Huayu 05, our science fiction movie universe

Chapter 627 [Star River Paradise] One-Day Trip (3)

For Zhao Jinmai, being able to have a meal with director Wang Hao was already an extremely lucky thing.

She never expected Wang Hao to remember her, let alone invite her. Although there were many other people invited to dinner at the same time, this was enough to make her very happy.

However, after finishing lunch, Wang Hao was too busy to stay long and soon left [Star River Paradise].

After eating and drinking their fill, Zhao Jinmai and her two companions finally immersed themselves in exploring the aerospace-themed area.

As Zhao Jinmai stepped out of the "Mars Survival Camp" museum, a "spaceship" suddenly swept past on the track of the "Interstellar Shuttle Roller Coaster" overhead. With a whooshing sound, she covered her mouth in fright and watched helplessly as a streamlined train disappeared into the "black hole".

Her phone camera happened to capture this moment, and as she shook her hand, more entertainment options in the aerospace-themed area were revealed to the 100,000 viewers in the live stream.

"This is the right way to experience an amusement park."

"What's that over there? Streamer, come check it out!"

What just happened in the live stream?

"Upstairs, the anchor just had dinner with Director Wang Hao, Liu Ye, and Jing Tian."

"Host, are you selling the novel 'The Martian' that director Wang Hao just signed?"

"Hey streamer, I want to see that drop tower!"

Zhao Jinmai's live stream was noisy, but she didn't care much. After all, she wasn't a full-time streamer, so she didn't need to pay attention to the noise.

So the three young people played entirely according to their own interests.

As an aerospace-themed area connected to "Gravity" and "The Martian," and which will also involve "Interstellar" and "The Wandering Earth" in the future, the overall style of this amusement park area is more inclined towards science fiction and hardcore.

Unlike the military-themed area, it doesn't have any large 4D or 5D interactive amusement parks. Instead, it has the entertainment facilities found in regular amusement parks.

Like the roller coaster that Zhao Jinmai and the others just saw, and a little further ahead, there's that uniquely shaped drop tower that's tens of meters high.

When the three arrived at the machine, the square, futuristic cabin was already full of tourists. Pulled by the traction ropes, the machines suddenly rose and fell, emitting high-decibel screams amidst the swirling white mist of dry ice jets.

"Space elevator".

Wang Yuwen looked at the game's information board and read it softly, then looked at Zhao Jinmai and Guo Junchen.

"Let's play this."

Zhao Jinmai was bold enough to agree immediately. Because they had purchased VIP tickets, they also enjoyed the "Premium Pass" treatment and did not have to wait long before boarding the next "Space Elevator" drop tower.

While the three young people were having so much fun in the aerospace area that they forgot all about it, Wang Bingbing and the CCTV live broadcast team had finished lunch and were preparing to continue their work in the afternoon.

They had lunch in the Wild Beasts themed area, which has a similar overall style to Universal Studios' Jurassic World and Shanghai Disneyland's Adventure Isle, emphasizing nature and wildness. The restaurants inside the park also share this theme.

Among them, "Forest Cabin" features a variety of hearty meat sets, as well as mushrooms, vegetables and tropical fruits. Another restaurant, "Brilliant Lab," sounds like an amusement park, but it is actually a relatively high-end molecular gastronomy restaurant that uses the IP of the movie "Distortion Crisis".

It is said that after the performance and interaction on the destroyer, Wang Zhiwen, who plays Dr. Chen Ang in the movie, went to this restaurant for a meal.

Of course, Wang Bingbing and her group would never go to such a high-end restaurant during their work trip, so they ultimately chose the more affordable "Forest Cabin".

They thoroughly enjoyed their lunch. Wang Bingbing, being a woman, had a mushroom pasta set meal for lunch. The meal consisted of two fist-sized bowls of pasta mixed with a mushroom sauce made from shiitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, diced tofu, carrots, and other ingredients, a small bowl of corn and vegetable salad, and a glass of kale juice. The portions were small, but the taste was good. It was enough to fill the woman and child up, and the price was only 26 yuan.

This price might not seem like good value outside, but considering it's at [Xinghe Amusement Park], which is a tourist attraction, 26 yuan a meal is quite reasonable.

Other dishes, like the curry roasted chicken set meal the photographer ate, consisted of vegetable curry rice with half a golden roasted chicken, plus unlimited soft drinks and snacks like fries and chicken nuggets, all for only NT$58.

After having a good meal, the CCTV live broadcast team began their live broadcast of the Wild Beasts themed area of ​​[Galaxy Park] at 1 p.m.

When the equipment was turned on, a large number of viewers flooded into the CCTV live broadcast room again, and the number was even greater than in the morning.

After the buzz around noon, the hashtags #Xinghe Amusement Park Opening Day# and #Is Xinghe Amusement Park Fun?# have both climbed to the top one and the second place on the trending topics list.

Besides Wang Bingbing's CCTV live broadcast team and Zhao Jinmai, many other video bloggers also entered [Galaxy Paradise] that morning to explore and reveal the secrets of the entire park from different perspectives.

These live streams are also quite popular. Although each live stream is like a blind man touching an elephant, only showing a corner of the park, by watching several live streams and piecing them together, a vague outline of [Galaxy Park] can be vaguely gathered.

Wang Bingbing and others are currently filling in the details of this blurry outline.

"What you are seeing now is the largest entertainment facility in the Wild Beasts themed area, and it is also the longest roller coaster in the entire Galaxy Park, and even the longest in China, called 'Wild Journey'."

This roller coaster is approximately 1.2 kilometers long and includes six 360-degree inversions and a 70-meter-high drop.

Wang Bingbing pointed to the roller coaster that had just departed not far away and said:
"The Wild Beasts themed area of ​​Galaxy Park is related to works such as 'Distortion Crisis' and 'Rampage' in the Galaxy Cinematic Universe. It also includes the 'MonsterVerse' IP acquired from Hollywood Legendary Pictures, which includes monster elements such as King Kong and Godzilla."

The entire themed area explores the relationship between humanity and nature in a future technological environment.

Therefore, the entire 'wild adventure' route will pass through various environments such as rainforests, deserts, skies, and oceans, and along the way you can see rare and exotic animals that you can only see in movies.

Like King Kong pounding his chest and stamping his feet, Godzilla spewing ionic flames, a mutated giant crab roaming the sea…

"Of course, besides the longest roller coaster in China, there's also the longest 'Rapid River Adventure: Beast Canyon' in the entire Asia-Pacific region. In addition, the park's family-friendly interactive area boasts one of China's top dinosaur museums, where children can not only learn about the 22-meter-long Mamenchisaurus cervical vertebrae fossil and the feathered Sinosauropteryx fossil, but also experience the joy of archaeological exploration with their parents..."

Wang Bingbing and the others made introductions as they walked.

As time went by, the interior of [Galaxy Park] became increasingly lively. The 8 tickets sold today were almost completely sold out as soon as they were released, which means that the theme park has now received 8 visitors.

This number of visitors is certainly within the park's capacity. After all, the first phase of the Galaxy Park was designed to accommodate 12 visitors per day.

Since the park just opened today, the staff and various systems and equipment, although they have undergone dozens of drills and adjustments, are still somewhat unfamiliar with each other, so they dare not operate at full capacity all at once.

Even so, there was still a huge crowd in front of Wang Bingbing and her group.

Tourists thronged the area, admiring the various novel buildings, sculptures, and facilities, experiencing different entertainment options, and savoring unique cuisine. Laughter and cheerful voices filled the air.

A joyful atmosphere lingered throughout the amusement park, with people capturing the scene on their cameras. Countless bloggers also used live streaming to showcase this culmination of China's rapid film and television cultural industry to countless people in front of their computers and mobile phones.

Just looking at it, countless people across the country couldn't help but have the same thought in their minds—I want to experience it too.

【Galaxy Park】is, after all, a theme park belonging to China's film and television culture industry. Unlike Hollywood's Universal Studios and Disneyland, this is an entertainment venue truly built on Chinese film and television works and our own cultural core.

Just watching the live stream and the introduction, Chinese people can easily feel a sense of familiarity and warmth, which is very different from the feeling that Hollywood theme parks give to Chinese people.

No matter how many Chinese elements Universal Studios and Disney incorporate, and no matter how famous, popular, and sought-after the film and television IPs associated with their theme parks are in China, they are still not their own "children".

Of course, although Galaxy Park mainly focuses on Chinese stories, as a theme park, its main IP, Galaxy Cinematic Universe, also includes many overseas stories.

Famous films such as Inception, Taken, John Wick, The Mechanic, The Witch and Detective Chinatown series are mostly set overseas. So just as Disneyland has Chinese elements, Galaxy Park also has overseas elements.

Compared to the CCTV team, including Wang Bingbing, who provided detailed explanations of their tasks, Zhao Jinmai and her two companions had no pressure while touring the park and naturally progressed faster. However, after clearing the left-hand route of the amusement park, they arrived at the middle route first.

There are two themed areas: the Exotic Scenery Theme Area and the Dreamland Theme Area.

Zhao Jinmai and her group first arrived at the exotic themed area. The first thing they saw was a tall archway modeled after New York's Chinatown, with the words "Chinatown" prominently displayed on it.

However, once inside, this "Chinatown" was quite a misnomer. Instead of Chinese-style buildings, it featured classic exotic architecture that had appeared in the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe".

Like the Eiffel Tower in France, the White House in the United States, the Castle Tower in Japan, and... well, South Korea doesn't have any iconic buildings.

This street is like a world exposition, full of exotic elements.

Of course, there are also many entertainment options and facilities on these foreign streets. For example, the Eiffel Tower is essentially a miniature Ferris wheel, and the White House has bumper cars.

However, what makes the exotic themed area truly unique is that it has another side.

In fact, any attentive visitor who has looked at the map of the entire park at the entrance of [Galaxy Park] will surely have a question.

【Galaxy Park】is advertised as having seven themed areas, but why are only six themed areas marked on the map? Where is the other "special" themed area?
As Zhao Jinmai and her two friends strolled along the foreign streets, deciding whether to ride bumper cars or the giant swing, Wang Yuwen tugged at Zhao Jinmai's sleeve.

"MaiMai, look over there!"

Zhao Jinmai looked in the direction Wang Yuwen pointed and saw a doorway half-open on the street not far away. Occasionally, mysterious people inside would wave to pedestrians and tourists outside.

"What's that for?"

"It doesn't look like a respectable place."

"Want to take a look?"

Because it was so secluded and hidden, most tourists ignored the mysterious person beckoning, but some daring ones would walk into the half-open door and then not come out for a long time.

Zhao Jinmai and the other two exchanged glances, but could not suppress their curiosity. They thought that this was a scenic spot, so there was no way that human trafficking would happen here. So they mustered up their courage and approached.

The mysterious person inside the house saw them coming and didn't stop them, but stepped aside to let them in.

However, there was only one downward passage in the room. Since Zhao Jinmai and the other two were already inside, they were too embarrassed to turn back, so they had no choice but to bite the bullet and keep going.

Fortunately, the passage was well-lit and became more and more spacious as you walked. After descending more than twenty steps, there was an underground corridor in front of you that was wide enough for four people to walk side by side. At the end of the corridor, melodious piano music came from behind a door.

Wait, is there an underground concert hall hidden here?

The three exchanged a glance, and Guo Junchen, the only boy, led the way to continue walking forward. When they pushed open the closed wooden door, the colorful neon lights immediately blinded them, and they could only raise their hands to shield their eyes. At the same time, the piano music in their ears became clearer.

Once their eyes adjusted to the dazzling light and they lowered their arms, Zhao Jinmai and the other two realized that the place in front of them was actually an underground bar.

"Hello, welcome to 'High Table' bar, please come in!"

The park staff, dressed as greeters, welcomed them with smiles. Zhao Jinmai was the first to realize what was happening and excitedly said to her two friends next to her:
"High Table Bar?"

I've heard that name before; it appeared in *John Wick*, *The Mechanic*, and *Taken*!

(End of this chapter)