Splendid China - Abandoned Theme Park Tour / Lost Footage Of NEW Margaritaville Resort Orlando Site
It has been 9 years since I visited the abandoned Splendid China theme park in Orlando Florida . This is all the footage I filmed on that day in march of 2010 plus a little extra pertaining to the subject. This entire property is now the site of Margaritaville Resort . My apologies for the shaky horrible quality footage , this is not how I would film things current day .
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Transcript
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welcome everyone Adam the whoo here at
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the end of this upcoming year will be
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ten years that I have been making videos
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and uploading them to YouTube it's been
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a heck of a running a bug just through
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my ear and with that anniversary soon
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approaching it got me thinking there are
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a heck of a lot of places that I have
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visited and documented from nearly a
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decade ago that may have been forgotten
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about or YouTube has changed
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considerably not only my style the way I
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present things camera work the clarity
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of the footage let's talk about my
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experiences and some of the some of the
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places that have fallen by the wayside
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been erased from existence today
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splendid China a theme park in Orlando
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Florida very close to Walt Disney World
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resorts it has all been bulldozed
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there's nothing left it's all been
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rebuilt Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville
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Resort now sits on that place but back
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back then there was some abandoned ruins
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of a pretty amazing large theme park
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this footage will be made up of three
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separate occasions the first in March of
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2010 when I first visited the property
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and then more clips from September of
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2014 when an auction bought the
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remaining pieces and then I went back in
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October of 15 just to see what remained
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and even that's been well over three
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years ago
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looking back urban exploring as a whole
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in general has changed completely back
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then no one really shows their face now
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everyone's doing it it's very widely
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known that people just walk around with
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the camera
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through an establishment and show what's
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there but back then it was only
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photographs and those who did photograph
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those type of locations always kept
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secret who they were
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something inside said I should just grab
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a camera and roam around with the help
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of my friend Cody that's what we did him
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and I ventured into splendid China and
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now here is the footage nine years ago
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this month actually nine years ago this
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month we roamed around let's check it
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out
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join me show you the main sign right
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here
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welcome to spine of China please make
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sure you skate or die trying you're
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gonna have a really hard time though
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because they've removed the front steps
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they will drop all the front steps here
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leading into front entranceway staying
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as much I'm
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splendid china you think time you think
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the gate so completely abandoned and
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barren nothing that left out here
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anymore
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who wants glorious splendid china huh
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all these used to be little gift shops
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restaurants snack bars now all
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completely abandoned
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is it a little auditorium area lighting
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VIP area and there's the main stage even
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still have some of the remnants up step
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up top here with the bulbs just to thank
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years ago there was lots of
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entertainment happening on this stage
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facing a sea of tourists having a great
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grand old time standing right in this
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little region here and join the show
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clapping probably used to be a staircase
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leading along here there's the railing
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up to that little room there which was
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the known as the Def Leppard backstage
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room where all the shenanigans took
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place hungry heaven well going into the
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dressing rooms back here you see
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waterfalls they are all that was fill
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with water
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that's all just scream still people's
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legs are up here with manager people
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this is where the one of the Buddha
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shines is just sitting right there but
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somebody took it and as you can see
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there's a bunch of artwork on the walls
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people have been feeding over it but
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it's all artwork over hand paint that
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guy needs help it used to be a fountain
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of some sort
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another view of the rocks over there as
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we turn this corner here you see the
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water highly protecting and guarding
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what is the world-famous big statue no
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one will ever be closer than where I am
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at this particular moment to this statue
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ever except him
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it's pretty creepy when you think there
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used to be all kinds of families out
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here having a good time paying their
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admission price enjoying their Chinese
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cuisine as they walked around and
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enjoyed the scenery
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not much scenery now just desolate weeds
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dry it up ponds the real question is I
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want to ask this comfortable-looking
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Buddha thing is should we continue on in
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the park sure why not
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for those of you out there that never
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visited the Great Wall of China where
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here's your chance to do it through
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video I'm pumped to go see the Great
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Wall clothes pump the Great Wall the
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small wall the China always wanted to
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walk the Great Wall little historical
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sake these were actually all hand put
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together they'll be really cool without
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some little miniature houses would be
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cool so those miniature towns right wait
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little miniatures
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you have a gift
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dude you totally have a gift
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now we're out here on a Friday early
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morning probably about what 9:30 in the
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morning 10 o'clock in the morning yep
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came out here on a Friday because we
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figured most kids are in school too
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skateboarders so came out here earlier
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in the day that way maybe they wouldn't
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be in security because supposedly a lot
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of security out here now here's the old
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restaurant this was a high-class Chinese
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restaurant hamburger $4 hot dog me on
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325
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this was using a lot of brush
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and promotional material for splendid
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china back when it was open starting to
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get a little paranoid out here now I
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think there's gonna be some people many
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a shows the performed here used to be
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seats this is what the people from the
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stage we're seeing as they performed you
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enjoying the show right over here these
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stairs used to sit a huge Monument it
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was used in a lot of the brochures and
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pictures you can find on the Internet
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and around town a tourist info centers
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up on top
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something out here that was burned down
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they got burned
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this is probably what this kid broke
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down once again the great wall see how
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all the mechanics of the waterfall is to
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work
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there's the tubing a little mate who was
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here Adam
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got thick this glasses goodbye from
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splendid China or what's left of it
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and you will see a lot of this stuff was
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actually over in Kissimmee near Disney
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World there was a theme park called
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splendid China in here are the
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miniatures look at this these are the
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miniatures from spunda China evidently
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there was a huge auction and they
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actually bought all of these miniatures
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this is actually really incredible the
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fact that these miniatures still
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survived and still exist actually makes
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me very happy because splinted china was
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a pretty fantastic and incredible place
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and I remember all of these you can
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actually see these in my video even
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though the location was about 20 miles
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from here in fact look at this
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that is really awesome not really sure
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what a space pod has to do with splendid
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China miniatures but evidently the
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people that own this really have a keen
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eye for historical awesome pop culture
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reference goodness they have the
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splendid China stuff they have the
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awesome explorers style spacecraft
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that's really cool this brings back a
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lot of memories it's crazy to think that
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years ago tourists would flock down that
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road and this row driving to and fro
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into the theme park and now it is only
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used for construction vehicles to tear
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down what once remained look at the top
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of the wall and the detail just look at
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the detail here the carvings in the top
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look at this just the carvings and like
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the workmanship here before you even get
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in the property see all this eventually
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will be knocked down very very shortly
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I just wanted to document a little bit
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of what still remains in front was
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actually where they had the word
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splendid China written across this
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marquee of course that was removed many
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many years ago and this wall will soon
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be removed the next time I show up to
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Central Florida odds are definitely
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pretty strong that this wall will have
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been bulldozed and cleaned out who knows
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what will go here apartments businesses
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stores parks here's a mural of a dragon
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every time I think of a dragon I think
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of peach dragon dragon cartilage keeps
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you thin these metal iron fence posts in
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this design pretty much on every little
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edging going all the way down even
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even all the way down to the end they
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all have that design if you look over
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the top of the fence you can actually
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see how much construction they have done
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you can see how much they have removed
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how much is not there but you can see a
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few remnants of some of the tops of the
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buildings but you can also see some
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construction vehicles off in the
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distance and you can also see big mounds
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of dirt and ninety-eight percent of what
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was once in splendid China has been
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removed look at that
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basically the only remaining structures
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out here at splendid China are on this
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side of the property behind this
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original gate for wooden fence you can
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see this facade but as I am filming this
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there is a construction vehicle right
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over there making its way slowly to
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pretty much seal the imminent demise of
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this
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if you look in here you'll see back in
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there some graffiti covered walls all
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those graffiti covered walls will not be
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there much longer because the walls are
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being removed the graffiti walls come
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tumbling down along with the rest of
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splendid China
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a miniature Great Wall was in here lots
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of buildings a lot of controversy over
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this place
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hope you enjoyed this video say goodbye
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pay our last respects to one of the
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first places that I ever did a video app
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they have all the markers on the tree
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set up all the markers of the trees
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they're going to remove we're witnessing
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progress in motion ladies and gentlemen
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progress in motion