An American roller coaster enthusiast’s bumpy road to find good rides and community
Over the 2016 National Day holiday, I was excited to experience my first major Chinese roller coaster: a towering machine at Happy Valley Wuhan promising a powerful launch that would soar far above the park’s midways before plummeting underground.
As a roller coaster enthusiast, I was in the early stages of exploring Chinese theme parks and eager to push my still-nascent roller coaster count closer to 100—an admittedly arbitrary figure, but one that holds some weight within enthusiast communities. But although there was only a few dozen people in line at the park’s tallest coaster, the wait to board stretched on and on.
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Riding Solo: The Struggles of Roller Coaster Enthusiasts in China’s Sparse Thrill Scene is a story from our issue, “New Game.” To read the entire issue, become a subscriber and receive the full magazine.
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