5 offbeat places to visit this weekend

Fancy an unusual day out? Read this

There are more amazing historical sites, museums and tourist attractions to visit in Beijing than you can shake a chuan'r stick at, but it seems fair to say that sometimes the more bizarre-minded of residents here wants to take a quirky day trip somewhere that offers more than just a history lesson. Luckily, this wonderfully madcap city has plenty of surprising attractions that may well leave you with more questions than answers.

Here are some of our favourite weird and wonderful Beijing places to spend a surreal weekend at. Love them, leave them and try and fail to summarise their appeal in concrete terms to your more skeptically-minded friends.

Longqing Gorge

We're sure the rest of Longqing Gorge, which comes complete with sparkling waters and the kind of preternatural beauty rarely seen inside the Sixth Ring Road, is lovely and well worth a visit. However, we're not here for waterfalls or sheer cliffs or even lazy hikes through the natural vista; no, we're all about the dragon escalator, which claws its way into the history books as the world's longest outdoor escalator. Enter at the base off the cliff though its mouth, then get excreted out of its backside at the other end. There's also bungee jumping on offer, for those of you too x-treme to appreciate a slow ride up a symbol of national identity to the top of a dam. 

Watermelon Museum of China

Pay homage to the humble watermelon at this, China's shrine to the behemoth of the snacking world. The mental museum features little in the way of English captions, but plenty of watermelon-themed ephemera spread across over 43,000 feet. Sadly, the fruit fanatics that run this place have failed to capitalise on the appeal of eating watermelon while looking at a waxwork of a watermelon, so bring your own. 

Dongyue Temple

Some parts of Dongyue Temple, a Taoist place of worship which dates back as far as 1391, are exactly what you'd expect having visited any of the other traditional religious sites in the city. However, if you're reading this list you're probably going to be more interested in the flocks of lurid figures that populate the structure's 76 Departments of Death, in all their gaudily-coloured, gruesomely-occupied glory. Choose your fate from the range of scenarios on offer, from those featured in the Department of Punishment to the subterfuge taking place in the Department for Suppressing Schemes. Who'd have thought Taoist tableaux would be so, well, tacky? 

Shijingshan Amusement Park

Shanghai Disneyland, this is not; popularly known as 'knock-off Disney', this is the kind of theme park where childhood dreams go to die, or at the very least take an acid trip through the gates of hell and end up, sprawled in conditioner and completely alone, in the aisles of their local Watsons. Since it was opened all the way back in the dark days of '86, it's been subject to a plethora of both copyright claims and wide-eyed parents muttering about health and safety, but we're trollish fans of its audacity and bargain-bin rides alike. Don't forget your neck brace! 

First Star Art Gallery

Ever run round a fairground, driven temporarily insane by the flashing lights and the amount of candyfloss in your system? Recreate that vibe at this trickster's paradise, filled to bursting with vaguely naff illusions and the potential to make yourself a look eight foot tall to the benefit of your dating profile. While many of its 70 different backdrops are a little faded and worn, even downright bad, the genuine illusions of perspective make it worth a trip if you’re passing by or have a worn-down sense of humour in need of a transfusion of pure anarchic bliss.

For addresses of all these attractions, hit '阅读原文' below.

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