If you made by any chance plans to visit China this year stop by in Jiaxing City, east China’s Zehjiang Province. In Jiaxing artist Kefeng Zhu and his team opened an unofficial Transformers theme park called ‘Mr. Iron Robot’. On 556 acres of an abandoned factory Zhu displays 600 sculptures including robots from the movie Transformers as well as cartoon figures.
All sculptures in the theme park are made from recycled iron and steel, like wasted cars and motorcycles. “China is moving towards automobile era, there are so many wasted cars every year” Zhu explains. “I hope the park provides the visitors not only happiness but also the spirits of green development and environment protection.”
Zhu build the park with the money of selling his sculptures and his apartment in Shanghai. It took him 10 years and the founding of a recycling bin to get enough scrap metal, to complete his dream. And just last Tuesday on the 20th of March the ‘Mr. Iron Robot’ theme park was granted the status of a touristic attraction.
Now several 10-feet-high Transformer robots are displayed in Zhu’s theme park. Classics from Megatron and Optimus Prime to Bumblebee. “I feel very glad when the children visit my park and enjoy the happiness here” Zhu says. “Joy shared with others are more enjoyed.” But I’m sure not just the children enjoy ‘Mr. Iron Robot’. I’m sure the grown-ups are just as excited as the kids when they stand in front of the “real” Optimus Prime.
Zhu’s dream is to open more theme parks all over China. I guess I will start saving for a flight ticket.
