World-curious Chinese can now tour Asean without leaving home

Guangxi now boasts a $500-million theme park and amusement centre that brings Asean’s cultural landmarks to China in miniature format.

With up to 30,000 visitors a day, the Fantawild Asian Legend, developed by homegrown Fantawild Holdings Inc, draws on its vision of using “innovative technology” to strengthen its competitiveness.

With creativity at its core, Fantawild combines Chinese culture with advanced technology to build theme parks for unique types of entertainment.

Fantawild now has four types of theme parks: Fantawild Adventure, Fantawild Dreamland, Fantawild Oriental Heritage, and Fantawild Water Park.

Hu Yang, director of marketing, said the theme park’s distinguishing feature is its ability to bring cultural, historical and natural heritage sites from around Asean to China. This allows people to get a taste of what is in store for them should they visit the real destinations.

“Our futuristic ride is one of its kind in the world and it showcases the wonders of Asean in 3D animation and mapping technology. With this technology, we are able to bring the amazing Angkor Wat, not only in replica, but also through 3D story boards, to China.

“How else can one see the water villages of Brunei, the splendour of the Grand Palace in Thailand, Philippines’ Santo Tomas de Villanueva Parish Church, Indonesia’s Borobudur, the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon or Vietnam’s Halong Bay?” Mr Hu asked.

He stressed that even though more than 1.5 million Chinese have visited Cambodia this year, it was quite impossible even for 10 percent of the Chinese population to visit and experience Siem Reap’s Angkor Archeological Park.

He said the Angkor Wat replica has been the object of some controversy, but stressed that his team spent six months in Siem Reap studying the architectural designs and motifs of the temples before undertaking the mammoth job of replicating the world-class tourist site, a task that took over three years to complete.

Tickets to Fantawild Asian Legend cost $35 per person. Every day at least 3,000 people visit the theme park, Mr Hu explained, adding that it also boasts rides and 3D animations about Rama’s epic quest to rescue Sita.

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