Iron Man and the Aircraft Carrier

I am an extreme pacifist and do not like anything connected with war.  Going to an aircraft carrier is not an interesting proposition, however, when I visited the big Russian ship permanently docked in Hangu, surprisingly, I changed my mind and saw the art and beauty in something that was invented to launch missiles from the sea and served as parking space for fighting air machines.  Or maybe it was simply because I went there with my three boys – my husband and two sons who were thrilled by the entire trip that the excitement was quite contagious.

The entrance to the theme park echoes Disneyland’s old American main street albeit in this case, it’s Russian.  The park also borrows from Universal Studio’s take on Hollywood and includes heart-thumping stunt shows – one on land involving fast cars and motorcycles and another one on water involving jet skis and that new “Iron-Man-like-thingy” which spouts jets of water from a pair of boots that lets one hover over water.  So be prepared for an action-packed day that’s family friendly and extra-ordinary.

Before its “Chinese-Disneyfication,” the decommissioned aircraft-hanger could be visited just off the highway between TEDA and Hanggu.  The new entrance and park was built on the other side of the noisy, busy expressway so to get to the ship, people cross a huge bridge filled with shops and attractions that you won’t even notice you’re walking over a highway.  There are a lot of activities to choose from before arriving at the pièce de résistance – the looming ship itself.  You can take a train, watch the performances, see a 4D movie, ride two types of speedboats (one is way faster than the other) and buy food and souvenirs.  Walking throughout the park and the ship, I wondered how many tanks and airplanes crafted from bullets can they sell in a day?

The ship named the “Kiev” served the Soviet navies between 1975 and 1993 and was sold to the Binhai Aircraft Park in 1996.   It’s transformation into a museum makes for an educational and interactive trip through history, transporting one back to bygone eras before high definition TVs and ipads, all the way through the cold war and battles before that.  Pictures and models are scattered throughout the galleries in the ship and you can explore to your heart’s content all the levels that leave you in awe of what man can build.  It made me contemplate the budget allocated for making torpedoes, ships like these, machines and other weapons of destruction and how that budget compares to the expenditure for education and construction of schools in areas that badly need them. 

Like lightning, my sons took off with glee when they saw the helicopter and jet planes parked on the ship’s main deck.  From the ship’s control room, we watched through the porthole the stunt show on the water below.  Most of the stunt performers came from Western countries and they’d zipline from the ship’s nose down to where the audience were seated – a perfect update to what seems to be an outdated hunk of metal.  The stunt men would careen in their all-terrain vehicles making you feel part of a movie set.

I read on the internet that the ship also has a luxury hotel but we didn’t get to see that part.  My five-year old son has been bugging me to return to the ship, no doubt to experience the hyper-speed boat again.  I wouldn’t mind returning because I’d like to try more of the Russian food.  I only got to the taste the Russian ice cream and potato chips while my husband bought giant cans of beer for his friend.  

Just outside the ship, we also got to ride this car that was made by joining two giant wheels that rocked the seat in between and it was totally fun just like the whole day that passed.