Jian's Journey

Facade

Guests enter through a walled tower signifying the limits of a village.

Queue

The majority of the queue is a modest village with walls separating one house from another. It appears to be dusk as lanterns along the help provide additional lighting. Occasionally guests get peaks inside some of the houses where the doors have been left open. At the end of the queue is an “open-air” (but still underneath the ride building) market. A solitary house can be seen in the distance–a house that we later find out is the house that the main characters are leaving from.

Ride System

The Omnimover vehicles are made to look like carriages that could be carried by servants. They are accented with satin-like material to give the impression that this is where the silk in Silk Road comes from.

Song for the Ride

The following song is a happy-sounding, moderate-paced theme song (similar to the one heard in Sindbad’s Voyage at Tokyo DisneySea heard especially at the beginning and the end of the ride. Instrumental versions are played through the middle part of the ride, including a dissonant one during the time of peril.

Ride Scenes

JIAN (meaning “strong” or “healthy”) is a 14-year old girl with a strong-willed personality and who has a pet rat named XIAO (meaning “elf” or “small”). JIAN and her 7-year old brother HAO (meaning “perfect” or “good”) are at their grandparents’ simple stone-constructed house as their dad CHAO (meaning “surpass” or “leap above”) is about to leave for a trade trip along the Silk Road (unsaid: CHAO is a widower). Early the next morning, while CHAO and his fellow co-workers are securing the last items in their wagon, JIAN and XIAO hide themselves in the wagon and hunker down for the long day of travel. When they arrive at the camp for their first night, CHAO and his co-workers discover JIAN. CHAO expresses his shock but ultimately agrees to let her stay on the trip on account of the condensed schedule that they are working with. In the next scene (assumingly many days later as the scenery has changed from forest to desert), CHAO and the men (along with JIAN and XIAO nearby) are trading some silk in exchange for some items of metal. In the next scene (now in a plain with a village in view), CHAO tells JIAN to hide herself as there are approaching soldiers. CHAO and the other men are taken hostages and when the soldiers raid the wagon, they just barely miss seeing JIAN and XIAO. JIAN follows the soldiers from a distance to see where CHAO and the others were taken. They are brought to a jail with a guard stationed outside of it. Later on, while the guard is sleeping, JIAN retrieves the key. She then attaches it to XIAO by string, who brings it to CHAO. CHAO and the others unlock the jail and surprise the guard. The guard faints upon seeing XIAO. The group rides off without the rest of their stuff. In the last scene, CHAO and JIAN reunite with HAO and the grandparents. CHAO tells the rest of the family that JIAN had saved them all. JIAN and XIAO exchange a wink.

Upon exiting the ride, guests encounter a shop with plush JIAN and XIAO, children’s books regarding the travel, and other assorted merchandise.