On the periphery of cities all over China can be found numerous unfinished developments often exhibiting a grand scale or at least initially impressive design¹. One of which is a puzzling but often seen fairytale castle behind a cartoonish medieval village. This castle was to be the emblem of the largest amusement park in Asia². While the medieval village juxtaposed to the parking lot appears finished and inviting the castle in the background is a brutalist unfinished concrete tower with skeletal steel frames in place of gothic spires and turrets.

Even from the highway, it's clear that something is not quite right with this attraction. Sitting in the center of a spacious open field the castle is more suggestive of a rocket launch tower rather than the centerpiece of an amusement park. Between the castle and medieval village perches a massive iron skeleton of a building that could serve as the cover for a sprawling open-air market. Underneath this skeleton and filling all the area surrounding the castle where the park would have been are only rows of corn.

Wonderland Amusement Park (沃德兰游乐园) was conceived in the mid-1990s but construction progress was halted in 1998^3,4 due to numerous political, regulatory, and planning reasons. Strategically-located to be highly visible to a constant flow of tourists, the park was placed on the highway connecting the populous city of Beijing with the Great Wall at Badaling,⁴ one of the most visited tourist sites in China. According to estimates by the developer, as many as 3 million visitors³ each year would be drawn to the park annually, but this vision was not to be. Due to the rapid economic development and unique circumstances of real estate investment in China, developers are quick to build on newly acquired land often resulting in a paucity of planning.¹

Since Wonderland's motif is reminiscent of Disney parks⁵ it has been branded a copycat Disneyland and anecdotes state that the park was sued by Disney⁶. No such records of a lawsuit have been reported. The actual reasons stopping the launch of the park are more complicated and less interesting but all too typical of the failure of so many big development projects in China. Multiple issues all came together to trigger the untimely demise of Wonderland.

Even though construction proceeded, the sale of the land by the farmers who owned it was never finalized.³ After floods in the area, the site was designated as protected forestry land in 1998 which prevented continued development.8 Politically, the project was backed by deposed Beijing Party Secretary Chen Xitong and, as is common in China, projects backed by dethroned leaders are often discarded as well.³ After construction stopped the farmers simply resumed growing crops in the shadow of the curious unfinished castle and used the empty buildings for storage.^2,5

Around 2005, during the lead up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, there was one final attempt to restart some kind of development at Wonderland. The desire to exploit the influx of visitors and attention that would be focused on the Capital was not able to overcome the previous problems^3,7. After 15 years of a standstill, the failed amusement park was demolished except for the castle. While the castle was left unfinished and given a new pastel paint job⁶, the buildings adjacent to the parking lot were replaced by a luxury outlet mall^4,8: considerably an outcome worse than demolition for any visually iconic derelict amusement park.