Evergreen plants add color to "Decepticons" in winter, special heating equipment installed
Winter tour of Universal Studios to experience the "warm" highlights
At the end of the year, the arrival of a strong cold air swept away the leaves of Beijing.
The faded Beijing has begun to enter the winter, and the tourism industry has thus ushered in the traditional off-season.
This year, the winter in Beijing seems to come earlier than before, and the first snow that arrived more than 20 days in advance makes people really feel the temperature of winter.
With cold weather and repeated epidemics, many scenic spots on the ground in Beijing have recently chosen to thank guests behind closed doors.
In the past, winter seemed to be a "blind spot" in the northern tourism market, and "half-year hot and half-year leisure" has become a "curse" that has plagued northern scenic spots for many years-in winter, is there any fun in northern theme parks?
Will the cold weather affect the public's tour experience... In Tongzhou, Beijing, a new amusement park is trying to dispel these doubts in the public's mind with its own innovative products and meticulous service.
Recently, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily made a special trip to visit the Beijing Universal Resort, hoping to reveal the secret behind its winter operations.
A reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily found that as a theme park officially unveiled during the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, Universal Studios Beijing opened its first winter in Beijing, and the first seasonal themed event-"Beijing Universal Resort Winter Holiday" experience also It will be unveiled from December 3, 2021 to January 8, 2022.
In a strong festive atmosphere, visitors can enjoy the immersive entertainment experience of global classics, appreciate the colorful holiday decorations, taste up to 80 carefully prepared themed meals, and purchase hundreds of winter-limited fashion products .
In addition to experiencing these delicious, beautiful, and fun experiences, Universal Studios in Winter also introduced a series of service guarantee measures.
Theme park surrounded by greenery
The winter immersive experience is more unique
In Tongzhou, east of Beijing, there is a cultural tourism area of 12 square kilometers, and Beijing Universal Resort is located here.
After 20 years of preparation and construction, on September 20 this year, the Beijing Universal Resort opened grandly, and the "blockbuster world" expected by tourists has finally become a reality.
Tongzhou, previously considered "barren" in cultural and tourism elements, has achieved a major reversal and has a theme park that is famous all over the world, and Beijing has also ushered in a new cultural and tourism landmark.
When Universal Studios Beijing first opened, Beijing was in the autumn season, and the eyes were full of green.
In just three months, Beijing is full of litter and desolation.
However, when a reporter from the Beijing Youth Daily wandered through the Universal Studios campus in the past two days, he did not feel the solemnity and desolation of Beijing in winter.
In the cold weather, why is there still greenery in Universal Studios Beijing?
Wang Qingru, the manager in charge of forest maintenance, revealed the mystery-a large number of evergreen trees have been planted in the park to ensure that the scenic spot can be green in all seasons.
"For example, in the Jurassic World, Nubra Island, Kung Fu Panda, and Harry Potter's Wizarding WorldTM, the planting ratio of evergreen trees has reached nearly half."
Jurassic World Nubra Island is the most spectacular area of Beijing Universal Studios.
What is reproduced here is the Jurassic World Nubra Island era 65 million years ago, and the plants all have a tropical rainforest style.
"In order to maintain the landscape effect, we selected some evergreen plants or some plants with evergreen edges to add to this area. By constantly replacing plants, we ensure that the Jurassic World Nubra Island is full of tropical rainforest throughout the year. "Wang Qingru said with emotion, the whole process sounds easy, but it takes a lot of manpower and material resources. "We have built our own nursery for this purpose, specifically to cultivate vegetation that echoes the theme of the scenic spot."
While ensuring that greenery can be seen throughout the year, the small landscapes in Beijing Universal Studios are also exquisite.
The Wizarding World of Harry PotterTM has always been one of the most popular scenic spots in Universal Studios Beijing.
“This is a place for Internet celebrities to check in, so we made full use of the combination of deep, long-range and close-up in the landscape design, so that visitors can be immersed in the theme of the movie from the queue area.” Hogg after snow in winter Watts has also become a unique landscape, enriching the immersive experience of tourists.
Thousands of inspections per day guarantee the safety of riding in winter
"Decepticons" put on professional equipment in winter
The temperature in Beijing has been sluggish since the cold wave passed.
In the severe cold, do these equipment in the park operate normally?
Aaron Philpott, vice president of technical services at Universal Beijing Resort, gave a positive answer.
"The safety of tourists and team members is always our top priority. In order to ensure the safety of tourists, the technical service team of Beijing Universal Resort will conduct more than 1,000 different types of inspections throughout the park every day to ensure quality control at all levels. . Our team is online 24 hours a day to perform technical maintenance on riding projects, entertainment performances, facilities and landscapes to meet the technical service requirements for the normal operation of the theme park.” Yalong said.
Since the beginning of winter this year, Beijing has experienced a heavy snowfall and several cold waves.
Under such weather conditions, can the riding equipment with speed and rotation as the biggest highlight still show its original speed and passion?
"In winter, strong winds, snowy weather and sudden temperature drops are challenges for outdoor recreational projects. For safety reasons, theme parks have set minimum temperature requirements for the operation of riding equipment. In winter, we will also vary according to the temperature and weather conditions of the day. Adjusting the operating hours and opening conditions of some outdoor riding equipment, the primary consideration is to ensure the safety and comfortable experience of tourists." said Yu Xi, a senior manager in charge of park amusement facilities maintenance.
The Decepticon roller coaster is the largest and most exciting roller coaster in Beijing Universal Resort. It can accelerate from a standstill to a speed of 104 kilometers per hour in 4.5 seconds.
In the rapid advance and the explosion of metal gears, visitors can feel the ever-increasing heartbeat.
Behind the stimulating experience is the nearly "critical" inspection and maintenance of the equipment by the staff.
How to ensure that the Decepticons remain majestic in the low temperature conditions in winter?
Yu Xi revealed the technical maintenance secret behind it: the Decepticon roller coaster will be replaced with different equipment in winter and summer to ensure that the roller coaster can still operate in the same state as in summer when the temperature is low.
In addition, electric heating is also used in the engineering design to ensure the overall performance of the main equipment.
In winter, in addition to the low temperature, Beijing will also experience the test of strong winds. Therefore, the roller coaster of Universal Studios Beijing is equipped with not only a thermometer but also an anemometer, which will detect wind changes in time and flexibly adjust the operating status of the equipment to ensure the safety of tourists.
"In fact, regardless of spring, summer, autumn and winter, all equipment in the park will undergo daily inspection, weekly inspection, monthly inspection and annual inspection to ensure safe operation." Yu Xi said.
In addition to the thousands of inspections carried out at night, Yu Xi, who has been dealing with amusement equipment for more than ten years, has already practiced her unique skills.
During the day, under the Decepticon roller coaster at the Transformers Base, the roar of the roller coaster and the screams of tourists came together. Yu Xi listened with bated breath, and can judge the subtle state changes of the amusement equipment by listening and observing.
"This is the basic skill of our rides maintenance team members." He said with a smile.
"Our behind-the-scenes team consists of more than 800 technical experts, and nearly half of them have more than 10 years of work experience in their professional fields. They come from key areas such as aviation, subway, automobile manufacturing, transportation, petrochemicals, etc., and have a wealth of work. Experience and professional background.” Yalong added.
Electric heaters ensure that the outdoor queue is not frozen
Strive to provide a colorful garden experience
At the beginning of preparations, Universal Studios Beijing fully considered the operation of the theme park in winter.
"The weather in Beijing is much colder than where other parks are located. Compared with the theme parks in Hollywood, Orlando or Singapore, Universal Studios Beijing is one of the few Universal theme parks that can snow, so we are planning. At that time, many equipment and facilities have taken this into consideration. We have devoted a lot of effort and built a lot of indoor projects." Douglas Akers, vice president of theme park operations at Beijing Universal Resort, with more than 20 years of theme park work experience ) Came to Beijing at the beginning of 2018 and witnessed the process of Universal Studios Beijing from scratch. He once worked at Universal Studios Singapore and brought the mature operation experience of theme parks to Beijing. He also came up with Beijing’s climate characteristics. Many "golden ideas" were created to enhance the tourist experience.
Compared with other Universal Studios, Beijing Universal Studios has an area that not only has the most Chinese characteristics, but also fully takes into account the climate characteristics of Beijing-this is the Kung Fu Panda World Scenic Spot.
It is the first scenic spot built with the theme of "Kung Fu Panda World" in Universal Resort, all set indoors.
Aikesi said that in windy and rainy weather, tourists can first go to the Kung Fu Panda Gazebo Scenic Area. Adults can rest in the restaurant, and children can enjoy themselves in the adjacent area. The entire scenic area is equipped with riding entertainment. , Food, entertainment, and merchandise are all in one, allowing visitors to enjoy the same joyful gardening experience warmly and at ease.
"We try our best to set up the project queuing areas in covered areas or indoors, so that tourists don't have to queue in the severe cold." Aikesi said.
Not only that, after the winter, Beijing Universal Studios also used its "killer feature"-heating equipment.
In the Bumblebee Gyro and Transformers: Fire Fighting Spots, the queuing channels are all set up in the area covered by the roof. There is a long black box every few meters under the roof. This is what Iks mentioned. Embedded heating equipment, while fully considering energy conservation and emission reduction, as much as possible to ensure the visitor experience.
Aikesi said that in some areas of the resort, such as restaurants in the park, warm water points are set up so that visitors can receive warm water when they need it.
"When the weather is relatively cold, we will also consider moving some open-air performances and experiences indoors, such as moving to restaurants, so that visitors can enjoy atmospheric experiences and performances while dining." In the interview , Aikesi repeatedly mentioned a sentence: "The top priority of our work is always to ensure the safety of tourists. Under such a premise, we will provide tourists with various experiences as much as possible." He explained Said, “Our aim is to ensure that most entertainment and riding projects can be opened and operated as much as possible under the premise of ensuring safety, and to provide tourists with a rich and colorful tour experience. When the weather conditions may bring health to tourists or staff Or when there is a safety hazard, we will also temporarily close it."
New "Pancake Fruits" will be served in winter
Beijing Global employees put on thick work clothes
There is a popular souvenir at Universal Studios Beijing, which is the banana-flavored popcorn in the car of the little yellow man.
Ge Tingting is one of the staff responsible for making this popcorn. Because the popcorn is made quickly and well, she is affectionately called the "Popcorn Queen" by her colleagues.
Making popcorn sounds simple, but it’s not easy to do it quickly and well.
“If you don’t know the amount of corn or the temperature, it’s easy to stick the pot. Once the pot is washed and cleaned, there may be a long queue of tourists waiting to buy popcorn.” After joining Universal, Ge Tingting and colleagues After learning the popcorn making skills, after repeated practice, she can fill the corn to be popped in the shortest time, so that she can fill the popcorn car with popcorn. Do it every three seconds.
Ge Tingting said that they had already launched a new product-pancake fruit in December. She is looking forward to the training of making pancakes. Seeing the satisfaction and smile of tourists when they eat their own food will make her feel very fulfilled.
In Beijing Universal Studios, warm services are not only provided to tourists, but also to Universal's own employees.
In the past two days, walking in the Beijing Universal Studios Park, you can see that employees in different areas indoors and outdoors have put on work clothes of different thicknesses, beautiful Hollywood actresses have put on white coats, and Green Chemical’s gloves are not only thick but also Non-slip...
“The park has prepared thick cotton-padded clothes and gloves for our employees who work outdoors, and also intimately distributed us warm babies, socks, ginger candies, petroleum jelly, etc. These warm guarantees keep us from feeling cold at all.” Ge Tingting said.
In addition, the staff apartment at Universal Studios Beijing also provides professional and caring nanny-level heart-warming services, such as cleaning the room, heating in advance in winter, and ensuring that employees pass safely in bad weather, so that employees can feel the warmth of home.
As Ikes introduced: "We hope to make our team members have a very comfortable working environment, so that they can also bring a better experience for our tourists."
This edition / our reporter Zhao Tingting