Author | Lightnews

Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

Before becoming two of the very last people ever to catch the 画皮 haunted house, with the queue closing two people behind us & horror season over after today.

Very well put together, based around Chinese classics, & yeah - pretty scary.

Now for the long old trip home!

Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

I came back to a warm bowl of noodles - it's a tough life eh? - before we moved over to Jurassic World for the rather unique Mack inverted coaster Jurassic Flyers, & another absolutely fantastic, immersive, world-class dark ride that sits very high indeed on my list of all time greats.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

I left Shishi in Kungfu Panda land while I went to ride my star of the show - the B&M launched 'Decepticoaster'. Great views of the park, made especially fun when you're upside down.

The launch itself was exciting, especially straight into a zero g roll, but not as intense as a hydraulic one.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

Then over to the Harry Potter area, where we grabbed front row on the Mack Rides Youngstar 'Flight of the Hippogriff', before a go on one of the best & most immersive dark rides I've ever been on. Very impressive.

No hot butterbeer left though, only cold ☹️. Still tasty, but it was getting chilly!

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

Really pleased with our haul. Started light in Minions World with the Jinma Rides indoor coaster 'Loop-Dee-Doop-Dee' & a Despicable Me dark ride - both quite fun but the latter made a bit sick.

Also grabbed a cup of fruit.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

Genuinely one of my top 10 films.

As you can probably tell by my outfit, I like films about big, misunderstood lads that are actually sweet at heart (👀)

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

But make it spooky!

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

Universal Resort (Line 7)

bsky.app/profile/curt...

Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

END OF THE LINE: Universal Resort环球度假区 (Line 7)

Ok, maybe not quite in keeping with the spirit of this mission, but since it's actually a terminus for two lines, I'll come back again & look at the area.

For now, though, I wanna ride some coasters!

Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

END OF THE LINE: Universal Resort环球度假区 (Line 7)

Ok, maybe not quite in keeping with the spirit of this mission, but since it's actually a terminus for two lines, I'll come back again & look at the area.

For now, though, I wanna ride some coasters!

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

(for full transparency, this was written on the morning of October 26, on a different. Going forward, I'll try to upload these threads here concurrently or shortly after the other site. Here's some bonus pics for your patience)

Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

The sky is so clear today you can actually see Beijing's tallest building (& 10th in the world)

But alas, I'll be heading that way now & calling this a day, as I'm quite busy & already know this area.

The ones I discover alongside you will no doubt be longer though, don't worry!

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

With that said, this area clearly isn't rural. Plenty of (quite nice looking) large apartment blocks, malls, railway lines etc. But this part of Fengtai & into Fangshan always feels more like a separate, bustling, smaller satellite city to me (& I like that!)

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 5h

Always enjoy crossing the Yongding River – it feels like a marker of when you're leaving the bustling city & entering the often more interesting, lesser-known outer stretches.

Like anywhere in the north & west of Beijing, there's also mountain views aplenty. A likely recurring theme in this mission

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 6h

The fortress is now a museum about the war - though I'm yet to visit. I *have* walked the bridge itself 👇🏻 but won't today as there seems to be an event going on.

Besides, the best view of the bridge itself is actually from the next one along.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 6h

Now, I have to be honest - I've been here a number of times before. So I know it's where you'll find the Wangping Fortress & Lugouqiao - better known in English as Marco Polo Bridge - where Japan lunched the start of the 2nd Sino-Japanese war in 1937

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_P...

Marco Polo Bridge incident - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 6h

Wanpingcheng (Line 16)

bsky.app/profile/curt...

Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 6h

END OF THE LINE: Wanpingcheng 宛平城 (Line 16)

As nice as it would be to do this is numerical order, it just made more sense to start with my closest terminus - Line 16's Wanpingcheng in Fengtai, 6 stations along from my house, & on the line I take almost every day.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 6h

END OF THE LINE: Wanpingcheng 宛平城 (Line 16)

As nice as it would be to do this is numerical order, it just made more sense to start with my closest terminus - Line 16's Wanpingcheng in Fengtai, 6 stations along from my house, & on the line I take almost every day.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 6h

END OF THE LINE: BEIJING.

A project I've had brewing a while is a series visiting the end of each line of the Beijing Subway & just having a little look around. No research, no plans, just a little wander like I did in Hohhot .

In this 🧵 of 🧵s, I'll do just that

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFyH...

WHY IS THIS HERE?! The Metro Station in the Middle of Nowhere! 🇨🇳 (Hohhot Metro 呼和浩特地铁内蒙古）

YouTube video by Curt Explores

www.youtube.com

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 2d

*that was in 2022, after just one of the many coups that overthrew Xi Jinping that year, the years prior, & the years since.

Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 2d

& they don't even acknowledge it. They just do it again a few months later.

It's never 'could be ill', it's 'HAD A MASSIVE STROKE'.

There must be a reason for it, but I can't work it out. I've spoken about this for years*, & it still happens & still has an audience. Really interesting.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 2d

Or it's always big, concrete statements that, after the fact, they can't even blag that they were 'kinda right'.

Like, it's never 'there's tension among leadership' - which us laymen obviously can't prove or disprove, so it's good mistique for slow news days.

It's always 'THERE HAS BEEN A COUP'

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 2d

I'll never quite work out why the Falun Gong always choose lies with really short deadlines to be disproven.

It's never a long game or a grey area. It's always 'this massive thing WILL happen in TEN MINUTES' & then no mention of it again.

Such a bizzare technique. Why?

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Reposted by Oolong Musk 🇵🇸

Brian Woolfinder @brianwoolfinder.bsky.social · 3d

Leaked footage of the latest John Bishop gig.

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 3d

The unequal peninsula, from today's BBC report on deprivation in the UK.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

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Oolong Musk 🇵🇸 @curtexplores.bsky.social · 3d

Taken from today's BBC article on deprivation. Sometimes the figures just speak for themselves. I have nothing to say.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

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