Most Amazing Amusement Parks in Asia
By: Troy

Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Ocean Park, is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, and animal theme park, situated in Wong Chuk Hang and Nam Long Shan in the Southern District of Hong Kong. Founded in 1977 by the then Governor of Hong Kong Sir Murray MacLehose, Ocean Park has now grown to about 35 attractions and rides.

The theme park currently has 19 rides, including two rollercoasters, but also houses 11 animal exhibits, such as a Giant panda habitat, a jelly fish and Chinese sturgeon aquarium, as well as a four-story aquarium displaying more than 2,000 fish.

Besides being an amusement park, Ocean Park Hong Kong also operates observatories, well developed laboratories, an education department and a Whales and Dolphins Fund.

Ocean Park Hong Kong was the first institution in the world to have success in artificial insemination of bottlenose dolphins, and developed numerous new breeds of goldfish.

Everland, South Korea

Everland Resort is a theme park in Yongin, a city in Gyeonggi-do province, South Korea. Everland is South Korea's largest theme park. Along with its main attractions, Everland also includes a zoo and a water park known as Caribbean Bay. Everland is operated by Samsung Everland, which is a subsidiary of the Samsung Group.

Everland is often compared to Disneyland by those who have visited both parks, as some consider the architecture, scale, themes and general atmosphere to be very similar.

The name of the park is of note, as the name is "Everland" of English origin.

Everland is divided into 5 incredible zones; Global Fair, Zoo-Topia, European Adventure, Magic Land and American Adventure.

Universal Studios Singapore

Universal Studios Singapore is a theme park located within Resorts World Sentosa on Sentosa Island, Singapore.

The park is 20 hectares (49 acres). There are a total of 24 attractions, of which 18 are original or specially adapted for the park. It consists of seven uniquely themed zones which surround a lagoon. Each zone is based on a blockbuster movie or television show, featuring their own unique attractions, character appearances, dining and shopping areas. The park features the world's tallest Dueling roller coaster based on the hit television show Battlestar Galactica, a castle from the world of Shrek and Monster Rock, a live musical show by the infamous Universal Monsters as well as celebrity Look-alikes. The park also includes about 30 restaurants and food carts together with 20 unique retail stores and carts located around the park.

The park is home to the world’s biggest single collection of DreamWorks Animation theme park attractions, occupying 2 of the 7 themed zones, namely based on "Far Far Away" from Shrek and the island of "Madagascar" from the computer-animated movie Madagascar.

A total of 18 attractions opened on the Opening Day of the park, along with multiple shopping and dining outlets. Universal Parks & Resorts is marketing the park as a "one-of-its-kind theme park in Asia" as they promised that the park will be the only one of its kind in Southeast Asia for the next 30 years.

Happy Valley, Shenzhen, China

Photo: pnoeric, used under Creative Commons License (By SA 2.0)

Happy Valley is a tourist theme park in Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.

Covering an area of 350,000 square meters (86 acres), the park is composed of nine areas with different themes, including Spanish Square, Cartoon City, Mt. Adventure, Gold Mine Town, Shangri-la Woods, Sunshine Beach, Typhoon Bay, Playa Maya Water Park and Happy Times. The park provides games for adults and children, as well as performances in different styles.

The Playa Maya Water Park is open for five months each year, and provides an experience of the long-ago Mayan civilization with buildings and statues in Mayan architectural styles.

Essel World Mumbai, India

It is spread over 64 acres (260,000 m2) of land and attracts 10,000 visitors everyday. It can be reached from the suburbs of Borivali or Malad. Essel world was started by Subhash Chandra of the Essel Group in 1986. The Water Kingdom section was added in 1998.

There are 34 major rides not including the coin operated games and the rides involving water.

It actually consists of two parks - Essel world proper and Water Kingdom(a water park). It was the first amusement park in India. After starting in 1986, it took five years for it to break even but its annual turnover in 2001 was 35-40 crores rupees and is now called a "huge success".