Southern China's answer to Thorpe Park: Chimelong Paradise in Guangzhou

Friday November 30

** More pictures to follow - struggling to get them off the camera! **

Bored by a constant diet of temples, palaces and mausoleums we headed to a theme park in southern China.

Chimelong Paradise opened just six years ago and is similar to Thorpe Park in Surrey.

Terrifying! Us on one of the rides at Chimelong Paradise, Guangzhou

 However, the entrance price of 200CNY (£20) is beyond the reach of the vast majority of the local population - according to the grumpy man on reception in our hostel.

Unfortunately it was pouring throughout the day.

An elderly Chinese woman sold me a poncho for 50p which was actually a large bin bag with a hood.

A westerner in the park was entertainment enough for the locals - but a westerner in a bin bag made it all the more entertaining. So rare are the English in southern China that at times we felt like an additional attraction in the park.

'Poncho': The bin bag with a hood I wore throughout the day. It cost 50p 

Rides include the imaginatively named ten inversion coaster and the dive coaster.

One of the wackiest rides features not the traditional carts but 'motorcycles' you sit on as you are carried around the track.

We visited purely because it was one of the top rated attractions in Guangzhou on TripAdvisor.

On the doorstep to Hong Kong, there is not much else to do in this southern city.

Despite the rain and the bin bag poncho this was a great, and very different day out.

Better: Kelly-Ann's more expensive rain jacket

YouTube video of the Divecoaster (not my own) - one of the park's main attractions