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| Part five of my 2025 China Japan trip report. |
October 19: Visit Universal Studios Beijing Continued
I think this review is making it clear that I enjoyed my time at Universal Studios Beijing.
The park appeared to be operated in an efficient and safe manner, with methodical but quick safety checks similar to other Universal and Disney parks (and much better than Universal Studios Singapore, which had safe but dreadfully slow operations on my visit in 2018). Queues and pathways were kept clean, staff appeared to be approachable, and the park appeared to be very well maintained.
The only strange thing I saw that I wouldn’t have expected was a set of sand bags in an emergency exit door in the queue for Jurassic Flyers. I imagine the sandbags were there because the ground outside sloped towards the door, so water probably comes into the building whenever it rains. This is definitely a bad situation without any fast or cheap solutions. But I would not expect a tripping hazard to be in a doorway like that in an American park.
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| That water intrusion can't be good for the walls either. |
Folks who don’t travel much often ask about poor guest behavior at the Chinese parks. I cannot speak to the issue in any methodical way, having only been to two of them (Shanghai Disneyland for one day in 2018 and Universal Beijing on this trip). But I think the topic is either overblown or rapidly improving.
On my 2018 visit to Shanghai Disneyland, I remember taking a very defensive posture in the queues (standing with a hand on both railings) to prevent aggressive line cutting. t that park I saw such behavior about once an hour. In this trip to Universal Studios Beijing, I did not adopt a defensive posture in queues, and I did not witness a single instance of line cutting the entire day. Line etiquette may not be as good as it is in Japan, but it was very similar to that of the parks in the United States, and certainly nothing to complain about.
Between the Lands
One aspect of the park that is somewhat unusual is the disjointed nature of the park. It is not so much that the park doesn’t go together—it does—but there are some unusual transitions in the park that make it feel less planned than it was. The junctions between the themed lands often sort of appear, as opposed to there being a formal portal like Epic Universe or a gradual transition between lands that is found in classically-designed theme parks.
In two locations, the junctions occur at three way intersections. At one of them, Transformers Base is north, Jurassic World is east, and Hollywood is south. And at the other, Jurassic World is north, Wizarding World of Harry Potter is east, and Minions Land is south. I can’t think of any other location in any theme park where this type of three-way transition has been built (perhaps excluding The Hub at Disneyland-style parks). It feels strange in Beijing, because the junctions are at relatively unimportant spaces, taking their landscape design cues from the least-specific land of the three (Hollywood and Minions Land, respectively).
The three-way junctions are not the only unusual aspect of the park layout. The paths between Jurassic World, Kung Fu Panda, and Waterworld appear to be backstage areas repurposed as on-stage crowd relief paths. I am pretty sure I remember seeing parking spaces, even. A quick survey of Google Earth’s historic imagery makes me very confident that this area used to be backstage only.
I believe the park had to open backstage areas to guests for crowd flow reasons, similar to some of the early changes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Prior to the opening of this backstage path, the Waterworld show would dump ~3,000 guests out the exit of the theater with only two options: Kung Fu Panda, with relatively wide paths, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with some relatively narrow paths and crowd flow limitations of its own. The addition of this backstage path provides a direct way to Jurassic World, and I imagine greatly improves the crowd flows when Waterworld ends.
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| The weird back of house path includes a picnic area, which aerial photos show to be new. |
All that being said, Universal Studios Beijing is a great theme park. The attraction program is very good, perhaps second only to Universal Studios Japan with respect to Universal’s other Studio-themed parks. The themed lands themselves were typically executed well, although I am not sure that any of them are the best example of their respective subjects. Overall, I really enjoyed the park. It has enough that is unique that it should be on any theme park-heavy itinerary to China. And if you can be there during Scares @ Universal, definitely make sure to check it out. The four haunted houses are great, and the queues are short compared to the US-based HHN events.
Universal Beijing Review Summary
I will round out my review of Universal Studios Beijing with a summary of each land and their attractions, along with any other thoughts that didn’t make it into the earlier parts of the review.
CityWalk ★★☆☆Universal Beijing Resort Parking Facilities ★½☆☆
Universal Beijing Resort Bus Facilities ★★★★
Universal Resort Station (Beijing Subway) ★★☆☆
Universal Beijing Resort Security Checkpoints ★★★☆
Although Beijing’s CityWalk is not the smallest CityWalk in the Universal portfolio by footprint, I believe it is the smallest in terms of total area of restaurants, shops, and entertainment. In general, the stuff that is there is good, and the scale is pretty nice. This CityWalk has a more subdued look, with less neon and less overstimulation than the other versions. Everything is on the same level as well, so it lacks the sense of being in a dense multi-level environment that the other CityWalks have.
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| A one-story CityWalk, where the trees are taller than the buildings. |
The program also includes less entertainment options than the CityWalks in the United States. As far as I could tell, the only thing here which is not a shop or a restaurant is the movie theater. There is no music venue, nightclubs, mini-golf, or escape rooms. It feels a bit more like walking through an outdoor shopping mall than the other three CityWalks. But it works, and there appears to be room for expansion on the western side of the plaza by the Universal globe.
In a previous part of this trip report, I gave a fairly tepid review of the parking garage at Universal Beijing Resort. While I was over there, I also walked around the bus terminal. But I neglected to include it in that portion of my review.
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| Bus terminal. Very exciting. |
I found the bus terminal to be much better than any other bus facility at a Universal resort. Everything was shaded with beautiful trees or shade canopy structures, the walkways were large enough that queues for buses shouldn’t block the walkways, and I didn’t see any pedestrian grade crossings of bus lanes. I did not get a chance to see the bus terminal in action during a busy period, but I would be surprised if it doesn’t work well.
CityWalk is also home to the Universal Resort station on Beijing Subway lines 1 and 7. The station platforms themselves are nice, with plenty of room to stand and with platform screen doors. But the concourse level itself seems overbuilt to me. It has a very high ceiling with an undulating pattern terminating with conical structures. But the transition between the ceiling and the cones is abrupt and looks bad to my eye. The station concourse is so big, with vast expanses of terrazzo floors. It is difficult to imagine what all that space is used for. Everywhere else in China where long queues are expected use giant corrals to keep the line somewhat orderly. So, I don’t think this space is for queuing at the security checkpoint (discussed previously in this trip report). But I was never there at peak times, so perhaps I am missing something.
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| Source: N509FZ - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link |
The CityWalk security screening areas are similar to those at Universal Orlando Resort, but they use huge temporary metal corrals to manage the queue. It appears as though the queues are permanent, so the use of temporary barricades offends my sensibilities. But I do like how they use a single line for multiple screening positions.
Hollywood ★★★½Lights Camera Action! ★☆☆☆
Untrainable [didn’t experience]
The Hollywood section of the park is very well done, with detailed buildings in a mix of architectural styles common in Southern California during the Golden Age of Hollywood. The roof over the main street is really nice, and it makes me wish the parks in Florida had something similar. After all, it rains almost twice as many days per year in Orlando as it does in Beijing.
The Hollywood section is laid out in a simple T-shape, with great waterfront views of the rest of the park, similar to Universal Studios Singapore’s Hollywood section. I think this makes a more cohesive land than the Florida and Japan version of this area, which sort of ramble down some (but not all) streets in the gridded area in the front of those parks.
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| Universal's studio parks have strange view termini down the corridors at the park entrance. |
One thing that does puzzle me about this section of the parks is whether Hollywood’s Golden Age is a theme that means anything to the park’s primary visitors. I have often thought that the themes of Disney and Universal’s parks outside of the US are basically American Pop Culture. But the Hollywood Golden Age occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. Did anything Hollywood make it out to China in that period?
At the end of the day, maybe it doesn’t matter. The Hollywood section of the park has attractive architecture and is pleasant to be in. Who cares if it doesn’t mean the same thing to a Beijing local that it means to an American? To at least some extent, you might be able to say that about all international theme parks based on American Pop Culture.
Transformers: Metrobase ★★★★Decepticoaster ★★★★
Transformers: Battle for the AllSpark [didn’t experience]
Bumblebee Boogie [didn’t experience]
The land looks really great, especially at night. It captures the pessimistic totalitarian future from the Transformers franchise quite well. So, although it isn’t the kind of place I want to be, it is hard to imagine anything Transformers being done better than this.
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| The Transformers Base buildings look so cool! |
Jurassic Flyers ★★½☆
Jurassic World Adventure ★★★★
Camp Jurassic [didn't experience]
This might be the smallest scale Jurassic Park-themed land at a Universal theme park. But it has a great headliner attraction, a fantastic indoor playground with a dynamic overhead ride, and it hits all the notes that I want to see in a real-life Jurassic Park resort.
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| The aviary is such a great environment! |
Carousel of Kung Fu Heroes ★★★½
Journey of the Dragon Warrior ★★★☆
Lanterns of Legendary Legends ★★★☆
Po's Kung Fu Training Camp [didn’t experience]
The old joke in the themed entertainment design world is that “immersion” means finished ceilings or interactive theater. The Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness lacks finished ceilings (and thankfully has no interactive theater). But it does have a great roster of attractions, fantastic atmosphere, and lots of nice details I wouldn’t necessarily expect from a land themed to a second-tier animated film franchise.
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| Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness is really pleasant. It was one of the unexpected highlights of this park. |
In the back of the land, there is a tree with projection mapped leaves that has a nice show periodically. It kind of reminded me of the Tree of Life Awakens show at Animal Kingdom. It is worth sticking around to see it if you ever find yourself in this park.
Waterworld ★★★☆Waterworld Stunt Show [didn’t experience]
Yes, there is a Waterworld-themed land complete with the stunt show and a themed restaurant! Who would have thought that an epic failure of a movie like Waterworld would have such staying power in theme parks?
I have seen the Waterworld stunt show in Hollywood and in Singapore, and it is one of the best live shows at any theme park. It is my understanding that the Beijing version is similar to the other ones around the world. So it isn’t actually that surprising that it would have its own themed land. If only they had a few Waterworld rides as well!
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| Waterworld's Drifter's Cantina |
We did look inside the Waterworld restaurant, which was decorated with the kinds of objects one might expect to salvage from shipwrecks. It is nice!
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter ★★★★Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ★★★★
Flight of the Hippogriff ★★★☆
Ollivanders Experience in Hogsmeade [didn’t experience]
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is one of the great achievements in contemporary themed entertainment. The version in Beijing is no different. This is a great version of Wizarding World.
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| I believe there is a rule somewhere that says Hogsmeade is always packed. |
I didn’t go inside any of the shops, but they appeared to maintain the very high standards from the other versions of this attraction. In addition to the stuff found at other Harry Potter attractions, this version included a path along the far side of the Black Lake and a fair bit of additional paths through the dark forest. There is a lot of open space around this land. I wonder if they will ever get a copy of Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure?
Minion Land ★★★☆SING on Tour! ★½☆☆
Super Swirly ★★☆☆
Loop-Dee Doop-Dee ★★★☆
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem [didn’t experience]
Minion Land is a bright, colorful section of the park with relatively conventional architecture and relatively “common” environments (Despicable Me / Minions don’t really have that distinctive a visual style other than the exaggerated curves in some character designs, vehicles, and street lights in the films).
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| The interior portion of Minion Land as seen from Super Swirly. |
This has always been a downside with the contemporary trend in themed entertainment for most new attractions to inhabit IP-specific themed lands—franchises that are popular enough to warrant a presence in theme parks but do not have the inherent characteristics that make good themed worlds end up with generic themed lands that could be anything. It would be better for some themed lands to be generic with a mix of attractions specific to different visually similar franchises.
What is there is pleasant to be in, and it provides an appropriate venue for the Minions to appear. So, although the land is nothing to write home about, it gets the job done.
Scares @ Universal ★★★★Universal Monster Crypt ★★★★
The House of Hua Pi ★★★½
Jack's Circus ★★★½
House NO. 81 ★★★★
Scares @ Universal is a great event! The cute / scary characters aren’t for me, but they seemed popular. The haunted houses are spectacular. There is less to see than at HHN in the domestic parks, but what is there is very good. This is perhaps my favorite Universal Halloween event?
Overall, Universal Studios Beijing is a great park. It is worth the effort to see it.
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| Obligatory Universal globe photo |
On the next part of my trip report, I will describe my travel day between Beijing and my hotel at Tokyo Disney Resort.
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
Part 5: Universal Studios Beijing Review Part 3: Closing Thoughts
