adminBornwise Mtonzi Lifestyle Reporter
The month of August is only associated with two ‘F’s — fun and fashion. In Zimbabwe, our summer season begins in August with a lot of entertainment lined up, too good the events also cater for children.
Sing along to the classic anthems of the world during a delightful musical boat tour and this would only be at the LongCheng Plaza Amusement Park.
From a colourful dock, climb aboard a cosy boat and move around the Tagada on a 10-minute journey.
A mini pirate ship and bumper cars are new state-of-the-art additions to their amusement park in a bid to attract more adrenalin seekers
The new equipment, which consists of the Tagada Disco, Space Shuttle, Bumper Cars and Pirate Ship, has given the new face at the Plaza.
Gone are the days when most parents would take their children to “other suburbs plaza” most of which are not as entertaining.
August being the time for the Harare Agricultural Show, as the norm, many families in particular the children are spoilt for choice with the plaza giving a new feel of Disneyland.
Longcheng administrator, Mervyn Zhang, said the acquisition of the paraphernalia will be coming in different shapes and sizes to suit both teenagers and adults.
“The new equipment is meant to boost our amusement park in order to attract more thrill seekers as we seek to maintain the best standards as much as we can.
“We realised that most parents who come with their children just look as their kids enjoy themselves and we realised the need to introduce adult entertainment as well,” he said.
Alice Chen, the manager of Longcheng restaurant said was excited with the arrival of new equipment at the Amusement Park, as this is set to boost her culinary business.
The LongCheng restaurant boasts a wide variety of Chinese traditional cuisine, which is already popular among the Chinese residents in the country and local food enthusiasts.
“Chinese food is nicer when one can use chopsticks, so we will be teaching all who come in, especially young children and teenagers how to use chopsticks. It is important to also know that Chinese food has many medicinal qualities — that when you eat at our restaurant you are not only filling up your stomach but building your body as well,” said Ms Chen.
What has become more interesting about the place is that apart from providing for the young ones there is a place for teenagers as well as adults that was recently launched.
A visit by Saturday Herald Lifestyle recently revealed that most parents are satisfied by the Amusement Park and said that instead of it providing for the young the place is now catering for the whole family.
“When I used to come to this place it was not of much interest for me as it only catered for the young, I’m happy that they have also introduced an Amusement Park for both us and children as we now have a place to enjoy ourselves,” said Farai Kumwenda a father to two daughters.
He said that the place should continue to grow and provide these activities.
“We should have our own Disneyland here instead of us envying those from the Western countries. Children used to wait for the Harare Agricultural Show for them to release school pressure but it has now become a thing of the past thanks to the Long Cheng Plaza.”
Unlike in the past when people used to wait for activities like the Agricultural Show or the parties, the Plaza serves many purpose courtesy of the park.
“You can now release the work pressure, as an adult you can have some time to rest and get away from work, as you can see I’m here just to relax and enjoy myself, I enjoyed my Pirate ship ride although it scared me just a little. What I like is that I enjoyed myself,” said a man who preferred to be identified as Wiriamai.
The place is not only becoming popular for the amusement park only as it is also a hive of different activities.
Recently it hosted a Burn Outs Motor Show where a number of different drivers were showcasing the prowess in driving and the function managed to pull a crowd from different places in and out of Harare.
The place also is becoming popular for hosting international and local dance hall artistes one of them being the Jamaican DJ Charlie Black while the local dance hall prominence being Killer T, Soul Jah Love who are big names in the industry.
Online Reporter