insane amount of construction going on. Also insane was the taxi ride! They don't seem to indicate when changing lanes here, so they just kept weaving in and around buses and trucks and abruptly turning onto off-ramps. There are even special places on the motorways where you can u-turn!

The Window of the World is actually a pretty cool theme park, considering that this will be as close as many people get to these famous sights. It was also fun to see how they packed them all in. Where else can you see Mount Rushmore, The Capitol and the White House in one place!

We made a point of visiting many of the landmarks we will be seeing for real when we visit Europe. Somehow I don't think I'll be able to climb the walls at the real St Mark's square...


The detail on the models ranged from amazing to average. They even had a maori village, complete with fake maori performers. It was tucked in behind Uluru and the Sydney Opera House.


We went on a few of the rides, including a log flume ride that took us through the Grand Canyon and along the top of the Niagara Falls. It ended with a drop into water that got us completely soaked. The rides were fun, but the safety devices were mostly lacking. The underground roller coaster had nothing keeping us in beyond a token belt that was about 5 times too big and the advice "hold onto han drail".


The replica Eiffel Tower was 1/3 scale, so was still 103 metres tall. The view from the top was pretty amazing, giving you a 360 degree view of the park and the surrounding city.


To give you an example of how tightly packed it was, the picture above has the Arc de Triomphe, Tower Bridge, Houses of Parliament, Notre Dame, British Mazes, Saint Michel Abbey, Spanish Steps, Collosseum and a bunch of windmills.... amongst many more I can't be bothered typing!