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| One of two heads that used to sit at the main entrance to Splendid China. To my knowledge, the heads were not located here while the park was operational. |
This place
used to be beautiful. It really did. The grass was mowed. The structures were
intact. There were waterfalls, restaurants, and evening shows. Now we walk the
outside walls, covered in vines, looking for a way in. Looking for some small
hole to climb through.
Walking up
to the perimeter, visible from the road, are two large heads. All that’s left
of some grand entryway, maybe something to rival the gates of Jurassic Park.
Now the heads lay on the broken concrete, chipped away and covered in graffiti.
Keeping with the movie references, it reminds me of the art that the Joker
makes in Tim Burton’s Batman. These heads are a sign of things to come. Things
we hope to find.
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| The outside wall. |
When we
finally cross the barrier, we move through overgrown grass and trees that have
been free of trimming for 11 years. We cross the first hill only to see what we
hoped we wouldn’t. Piles upon piles of rubble. The telltale sign that a
bulldozer had destroyed buildings and pushed them into small mountains. The
sign that any treasure this place had left behind was now rubble. Still, we
came all this way and we weren’t leaving yet.
We cut our
own trails through the heaps of broken concrete and wood. We climb to the tops
of these hills to get a view of the surroundings. Nothing but trees, more debris,
and an old bulldozer that had been presumably forgotten. We keep walking,
playing movie games to pass the time and looking for anything that speaks to
what used to stand here. We turn over small pieces of whatever searching for
anything.
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| Wreckage from the shopping district of Chinatown. |
The
People’s Republic of China sold the land in 2003. They tried to auction off
many of the landmarks but with little success. I remember seeing the signs from
when the property was still open to the public. A bold sign that read “China”
with a big arrow underneath, sitting on the side of Hwy 192 in Kissimmee. They
said it was “Splendid” but I never saw it with my own eyes in its original
glory. I’ve seen pictures on the internet and it may have been true. It seemed
to once be a Splendid place.
We are
following a small service road when we catch a glimpse of something over the
small wall to our left. Maybe a structure still standing. It isn’t hard to
scale the wall and cut through the thick grass. Even if it were that wouldn’t
stop us. We come out of the brush to see one wall of a building, the rest
bulldozed to the ground. It appears to be an old bathroom, the urinals still
clinging to the brick with little porcelain left. Hardly the gem we are hoping
for but I pull out my camera and start shooting. If this is all I get, I’ll still
go home happy.
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| This restroom facility was just over the service road wall. Note the urinals in the bottom left of the photograph. |
Once the
excitement wears down, we continue on. Not far along, we cross another hill
when I realize what it is we are standing on. This is the hill where the great
wall sits. A replica of the Great Wall of China made from small bricks. Hand
crafted. The wall is shorter than it used to be. Much of it is missing. The way
it stretches across the overgrown grass only now can we see it. This is why we
are here. The ruins of the once admired work of man. People once stood in front
of this wall, walking along a neatly cut path, and they marveled at the
craftsmanship. Now we walk along its width and let our excitement barrel out.
We own this moment, here in this place. We each take some of the tiny bricks
and slide them in our pockets.
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| The Great Wall was built by hand from tiny bricks each less than an inch long. |
From this point forward, there are many discoveries. I try to imagine what it was like to see all this before today. Before time took its toll and vandals destroyed and robbed. We are not the first photographers or explorers to come here. The pictures are on the internet. You can stop reading this and Google them. You’ll see things that were long destroyed by the time we arrived. But looking at the images and being there are two very different things.
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| Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Also built by hand. |
I kneel down
and hold the bricks of a pagoda replica. Built to precision, now the pieces are
pulling away from the miniature. I watch my friend walk through the archway of
a decaying building. We look up at the sunlight pouring through the separated
wood. There were poles made of white plaster, clearly a part of a something but
of what we can only speculate. We walk through dried riverbeds and get close to
the miniature buildings to see the details. This is after the tourists stopped
coming. After the graffiti and the fires. We walk the insides of caves and sit
on benches where visitors would stop to rest from the blazing sun. And of
course, we capture our own images to tell our own story.
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| All that remains of the Wind and Rain Court Restaurant. |
Photographers
have a fascination with abandoned places. We spend most of our time documenting
things that will never be the same again. Weddings, family portraits,
landscapes. It’s all the same. Often times, I will look through old photographs
that don’t belong to any person in particular, maybe at a garage sale or flea
market. The pictures themselves abandoned objects, and the memories they hold
forgotten by most. Possibly forgotten by everyone. We can’t help but visit an
empty place and think:
“Somebody
built this place.”
“Memories
were made here.”
“This place
meant something to someone.”
“A heart
broke when the doors were closed for good.”
I see the
beauty in this wreckage. I see it in every turned stoned. You can literally
feel the chill of it in the air all around you as you walk along the broken
sidewalks. I see all of this unwanted mess and I feel nothing but love for this
place. For what it was and for what it is.
As a Christian, I was taught that God takes old things and makes them new. While I believe this to be true, I can’t help but to admire the beauty in the destruction itself. That’s where the story is earned. I also believe that God shows himself in the most unexpected of places. Rather than obliterating the soul and starting fresh, He creates beauty in the forgotten and dilapidated flesh that we to. Unexpected, unpredictable, and unearned.
On our way out we find the sign inviting guests to come in. “Welcome to Splendid China” it says above broken glass. And there, spray painted in black underneath are the words “Fuck this place.”
If you
return to the property today, you more than likely will not find any of the
treasures that were once hidden here. I heard they are turning it into a
Margaritaville village condominium resort or something like that. The last time
I laid eyes on Splendid China, there was nothing but mounds of dirt, demolished
buildings, and a few structures waiting their turn to be destroyed. But there
as far out as I could see from the fence was the great wall. Still stretched
out and standing.
The complete album of photographs is available at http://imgur.com/a/xgxgn
For more information on Splendid China, check out these videos available on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/DKq975IuuKc - A video history of the park.
https://youtu.be/evbupjw-D5Q - 2013 News story about the demolition. (I love the guy in this video)
https://youtu.be/d1x8CxnypuM - Weird home video of the park from 1996.
Notice: This social story is intended for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to condone trespassing or any other illegal activity. Please stay safe and be social.
