Located at the foot of Mountain Lion in the center of China’s Suzhou New District lies “Suzhou Amusement Land,” a 540,000 square meter Disneyland knock-off theme park complete with Pirate World, and a Jungle Ride where you can actually shoot at the animals with a gun. Most worthy of note is “Small World,” a ten-minute dark ride which at first glance is almost a perfect copy of Mary Blair‘s design for the 1964 World’s Fair. When the boat ride begins the familiar “It’s a Small World” theme eerily echoes out of sync throughout the tunnels and that’s when you notice that something isn’t quite right. The colorful sets are dimly lit with store-bought Christmas lights, the audio-animatronic children aren’t moving at all (in fact they are all pale, blue and green-faced apocalyptic zombies) and half the equipment isn’t working. With a chilling atmosphere and supposed strange smells you can’t help but imagine just how terrifying it would be if you were to get stuck on this ride and forced to find a way on your own.
 
Halfway through, the ride takes another strange turn when you are greeted by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are haphazardly thrown in alongside characters from Voltron. Copyright laws have been very difficult to enforce in China, however, it should be noted that “It’s a Small World” is the only Disney song that is of fair use. At the request of UNICEF, Disney left the song copyright-free as a gift to the world’s children. Strangely enough, there is yet a second, equally terrifying “It’s a Small World” knock-off in China which includes a dead baby hanging from the ceiling just eighteen miles away from the official, newly opened Disneyland park in Shanghai. Enjoy these video stills and ride-through courtesy of the website Theme Park Review and good luck falling asleep tonight.