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Asia’s unusual theme parks

LONDON — Spread across a 60km coastal stretch on the southern part of Taiwan is the “Romantic Boulevard”. It forms the basis of a new plan by Taiwanese officials to open an erotic theme park in a bid to attract more tourists to the country. It will feature various love-themed structures and spaces including a glass church, heart-shaped arches and a kinky outdoor park displaying sculptures of people or animals in various lovemaking positions, the Wall Street Journal reported.

LONDON — Spread across a 60km coastal stretch on the southern part of Taiwan is the “Romantic Boulevard”. It forms the basis of a new plan by Taiwanese officials to open an erotic theme park in a bid to attract more tourists to the country. It will feature various love-themed structures and spaces including a glass church, heart-shaped arches and a kinky outdoor park displaying sculptures of people or animals in various lovemaking positions, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The 10,000 square metre park will be modelled on South Korea’s Jeju Loveland park, a place where art and eroticism meet, and where visitors can appreciate the natural beauty of sexuality and let the imagination run wild. Although still in its planning stages, Romantic Boulevard already has a scenic area set up for wedding portraits. Officials are also hoping to open a hotel next to the park for lovers who might want to turn their feelings into action, said Shih Chao-hui, the deputy director of Taiwan’s Southwest Coast National Scenic Area Office, which promotes tourism for the counties of Yunlin, Chiayi and Tainan.

“We want people to fall in love with Taiwan as well as fall in love while in Taiwan. We hope to appeal to visitors in all stages of love. So, we even plan to have a ‘Lost Paradise’ for those who are broken-hearted,” he added.

News of the proposed theme park has been met with mixed interest, with one commentator on the local tourism office’s website describing it as “leading-edge and refreshing”, while others, including the central government’s own tourism bureau fear the park could give the wrong impression of the country to foreign visitors. The bureau, however, has not entirely ruled out the idea of building the erotic theme park and has asked the Southwest Coastal National Scenic Area Offiice to supply more details about the proposed plans.

Shih believes the park will help boost tourism and generate interest in the area, claiming he has already received several email inquiries about its opening. “Look, we are in the business of tourism, not education or religion, so the question should be, ‘Will the park generate business opportunities?’ ... We believe the answer is yes,” he said.

It’s not the only quirky park in the region that has raised an eyebrow or two. Here are some others:

THE KINGDOM OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE. This rather controversial theme park, found near Kunming, China, which requires all employees to be shorter than 1.3 meters. Staff sing and dance for visitors, acting out fairy tales and performing ballets, but it has been criticised for treating dwarfism as a humorous condition.

SHIJINGSHAN AMUSEMENT PARK. This Beijing park made the headlines in 2007 for its unauthorised use of Japanese and American cartoon characters. It features a castle that bears uncanny similarities to the trademark Disney one, and a building that looks like Epcot’s Spaceship Earth. Its slogan even translates as: “Disney is too far to go, please come to Shijingshan.”

THE SAMADHI-4D EXPERIENCE OF DEATH. This is a “simulated death game park” in Shanghai. Players are made to compete in a series of challenges to avoid “death”. Those who are not successful are laid down on a fake crematorium conveyor belt which uses hot air and light projections to create an “authentic experience of burning”.

CHINESE-THEMED PARK IN AUSTRALIA. Plans for a Chinese-themed amusement park to be built north of Sydney were announced in 2012. The sprawling 15-hectare park in Wyong Shire, which is said to be completed by 2020, will feature a full-sized replica of the gates to Beijing’s Forbidden City, a nine-storey temple housing a giant Buddha and a mini-city modelled on Chinese water towns. The park will also include a children’s section devoted to pandas (which will not have any live pandas). THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

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