Inside China's Wonderland (after the investors pulled out): The haunting images of a derelict amusement park that make it look more like the set of a horror film

Wonderland on the outskirts of Beijing, was to become China's answer to Disneyland



It was hoped the theme park would attract millions of visitors a year with state-of-the art rides in a fairytale setting

Now the half-finished project is finally being torn down after lying abandoned since 1998


It was to be China's answer to Disneyland - a magnificent theme park attracting millions of visitors a year with state-of-the art rides in a chintzy fairytale setting.

But Wonderland, now little more than an eerie Ghost town on the outskirts of Beijing, is finally to be torn down after a catastrophic history stretching over 15 years.

Construction work at the 120 acre site ground to a halt in 1998 due to a dispute between the developers and the landowners and a corruption scandal that went right to the heart of the communist party.

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Blunderland: The boarded-up entrance gates to Beijing's unfinished Wonderland theme park which is now due to be torn down after lying abandoned since 1998 Corn grows in a field next to the abandoned site. After the developers left, local farmers moved back in and began growing crops again

A half-finished medieval-style tower sits abandoned (left) and a sign for 'Wonderland' adorns an building at the site on the outskirts of Beijing (right)



As a result, the huge, half-finished, Bavarian-style structures complete with their spires and battlements and a myriad of medieval-themed buildings were simply left to crumble.

Back in the mid 1990s, developers Huabin foresaw a bustling theme park attracting some three million visitors and generating 6 billion RMB ($1 billion) a year.

Crucially they had secured the backing Chen Xitong, then the Beijing Party Secretary who was being tipped to become the country's next leader.

But when Chen was jailed for corruption in 1998, his successor, perhaps scared of being tarred with the same brush, refused to support the project.

Ghost town: The fairytale castles loom out of the Beijing fog like a creepy horror movie set

Construction work at the site of what was promoted as 'the largest amusement park in Asia', stopped around 1998 after funds were withdrawn due to disagreements over property prices with the local government and farmers

Crack beginning to show: Back in the mid 1990s, developers Huabin foresaw a bustling themepark attracting some three million visitors and generating six billion RMB ($1billion) a year

The huge, half-finished Bavarian-style structures complete with their spires and battlements and other medieval-themed buildings were left to crumble

A plan to restart work to capitalise on the 2008 Beijing Olympics was allegedly thwarted by proposals tabled in 2005, to build an entire city which would have covered parts of the Wonderland site's green space.

Now the farmers that used to own the land have returned to grow their crops once again, with the decaying building site filling the skyline.

Photographer David Gray, who visited the magical kingdom-turned-ghost park in 2011 said: ‘Pulling off the express-way and into the car park, I expected to be stopped by the usual confrontational security guards.

‘But there was absolutely no one to be seen. I walked through one of the few entrances not boarded up, and instantly started coughing.

‘In front of me were large empty rooms and discarded furniture, all covered in a thick layer of dust, along with an eerie silence that gave the place a haunted feeling – an emotion not normally associated with a children’s playground.’

Caution: A sign warning people about potential poisons in the soil is pasted on a pillar of a half-finished building on the site Reduced to rubble: Bavarian-style towers poke up in the background as labourers go to work with sledgehammers on the ill-fated project

Farmers dismantle a tower in a field that includes abandoned buildings that were to be part of the amusement park

A farmer carries a shovel over his shoulder as he walks through an abandoned building frame on the site of the doomed theme park

Haunting: A stone covered in fresh snow sits in the ruins of an abandoned building. A plan to resume work on the site to capitalise on the 2008 Beijing Olympics failed to materialise

Ominous: Writing on a gate post tells visitors to 'be responsible for your actions' when entering one of the many abandoned buildings Local farmers told the photographer that they have returned to use the land because they say its safe to think the developers are never coming back. ‘This I can believe’, added Gray on his blog, ‘As the absence of any security (something very rare in China) leads one to think that even the developers have given up on what is already there. ‘All these structures of rusting steel and decaying cement, are another sad example of property development in China involving wasted money, wasted resources and the uprooting of farmers and their families. ‘It is a reflection of the country’s property market which many analysts say the government must keep tightening steps in place. ‘The worry is a massive increase in inflation and a speculative bubble that might burst, considering that property sales contribute to around 10 per cent of China’s growth’, Gray continued.

A half-finished building in the shape of a castle stands uncompleted in a field in the Wonderland site

Fears: Beijing worries that a collapsing property market will trigger a wave of defaults that in turn will hit the banks

Empty: A view of what was once to be a car park in front of the abandoned buildings on the Wonderland site

The steel frame of an abandoned building stands in what would have been an amusement park called 'Wonderland', on the outskirts of Beijing

Wonderland is far from being the only Chinese construction project to end in disaster in recent years.

Just down the road, deserted for over 20 years, a site features Greek-style columns and amphitheatre. Thames Town near Shanghai, which is based on an English town, remains a hit as a wedding venue, but few people have actually moved there to live.