Window of the World

Shenzhen has a kitschy tourist attraction called ‘Window of the World‘. It’s a large park with a bunch of miniature famous buildings and monuments from around the world. You can see the world for the low price of 220 yuan (about $30 USD) and not have to travel!

My Chinese assistant teacher told me not to go as it was not all that interesting, but as someone who is teaching English in China, my whole goal is to travel the world. How could I pass up the chance to do it all in an afternoon?

Getting In

It’s easy to find as they named the metro stop after it. It’s also the metro stop I use when I go to the training center. This time I get to use the exit under the big glass pyramid, like at the Louvre.

Getting a ticket was slightly more challenging. There was a sign, in Chinese, that had a QR code to scan and buy your ticket from your phone. However, you needed to have a Chinese ID number and there was no option to change to using your passport number, which is what all the foreigners have to use.

But, the ticket window was still open and there were only a couple people in line. I quickly went one and got my ticket. No questions were asked, aside from confirming I wanted 1 ticket, and no documents were needed. It was very easy.

Then, I got to join the security lines to go inside, where I showed my green QR code, went through a metal detector and had my bag x-rayed, but I didn’t have to have my water bottle checked, like in the metro, climbed a bunch of steps, and had my ticket scanned. It was all still quick and painless.

Once inside, there’s a large amphitheater with an Egyptian wall and ancient columns. Nothing was happening in the amphitheater, as far as I knew, but I’m sure they use it for something.

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Most of the park is separated into continents – Asia, Europe, Australia and Pacific Islands, Americas, and Africa.

There are models of some of the famous landmarks. These are very detailed models. Some are in need of some repair work, but overall they were very impressive. Not all of the landmarks were big. Some only came up to my knee. Others were big enough to walk around in.

Asia

The first one I visited was Asia. It was also the popular way to go. So I spent a bit of time in a crowd, until I got to go my own way.

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Next up was the Taj Mahal of India. I know technically it is part of Asia but there were so many landmarks from India that India felt like it should be considered its own area. There were a lot of temples that I had never heard of before.

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Pacific

Then it was through parts of the South Pacific to Australia, where the most interesting part of the area was a tiny, narrow pedestrian bridge. But, I did get a little distracted by part of Europe. It was right there and I actually knew the buildings by name (I had even been to some!).

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Europe

Then, it was finally time to explore all of Europe! Europe was the single biggest area and was spread over most of the center of the park. The paths were also very complex and made it easy to miss things if you weren’t careful.

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There was also an Alps area inside Europe with, possibly ice skating or skiing. I’m not really sure. The signs were all in Chinese. All I know is that it cost extra money that I didn’t feel like paying, but I did enjoy the air conditioning.

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Africa

Next up on my round the world tour was the most disappointing area – Africa. There were the Egyptian pyramids with a real live camel I could ride (No, thanks. I did that in the real Egypt, next to the real pyramids. I screamed a little when the camel stood, freaked out when it walked, and thought about jumping down.) You could walk around closer to the pyramids but I couldn’t find the entrance. And an African village.

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Americas

The last part of the park, and the most in need of repair, was the Americas. Both North and South America were in the same area.

For the US, they had a lot of buildings. There were the White House, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, and a replica of Manhattan, in New York City. But it looked like Washington, DC had been dripped on by some black paint or mold. And New York looked like Godzilla had stopped by for another visit.

South America was also disappointing. There was no Machu Picchu. They did have the Nazca lines and Christ the Redeemer overlooking the area, but it was all shoved in a corner with North America.

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Dinos and Climbing the Eiffel Tower

There was also a small section with a few dinosaurs, which didn’t really make all that much sense to include, aside from everyone likes dinosaurs. But I had been to a zoo in the US that had a better dinosaur exhibit and was very not impressed with this one.

The highlight of the day, and the last thing I did there, was climb the Eiffel Tower. When I was in Paris many years ago now, I could have either gone up the real Tower or seen it light up and my companion really wanted to see the light show. Now, I can say I’ve been in an Eiffel Tower.

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Overall, I enjoyed my visit and getting lots of ideas on where I can travel to next, but it is definitely not something that I’m in any rush to go back to. And I would hate to see it really busy.

There were quite a few school groups visiting at the same time I was. It wasn’t what I would consider to be crowded, but there were a lot of small people crowding around some of the areas I wanted to see. it made parts of the experience less than pleasant.

On to the next kitschy tourist attraction in Shenzhen!