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| Part four of my 2025 China Japan trip report. |
October 19: Visit Universal Studios Beijing and Scares @ Universal Continued
After dinner, the sun had set and I returned to the park by myself, excited to see the handful of remaining rides. Since we were there in October, I was also excited to check out Scares @ Universal, the Beijing version of Halloween Horror Nights, which is included with general admission.
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| Hollywood Boulevard was like a rave. Still photos do not do the flashing lights justice. |
The front of the park was listed as a scare zone, but it seemed to be more like a dance party environment. The characters roving the land were essentially going around posing for pictures. The Scares @ Universal event has a roster of cute mascot characters who perform on a stage at the end of Hollywood Boulevard. The roving characters in the scare zone appeared to be some sort of zombified mascot mega-fans.
After passing by the stage, I turned left and continued through Hollywood Land, where I passed through the next scare zone. This one was themed to bugs, and had people in bug costumes walking around. It felt a bit more like a conventional scare zone, although it was still pretty tame. The video walls by the amphitheater showed closeups of bugs and the areas background music was replaced with bug sounds.
It was in this area where I noticed that day guests who did not want to participate in the scare zone were using the sidewalks and not being bothered by the scare actors. I am pretty confident that R would not have liked being here, even from the safety of the sidewalks.
Decepticoaster ★★★★
[Express Pass | Standby Posted Wait ?]
The Transformers Base section of the park looks pretty cool, especially at night. The buildings have perforated metal outer shells with glowing seams, and they house three attractions: a clone of Transformers: The Ride, a teacup-style ride with an animatronic Bumblebee figure in the center, and the ride I was excited to see: the Decepticoaster.
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| The purpose-built queue facilities for this ride seemed to be almost completely unused due to the location of the metal detectors. |
Decepticoaster is a near-copy of the Incredible Hulk Coaster from Islands of Adventure. The track layout is superficially the same, but it rides very differently; there is no “snap” in the barrel roll after the launch; the second loop feels less intense; and the corkscrew over the station is more like an inline twist; it is smoother; the conventional over-the-shoulder restraints have been replaced by a vest-style restraint (much better!); and it doesn't roar.
The indoor queue appeared to be almost entirely unused, as standby line appeared to be in the outdoor extended queue only. The lockers were placed at the merge point, but at a location between the marquee for the attraction and the exit corridor. Once guests put their stuff in the lockers, they go through metal detectors and proceed to walk all the way through the elaborate indoor queue until just before the load area. Imagine that the Hulk had a 90 minute wait, but the entire indoor queue occurred after the express line merge and consequently, it was not allowed to be used.
Like everything in the Transformers franchise, it was too self-serious. But it looked cool, and it is a great coaster anyway.
Journey of the Dragon Warrior[Enter Queue 7:17 | Standby Posted Wait 5 | Walk On]
After Transformers, I returned to the Kung Fu Panda area to re-ride the boat ride and check out the lantern ride. The boat ride was a complete walk on. But my opinion about the ride remained the same.
Lanterns of Legendary Legends ★★★☆[Enter Queue 7:41 | Standby Posted Wait 20 | Actual Wait 7]
Lanterns of Legendary Legends is a fairly simple swing ride. The Universal website says that the ride is actually a celebration of twelve of the greatest Kung Fu masters of years past.
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| I was unable to take a good photo of this attraction, so I am using one of Universal's. Image © 2026 Universal Studios Beijing |
I haven’t seen Kung Fu Panda since it was in theaters in 2008, so maybe that is more apparent to people with a better understanding of the film franchise. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, though, because the ride looks nice and it is fun.
The ride vehicles seat four guests in a two and two configuration, with each set of two facing each other. The seats are close enough that knees touch those of the other seat, so I was surprised when the grouper placed me in a vehicle with a party of two. It was totally fine, and that sort of thing does happen in the US parks from time to time when lines are long. But I wasn’t expecting it since this section of the park was so quiet that evening.
Loop-Dee Doop-Dee ★★★☆[Enter Queue 8:01 | Standby Posted Wait 30 | Actual Wait 19]
After completing the last ride in the Kung Fu Panda section, I went back to Minion’s Land, since that is where most of the haunted houses were located. But before I got in line to see those, I wanted to check out the line for Loop-Dee Doop-Dee, an indoor junior coaster by Jinma next to the Super Swirly spinner ride. The line was posted at 30 minutes, but it looked shorter than that, so I decided to give it a shot.
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| I didn't get a good photo of Loop-De Doop-De, either. But I did take a photo of the emergency exit arrow embedded in the floor. There are other photos of this ride available online. I like the collection at RCDB. |
This ride is only capable of single train operation, as the primary brake run at the end of the ride is in the station. I timed it and the operators were able to achieve a dispatch interval of around two minutes, so they were running pretty efficiently.
The indoor setting is nice, especially how close the ride gets to the ceiling. The layout of the ride is pretty basic, featuring only right turns.
One unusual feature of the ride is that its individual T-bar restraints have some weird bike handles on them. I wish I had a photo of them.
I was assigned a seat in the back row, and had a really nice ride! The trains are long enough that the motion of the vehicle over the hills was more than it appeared. It’s a good ride, and I got through the ride in about 20 minutes.
Universal Monster Crypt ★★★★[Express Pass | Standby Posted Wait 20]
With only about 95 minutes left before the park closed, I realized that I need to hurry to get to the haunted houses. I had paid to get express passes to three of the four houses, and I didn’t want them to go to waste.
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| The marquee for the Universal Monsters Crypt was great. This photo even features a reflection of the Universal express logo upside down in the sky, suspended by a water droplet on my camera lens! Or maybe it's a g-g-g-ghost! |
When I arrived at the entrance to the Universal Monster Crypt between Minion Land and Lights Camera Action, I was surprised to see the wait posted at only 20 minutes.
The queues for all of the haunted houses in Universal Beijing are similar to those at Halloween Horror Nights (HHN) in Orlando in that they have giant fields of unthemed switchbacks, with a very small facade around the building entrance and perhaps a themed marquee.
The Universal Monster Crypt haunted house was excellent! Like many Universal Monster-themed houses in previous years at HHN, it has segments dedicated to different classic monsters.
The Mummy portion included a great effect with tons of bugs coming out of the mummy’s tomb and a scene with a mummy floating out of a tomb while an Egyptian priest did the traditional convincers proving that the mummy was not held up by strings.
The Phantom of the Opera scene had a great falling chandalier scene. Other segments included Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman.
It was a really long haunted house!
The tone of this haunted house was not exactly the same as the haunted houses at HHN in Orlando. For instance, the number of conventional Boo Hole-based jump scares was lower, and the set pieces were a bit more atmospheric than some HHN houses. There was very little gore as well.
The other guests seemed to interact with the houses a bit differently than in Orlando. I think I was the only person who wasn’t recording a video of the house. In Orlando, HHN has a very strict “No Recording” policy inside the haunted houses. The focus seemed to be less about getting lots of jump scares and more about impressive set pieces. That may not be what everyone is looking for in a haunted house attraction. But it sure is what I am looking for! I loved it.
The House of Hua Pi ★★★½[Express Pass | Standby Posted Wait 25]
Across Minion Land was the next haunted house, The House of Hua Pi (Hua Pi translates to Painted Skin and is based on a Chinese supernatural story first published in the 1700s about the a ghost who must paint human skin onto herself to look human.)
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| The water droplet was still doing it's thing on my camera lens. Check out the up-side down 25 minute wait time sign flying in the air! |
This house begins with an extended outdoor section through a narrow street in a small village. It includes some pretty great effects, including one where a stunt performer is supernaturally pulled into the next room by way of a treadmill-like conveyor belt.
I really enjoyed this house. It had a great atmosphere and had unusual settings and gags. The scene where the ghost’s face is being painted on will stick in my mind for a long time. It was very good!
Jack's Circus ★★★½[Express Pass | Standby Posted Wait 10]
Jack’s Circus is themed to one of the HHN mascots, but Orlando’s HHN has never had a circus-themed haunted house like this one.
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| I don't normally like clown-themed horror stuff. But this was good! |
This attraction includes scenes with genuine circus acts (scenes include an aerialist, a juggler, and a trapeze artist basically doing their thing, as though this isn’t a haunted house), a long mirror maze, and one of my favorite things from any haunted house ever: The scene where the guest goes into the washing machine!
Before this haunted house, it would never have occurred to me that a washing machine should be scary. And—well--it’s still not. But it was still really great! It smelled like musty laundry. A person looks through the window concerned that you are in the wash. Then there is a rotating barrel to walk through!
This haunted house was the weakest of the four, but it was still very good. It may be the best circus/clown themed haunted house I have ever experienced. Apparently, clowns need more laundry.
Jurassic World Adventure[Enter Queue 9:06 | Standby Posted Wait 10 | Actual Wait 14]
After doing three haunted houses in 40 minutes, I wanted to take a break, and I saw that Jurassic World Adventure was posted at a 10 minute wait. So, I made the short walk over there and got in line.
The wait would have been less than 10 minutes, but just shy of the grouping area, the ride seemed to stop for 10 minutes of the actual 14 minute wait. I never figured out what the ride stopped for, but when I got on it, everything seemed to be working perfectly. What a great ride!
House NO. 81 ★★★★[Enter Queue 9:31 | Standby Posted Wait 10 | Actual Wait 6]
The final haunted house of the night was themed to a horror movie set. Some of the stunts in this house were downright spectacular.
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| A 6-minute wait for one of the highlights of the trip? |
For instance, one scene has a bath tub filled with a milky liquid in front of a mirror. Periodically, a lighting effect would trigger and a person would be seen in the reflection in the mirror coming towards you (using a similar lighting and mirror setup to the hitchhiking ghost scene in The Haunted Mansion). But when the lighting effect turns off, the person from the mirror emerges from the bath tub!
I have never seen such an effect in a haunted house-style attraction. How does the stunt actor know when the effect should be triggered? How does he breathe (the mirror gag seems to exclude the possibility of there being an air chamber behind the tub)? The logistics of having a scare actor safely submerged in water seems extraordinarily difficult to me. Not only was it logistically impressive, it really startled me!
The house included some well-executed hallway scenes with great Boo Hole scares, including actors on bungee cords jumping in to view through the holes.
Another impressive scene featured an actor crawling over the ceiling. Even the fairly cliche scene in an asylum with padded walls had a cool effect where the padded walls were transparent and being pushed by the scare actors in the next room. Difficult to describe, but very cool.
The haunted house ends with a walk around the editing room for the film maker, where you can see people walking through the horror scenes. When I experienced the house in person, I read it as being an ambiguous ending: Are we extras in a movie and it is all fake? Or is a movie director using a movie to torture people? But watching a video walk through of the haunted house makes me lean towards the explanation that the guest is intended to be an actor.
Regardless, it was a nice way to tie the whole thing together. I really enjoyed this attraction!
Since I think most of you are unlikely to experience Universal Beijing’s version of a Halloween event in person, I think it may be worth watching a video walk through of some of these attractions. This video will give you a good idea of what the experience was like in all four haunted houses at this park.
Flight of the Hippogriff ★★★☆[Enter Queue 9:52 | Standby Posted Wait 15 | Actual Wait 7]
Realizing I still had a few minutes before the park closed, I quickly made my way back into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to get on the park’s sole remaining rollercoaster.
This version of Flight of the Hippogriff has identical scenery and theming to the versions in Orlando, Osaka, and Hollywood. But the track layout is slightly different from the other versions. And it is the only version to use a (very loud) chain lift instead of a tire-driven lift. This version of the ride is very smooth and spends more time close to the ground close to the trees. It almost feels like a terrain coaster.
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| As I left the park, I stopped to appreciate how lucky I was to get to see it in person. |
Once I finished this ride, the park had closed. So, I made my way back to the hotel by way of the exit through Universal Grand Hotel’s dedicated entrance. From there, it was a short walk following the resort road back to my hotel. The next day was going to be an early start, as our flight to Tokyo was required us to check out of the hotel around 4:00 am.
Before I continue with the Japan part of the trip report, I will use the next part to share my final thoughts about Universal Studios Beijing.
Series Directory
Part 1: Background, Trip Planning, and Flight to Beijing
Part 2: Forbidden City and Great Wall of China at Mutianyu
Part 3: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 1
Part 4: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 2: Scares @ Universal
