Real Heroes are Sandwiches: 2025 China-Japan Trip

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2025 China-Japan Trip Part 6: Beijing to Tokyo and Shop at Ikspiari

Part six of my 2025 China Japan trip report.

October 20: Fly to Tokyo and Shop at Ikspiari

After the long day at Universal Studios Beijing, I got a good three hours of sleep before my alarm went off. R and I had to pack up and check out of the hotel before our 4:20 am black car service was to take us to the Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) for our 7:20 am flight to Tokyo.

In hindsight, the pickup was too early. We were very tired. But checkout was smooth and our driver was at the porte cochère on time.

The car was booked through the same service that our pickup was booked through, so I wasn’t very worried about the 30 minute drive to the airport. However, once we were on the 6^th Ring Road, I noticed the driver was very loose about maintaining his lane. The empty expressway was three lanes wide and we had the road to ourselves, so I thought that perhaps the orderly driving I previously observed in Beijing was something that occurred while the road is busy. Perhaps drivers drift when the road is empty here.

But as we got closer to the airport, the road became more busy, and other drivers were clearly alarmed by our car’s behavior. At one point, the central barrier ended at a toll plaza. Our driver began to drift into oncoming traffic before another driver flashed their high beams at us, which seemed to jolt our driver into action and drive on the correct side of the road.

I couldn’t tell if our driver was falling asleep or what. But I felt trapped. If I was in an English-speaking country (or Japan, for that matter), I would have insisted that the driver get off the highway and let us out so we could take a different taxi to the airport. But China doesn’t have Uber, and I never figured out how to get DiDi working on my phone. So if we were let out, it would have been very difficult to get to the airport.

After about six more near-misses, we arrived at the airport.

The average driver in Beijing ★★★☆
Not very different from the average driver in a large city in the United States.

Our driver to the airport on October 20 ☆☆☆☆
Woof. A major contender in a three-way tie for worst car ride in my life. The other two car rides vying for last place include a seat belt-free taxi ride in Hong Kong in 2018 and an 11-mile ride in my friend Andy’s Toyota pick up truck between high school and work in 2004.

Our flight to Tokyo was on Hainan Airlines, which was out of Terminal 2 of the Beijing Airport. When we arrived, the airport was very quiet, with no lines for passport control or both of the security checkpoints.

The website that said we needed to arrive 2½ to 3 hours early to the airport was not correct in this case. Assuming it got busier as the morning went on, we still could have easily arrived 90 minutes before the flight with plenty of time to spare.

Airports in China have a security checkpoint at the building entrance where they scan you and all your bags (similar to their security screenings in subway stations) and a second security checkpoint at the usual location where you enter the air side of the airport. It is rare for something to make the US airport security strategy seem “light touch”. But congratulations, China, you’ve done it

Our plane was an old Boeing 737-800. The aircraft was clean and in working order, the staff provided adequate beverages, and we arrived to Tokyo Narita on time.

For some reason, everyone on the flight around us was French. It would be one thing if they were Australian (there are so many more Australians in the tourist areas of Asia than there are Americans in Europe). But I’ve never encountered flocks of French people outside of France.

After flying Air China, China Eastern, and Hainan Airlines, Hainan Airlines is my favorite mainland China-based airline hands down. It may not be as nice as the Japanese, Hong Kong, Korean, or Singaporean airlines I’ve flown in terms of amenities or service. But I would say it is similar to an average US-based airline, and I would not hesitate to fly with them again.

After we landed at the Tokyo Narita airport, Japanese customs and immigration took less than five-minutes.

Since our stay in Japan was going to be a bit longer than our stay in China, I opted not to use the American Telephone and Telegraph Company's International Day Pass for cell phone and internet service ($12 per device per day). Instead, I had arranged to use a pocket WiFi device from Ninja WiFi, which cost ¥6,969 for an eleven-day rental of two devices with 1GB data per day for each (this worked out to be approximately $47 USD total).

I made arrangements to pick up the device at the airport terminal just outside of the customs inspection (they have booths at all terminals at Narita and several other locations across Japan), and my rental was set to drop them off at the airport on the day of departure. I used Ninja WiFi on a previous Japan trip, and found it to be very easy to use and affordable, since I was not planning to stream video on the trip. WiFi is commonly available in hotels and many other public areas in Japan, so I figured that I didn’t need very much data. The daily 1GB limit turned out to be more than enough for us. And the experience of picking up, using, and returning the pocket WiFi was very easy.

After we got our phones set up, we proceeded to the JR-East train station. An English-speaking JR employee was stationed near the ticket machines and volunteered to help us get our tickets. We wanted to get round trip Narita Express (N’EX) tickets to Tokyo Station with return service from Yokohama (total cost: ¥5,000 or $33 USD per person).

Once we got the tickets, we went down to the train platform, where we discovered that the drains were delayed due to an issue on the line. Over the seven months I have spent in Japan riding trains nearly every day, this has only happened on four or five occasions. Our N’EX train ended up being about an hour late. And when it arrived, the train was facing backwards, so the assigned seats were accessed from different doors from those indicated on the train platform. Happily, prior to the train’s arrival, a JR employee checked the tickets of everyone on the platform and led them to the correct location to find their seats.

Once on the train, R commented that I looked very happy. In fact, my face was hurting from smiling too much. I think Japan may be one of my absolute favorite places in the world. Even a few years ago when I was there working long hours every week, I felt so lucky to be there.

Once we arrived at Tokyo Station, I made a serious mistake. You see, it was well after lunch time, and we had not had anything to eat other than the snack on the airplane. My original plan was to transfer to the Keiyo Line where we would travel on to Tokyo Disney Resort and get a late lunch after checking in to our hotel. However, at this time R informed me that she did not have her IC Card from her last visit to Japan.

IC Cards are the transit passes used in Japan which are usable on nearly every transit system in the country. I keep my IC Card in my passport wallet, so it didn’t even occur to me to remind R to pack hers.

I assumed that it would be easy to find a vending machine for Suica Cards everywhere (Suica Cards are the IC Card issued by the JR-East railway), so we walked with all our bags ~2,000 ft across the train station to the Keiyo Line entrance. Once we got there, we discovered that there were vending machines to top off your IC Card, but there was no vending machines that would issue a new one.

We ended up spending the next 90 minutes walking up and down the train station looking for a Suica Card vending machine. We even waited 20 minutes in line at a place that does not have them. Eventually we found one under the Tokyo Station Marunouchi North Gate Dome.

One of the reasons that I took so long to get R’s IC Card is that I wanted to get her a Suica Card, which has no expiration date. I did see a few places to get a Welcome Suica Card, which is an IC Card that expires 28 days after issuance and has an extra ¥500 fee ($3.30 USD) attached to it. I think I was just not thinking straight because of the early morning and lack of food. If I could do it over again, I would have picked up a Welcome Suica Card and paid the measly ¥500 fee. I genuinely don’t know what I was thinking.

Note: If you have an Information Phone, you can put a digital Suica Card in your Apple Wallet, so you can avoid this whole process. This option is not available on most Android phones purchased in the US, which is why we needed the physical IC Card.

Quite understandably, R was frustrated with me, tired, and hungry by the time we got her transit card. But we continued on towards our hotel, transferred to the monorail at Tokyo Disney Resort, and finally transferred to a free shuttle bus from the Disney Resort Line Monorail Bayside Station to our destination, the Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort.

We stayed at the Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel First Resort.

After we checked in to our room, we dropped off our bags and I got a few snacks from the convenience store in the lobby. The food improved our moods considerably. And I was happy with the hotel room.

Our room had a decent view of the back side of Space Mountain, which was being rebuilt at the time of our visit, and the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel.

Then we took the free shuttle bus to Ikspiari so R could so some shopping. Ikspiari is Tokyo Disney Resort’s version of Downtown Disney, although it is more of a true shopping mall than the locations in Orlando, Anaheim, or Paris.

R ended up buying a coat and a few other items, and I marveled at the awesome Halloween promotions that some of the stores were having. My favorite was a store banner with the motto “Black On, Blood Out”. I also found a store with a collection of clothing emblazoned with various locations in rural Florida. I especially enjoyed the jacket that said “Clay County” on the front, “Tallahassee” on the side (Tallahassee is not in Clay County), and it had a patch on the shoulder that said “Florida’s Motto is ‘In God We Trust’.” The idea that a bunch of cool Japanese kids are walking around with clothing celebrating Clay County, a place known only for its prison and highway speed traps just warms my heart.

We got a fantastic iced chocolate beverage at the Godiva store at Ikspiari. And we finished out the night with an authentic meal at the Ikspiari location of Red Lobster. It was pretty good, although the server seemed to be too afraid to talk to us and eventually we were served by the manager.

The next part of this trip report will cover part of my day at Tokyo DisneySea!

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: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 3: Closing Thoughts
Part 6: Beijing to Tokyo and Shop at Ikspiari

2025 China-Japan Trip Part 5: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 3: Closing Thoughts

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ★★★½
Lights 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.

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.

The Transformers Base buildings look so cool!

Jurassic World Isla Nublar ★★★½
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.

The aviary is such a great environment!

Kung Fu Panda Land of Awesomeness ★★★★
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.

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!

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.

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).

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.

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

2025 China-Japan Trip Part 4: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 2: Scares @ Universal

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

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

2025 China-Japan Trip Part 3: Review of Universal Studios Beijing Part 1

I’ve always thought that the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War should have been called Captain America 3: Iron Man 4 – The Rise of Spider-Man. Seems to me that there is no harm in giving something multiple numbering schemes when it is more than one thing at a time. In keeping with that philosophy, I am assigning the third part of my China-Japan trip report both the numbers three and one. Now there will be no confusion whatsoever.

Part three of the trip: Visit Universal Studios Beijing.

October 19: Visit Universal Studios Beijing and Scares @ Universal

The jet lag was finally gone and I was able to sleep the whole night. Before going into Universal Studios Beijing, my wife R wanted to try the breakfast buffet in our hotel at Cafe Royal. They had lots of cute pastries with minions and stuff like that. We were very happy with the meal, and I didn’t mind that we ended up getting to the park after early entry ended.

The park entrance is under the Universal Grand Hotel.

At around 10:40 am, we got into the park. The entrance is located under the Universal Grand Hotel, which has a Spanish revival style and great views into CityWalk and the park itself. Like Shanghai Disneyland, the entrance plaza is full of metal crowd control gates. But once you get closer to the turnstiles, they switch to themed metal gates. The line to enter the park was very efficient and we were in the park in under 10 minutes.

The park entrance area was nice, but I did notice that the archways had a metal cladding added on top of the stucco finish, presumably to hide the security cameras and other infrastructure like that. I wonder if the specifications for their security system were decided too late in the design of the hotel to integrate them into the building itself, or if something else happened. It’s not a huge deal, but it is strange.

The metal equipment enclosure is painted the same color as the exterior finishes of the hotel. It is noticeable while you are queuing right next to it.

The front of the park is a variation of the Hollywood Land that all Universal Studio parks have. This version has a canopy over most of the street, and continues for some distance in both directions along the park’s central water body.

Once inside the park, a large plaza framed by fake palm trees leads to Hollywood Land. I took this photo from inside the Universal Grand Hotel in a hallway above the park's turnstiles before the park opened the previous day.

R doesn’t ride anything with drops, but I wanted to be sure that I didn’t miss anything, so I booked us Express Passes in the Universal Beijing app. Since they don’t have Google in China, I had to install the app directly from the official Universal website onto my Android phone. I was originally concerned to install something outside of the Google Play store, but it all seemed to work okay.

Once inside the park, I went straight to Jurassic Flyers, the Mack Inverted Power Coaster inside the Jurassic World Aviary. I was surprised to see that the Aviary was a full Epcot-style pavilion including the Camp Jurassic playground and a restaurant in addition to the ride.

Jurassic Flyers ★★½☆
[Enter Queue 10:53 | Standby Posted Wait 60 | Actual Wait 66]

Jurassic Flyers' queue is mostly located in a portion of the building with low ceilings at the edge of the aviary.

The queue winds around scientific equipment and dinosaur displays. However, the queue also went through a faux Jurassic World employee break room, complete with a staff refrigerator with a note to only use it for human food. The medical equipment makes sense if Jurassic World was a real theme park, but why would guests go in the break room? Another point against the queue for this ride is that there was no music in this area, just dinosaur sound effects.

For some reason, this inverted coaster has a solid floor under nearly the entire ride. It strikes me as being something that Universal wasn’t aware they would need until the last minute. I have it on good authority that every net and fence in use at both versions of Donkey Kong: Mine Cart Madness were known years before the ride opened. So I would find it strange that they wouldn’t have known about such a requirement many years in advance of this ride’s opening as well.

The queue's detour through a Jurassic World staff break room took me out of the experience. Why would guests to this theme park wait for the ride back stage?

The ride has an overhead track and four across seating, arranged so the rider’s legs are dangling. I wonder if the ride would need all these platforms if the ride vehicle had a floor? Anyway, it was a pretty fun ride with nice swooping turns and a good view of the park’s central lagoon. It is a very gentle ride, and if I were to compare it to the Jurassic Park-themed inverted family coasters, I would say that it falls somewhere between the rather lackluster Pteranodon Flyers at Islands of Adventure and the great Canopy Flyer at Universal Studios Singapore.

The wait was posted at 60 minutes, and it wasn’t one of my Express Passes. I timed the wait at 66 minutes. Overall, I like the idea of the ride, and the layout was fun. But the platforms under the ride take a lot away from what it could have been.

SING on Tour! ★½☆☆
[Enter Queue 12:11 | 12:15 Show]

After I got off Jurassic Flyers, I met back up with R in the delightful Minion Land section of the park. I noticed that the Sing show was going to start in less than five minutes, so we got in line and went straight to the preshow room.

I have never seen the film, so I got excited when the preshow had a pretty strong resemblance to The Muppets, with an exasperated stage manager trying to wrangle all the performers. Unfortunately, the show itself is basically just a musical revue that almost completely forgot about the performer conflicts and jokes as soon as the show started.

The theater has projection mapping and other built-in effects.

Two of the characters were singing live, while the others had prerecorded voices. The live voice performers were not very good. I am sure that it is difficult to perform while wearing a 50-lb animal costume, but since a canned voice is used for some of the show, why not go all in and have all the singing prerecorded? I am not sure how the gorilla guy’s microphone was set up, but it really sounded like he was singing into a face mask, which I guess he was.

The theater had some excellent lighting effects, and it is possible that the show could be pretty high energy with the right audience. But I definitely wasn’t feeling it.

One other strange element about the show is that the performer’s crowd work was in English. It is my understanding that this show was created for Universal Studios Japan, where English-language crowd work could definitely be effective. The audience I saw this show with was not interested, however.

Lights Camera Action! ★☆☆☆
[Enter Queue 12:58 | Standby Posted Wait 5 | Actual Wait 6]

In Hollywood Land near the transition to Minion Land is another show that was originally developed for a different Universal park. Lights Camera Action! is a special effects show in the same mold as Twister…Ride It Out from Universal Studios Florida (1998 – 2015) and Backdraft from Universal Studios Hollywood (1992 – 2010) and Universal Studios Japan (2001 – 2020).

Lights Camera Action! is located near the park entrance in a replica of the Pantages Theatre.

Guests watch a preshow film before moving to a tiered standing room only viewing platform where a bunch of special effects happen in front of you for a few minutes.

It was originally developed for Universal Studios Singapore where it begins with a preshow starring Steven Spielberg and a bunch of clips from Fast and Furious films. In this version of the attraction, a new preshow film was produced with Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou talking about the magic of special effects and filmmaking. This preshow is much stronger than the Singapore version and makes a lot more sense given the sound stage setting. (The Singapore version’s preshow is really heavy on car chases which typically are not filmed on sound stages.)

Once guests move to the main show room, they are looking at Shanghai through the windows of a roofed boat dock. A series of special effects caused by a typhoon happen in front of the audience. Many of the individual effects are good, but they don’t particularly seem to build, and so it just sort of ends after three minutes.

The other Universal special effects shows suffered similar pacing issues, but this one seemed particularly anticlimactic. I hate to be down on the attraction, but it really didn’t speak to me. I think this form of show is extremely difficult to pull off, and I think it speaks volumes that Universal’s new theme park built since Universal Studios Beijing do not have a similar attraction. We waited six minutes for this show and it is hard to imagine anyone being willing to wait longer.

After the show, I decided we should continue making our way through the list of attractions that Universal doesn’t have in Florida that R would be willing to do. So we made our way to the back of the park, where an enormous indoor Kung Fu Panda section is located. We entered via the Transformers Base portal and were blown away by the scale of this facility.

In person, the ceiling is much darker, although I do think that a faux night sky would have made a great indoor land even better.

Carousel of Kung Fu Heroes ★★★½
[Enter Queue 1:35 | Standby Posted Wait 15 | Actual Wait 12]

The first thing we came across was the carousel, which features characters from the film with a beautiful carved wood look.

The character designs on the carousel were very cute.

The queue winds through a wood shop with many in-progress character carvings. Once our 12-minute wait was up, we selected our favorite animal and were off!

This is an exceptionally charming carousel which adds a lot of great kinetic energy to this section of the park. If I had a criticism, it would be that there was no music in the queue, just the sounds of carving wood. Time always feels slower when waiting in line without music, and the Kung Fu Panda films have a nice orchestral score. Most of the queue is in a separate building where one cannot see the carousel, so music in the queue would not impact the ride at all.

Journey of the Dragon Warrior ★★★☆
[Enter Queue 1:56 | Standby Posted Wait 20 | Actual Wait 13]

After we got off the carousel, I was excited to see the headliner attraction in this area of the park. Right across the way from the carousel is the entrance to Journey of the Dragon Warrior, the park’s boat ride which I had not read anything about prior to the trip. After reading the warning sign, R decided to sit it out while I check to see what the ride was like, as the warning sign mentions that it has a drop.

The marquee for the ride needs to be impressive for rides that are completely hidden from guest view.

The wait was posted at 20 minutes, but I only ended up waiting 13. For some reason, only the switchbacks in the first level of the queue were used. The queue continues upstairs to a gigantic room with elaborate props and more switchbacks, but at the top of the stairs, the line was directed straight to the other set of stairs into the station. I wonder if the upstairs queue is not typically used because the queue attendees do not want to have to actively manage a line upstairs when all of the other work locations are downstairs?

The station of the ride is truly grand, with two boats loading simultaneously on each side underneath full-size dragon boats hanging from the ceiling. This ride was built to eat people!

This ride has enormous capacity.

The first few scenes are pretty good, with some nice animatronics of Po and the other good guys from the movies. The villains are introduced with a cool scene in which many of the characters become frozen. However, it quickly becomes clear that the villains will only appear as projections. After that, the boat goes up a lift hill, where the heroes fight the villains in a series of projection screens. This sequence doesn’t work very well, as there doesn’t feel like much of a reason as to why the scenes play out on multiple screens. There is no sense of montage like The Gran Fiesta Tour or that sequence in the middle of Living with the Land. Instead, it is more like the boat is floating through a bunch of flooded movie theaters.

The drop is nice and smooth, and the finale scenes are once again fairly well rendered with animatronics. But overall, I would say the ride is just good. Not great.

I could imagine the upstairs portion of the ride working better if somehow the fight sequence had better transitions making it more other worldly? As much as I love boat rides, the only thing that could have saved such a high usage rate of screens would be if the ride used a more active mode of conveyance. Something like the Spider-Man SCOOP vehicle would have been able to disorient and direct focus from screen to screen in a narrative driven way.

One other thing I noticed about the ride vehicle: the drive tires that control the track switches are extremely loud. I believe it is because the boats navigate a turn over wheels that do not face the direction of the turn. But it is an unusual condition for a boat ride to have.

As much as I found the ride to be interesting, I didn’t think it was good enough to justify making my wife ride something with a drop, even though she would have been okay on it.

Jurassic World Adventure ★★★★
[Express Pass | Standby Posted Wait ?]

The first time I saw the Jurassic Park movie and read the novel as a kid, the thing that stuck with me was the idea of a jeep tour of a dinosaur zoo. A few years later, Islands of Adventure opened with a whole land dedicated to Jurassic Park. So, I was sure that there would be a ride featuring a jeep-like tour of the dinosaurs. On my first visit to Islands of Adventure in ~2001, I enjoyed the visitor center, the Triceratops Encounter, and the River Adventure ride. But none of them was the jeep ride that the book and movie made look so appealing.

The Jurassic Park attractions in Hollywood and Japan follow a similar model (I guess technically Hollywood had the River Adventure first). But when Universal had the opportunity to retool the Jurassic Park offerings at their park in Singapore, they kept the headliner as a water-based experience.

So, when I first heard that the park in Beijing would have a dark ride that had the jeep tour for their main Jurassic Park experience, I was pretty excited. And when the ride opened, I violated my usual don’t watch the video of a ride you might see in person rule and watched a video of it. But the video I saw was dark and blurry and hard to tell what was real and what was screens.

Jurassic World Adventure is located inside the Visitor Center building.

This ride uses the Spider-Man ride system to finally bring the Jurassic Park jeep tour experience to a real theme park. And it is every bit as good as people say. The screens are so high resolution that they look real (and they don’t require 3D glasses!), and they are built into extensive physical sets with life-size animatronics.

The chase sequence is one of the greatest moments on any dark ride anywhere. And the overall ride pacing is pretty phenomenal too. This ride is easily one of the best rides of its type in the world, and it is a must-see for anyone who likes dark rides or Jurassic Park.

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ★★★★
[Express Pass | Standby Posted Wait ?]

This version of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey is nearly identical to the rides in Orlando, Japan, and Hollywood. If you are not familiar with this ride, you are missing out. Get to your nearest Universal park that has it (sorry, Singapore) and ride it. It’s amazing. They run people through the queue in a unique order in this version. It also has double sided lockers like VelociCoaster.

If Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey has any flaw, it is that the show building is plainly visible from the park.

Super Swirly ★★☆☆
[Express Pass | Standby Posted Wait 25]

Super Swirly is located in the indoor portion of Minion Land. It is a Dumbo-style spinner themed to be an attraction in Super Silly Fun Land from the Despicable Me film. It is located inside the building, but with a waterfront view. And it looks really nice!

The ride vehicles are very cute.

Riding this type of ride indoors is really fun, especially where you get close to the ceiling. Guests sit in two rows and those in the front row have a lever to control how high your vehicle gets off the ground.

Other Dumbo-style rides with two-row vehicles such as The Magic Carpets of Aladdin at Magic Kingdom let one row control the height and the other row control the pitch. However, this particular ride loses some major points by only having a controller in the front row.

Universal has a Super Silly Fun Land section in their Hollywood park as well. I’ve always thought it is a bit of a cop out to theme a section of a theme park to an amusement park. These attractions are recognizable from the film, but they lack any emotional connection to the film’s characters or settings. But, as flawed as the premise is, it still makes a handsome and dynamic anchor to this indoor portion of the park.

Universal Beijing Resort Parking Facilities ★½☆☆

Who else includes a review of the parking facilities with their theme park trip reports? Nobody. That’s who! A nobody!

The Universal Beijing Resort Parking Garage superficially looks pretty similar to the parking structures at Universal Orlando Resort's north campus.

After we finished Super Swirly, R wanted to do some shopping in CityWalk and I took a break to check out the parking garage. Universal Beijing’s parking garage has many superficial similarities to the one in Orlando. But if you look closer, you will see some significant differences. Probably the biggest difference is the bomb shelter, which I believe is required for all large buildings in China.

The basement parking level doubles as a bomb shelter.

One strange feature of the parking structure is that the escalators do not point in the direction of the resort entrance like they do in Orlando. Instead, they are stacked in such a way that you have to walk around in large circles to get to the bridge level. It is very strange that Universal opted to go with such an inefficient layout when they had such an excellent example of a great theme park parking garage in Orlando to use as a model.

The other interesting thing about the parking garage is that it has a corporate sponsor! The garage is covered throughout with the BMW logo. And near the bridge to the security area, there is a large Minion-themed BMW display.

The parking structure has a corporate sponsor. This BMW display is located just before the bridge to the security checkpoint to enter CityWalk.

After that invigorating detour, I went back to the hotel to have dinner with R. My wife decided she was ready to call it a day. So this seems like a natural breaking point in my trip report. Next time, I will discuss how Universal’s Halloween event works in Beijing plus most of the other rides I missed in the first half of the day.