Beyond the Dot, China, The Circus

The Circus

If you like circus performances then the Chimelong International Circus in Guangzhou is one place you should visit. Featuring a large cast of international performers and animals, this is a treat for all kids and the kid in all of us.

The International Circus is located in Chimelong Tourist Resort which consists of the Chimelong Safari Park, Chimelong Paradise, Chimelong Bird Park and a golf centre. So if you really want to enjoy the various parks, you’d probably have to stay over a few days. For ourselves, we only spent time at the Safari Park before catching the show at the International Circus.

Getting There

Besides taking a taxi or Didi ride there which is not expensive, you can take the subway or public bus. The subway station to get off is Hangxi-Chinglong Station, and taking Exit E to the Chimelong Bus Station where free shuttle buses ferry you to the park.

The Safari Park

This is basically a zoo, but one which offers safari rides. And to me it seems like they also have the largest collection of white tigers and albino lions.

The mascots of Chimelong Park. I don’t know their names, but you will find their images and figurines everywhere in the park.

After getting your tickets at the front entrance, you are free to enter the park. Tickets are separate for each park, so you have to decide which park you want to visit. There are also different combinations of package prices depending on which attractions interest you the most.

We passed by the entrance of the Bird Park but didn’t go in as we didn’t get the tickets for it.

We only got tickets for the Safari Park since that was probably more interesting compared to the Bird Park. If you have your own vehicle, you can drive through the safari yourself. And we did see several families who drove their own cars or chartered a taxi to drive them through the park.

There is a tram ride for the safari portion of the park. This seems to be the highlight of the park, where you can get to see wild animals roaming around in the open. Although, for our case, the tram captain was speeding through the park and we only got fleeting glimpses of the animals.
The park’s collection of white tigers and albino lions is one of the largest I’ve seen. Not to mention the many other big cats like tigers and leopards.
Another popular activity is feeding the giraffes. You can buy tree branches to feed the giraffes. They do get very greedy and won’t hesitate to stretch their necks to grab the branches out of your hands.
The park closes in the evening and there is a short parade to cap off the day’s activities.

The Safari Park is really big and if you want to visit all the exhibits you should get there in the morning. We arrived late and did not have time to see the pandas as the park was closing.

Chimelong International Circus

From the Safari Park, there are free shuttle buses that will bring you to the International Circus. There is only 1 performance a day which starts at 7.30pm and lasts for around 90 minutes.

It’s quite difficult for foreigners to buy tickets to the circus online as their website is only in Chinese and you need to have a Chinese credit card or payment app to purchase the tickets. You can buy the tickets when you are there, but risk having them sold out by the time you get there. Otherwise, you can also book the tickets in advance through Tripadvisor or Klook.
The amphitheater is pretty impressive with a Cirque de Soleil style setup married with House of Dancing Water elements.
The performances are thrilling with elaborate sets and costumes. The horse riding act is the only act with animals performing stunts.
While the show is called a Circus, it’s not your traditional circus with wild animals performing stunts. The performers are all humans with animals only playing a cursory role parading or standing on the stage.
There are dare devil stunts like having 6 motorbikes speeding inside a steel globe, and diving into a pool of water from high up. The only act with lots of wild animals has them running a lap on the stage.
And if you are tired and don’t want to take a ride back into Guangzhou city, you can book a hotel room at the nearby resort hotel.

Chimelong Tourist Resort is a great place in Guangzhou to bring your kids if you are travelling with your family. Although, not Disneyland exactly, it’s a fun place to spend your time in an otherwise commercial city.

Published by

Edwin Tan

Citizen of Earth.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s