Zhangjiajie

28 Jul 2017 - Mateo Atwi

Monday I took a soft sleeper from Yichang to Zhangjiajie. The train was supposed to arrive at 12:40 AM, but instead it arrived 30 minutes late. It also left significantly later. However, this was actually a good thing because it allowed me to arrive later than 6 AM in Zhangjiajie and catch a bus to Wulingyuan instead of paying someone to take me there. Wulingyuan is the city next to the park with the cool rocks.

This is a mural close to the hostel we stayed at.

I meet Tiago and George at the hostel. We made friends with a British dude named James, and explored the park with the Hallelujah mountains all of Monday. This place was phenomenal. It was perhaps the highlight of my entire trip to China. The pillar formations there are supreme and glorious. However, the thing that prevented us most from enjoying it fully was the tourist, so we found a way off the prepared paths and onto a pillar. There we had the best view all day without anyone to distract us. Words and pictures fail to describe this place.

The next day we checked out the Chinese Grand Canyon and the huge glass bridge there. The bridge is rather lackluster, but the canyon was very beautiful and felt like China. The water there was turquoise.

The last day we rushed back to get one last glimpse of the Hallelujah mountains and then to the Mt. Tianmen. Mt. Tianmen was actually quite impressive. It has a huge hole in the middle near the top. If I had time, then I would have stayed there longer. The walk ways around were quite scary too because sometimes you would be just on the edge a cliff.

This is looking down from a walkway around Mt. Tianmen

There are two ways to get to the top of Mt. Tianmen. You can take a bus up 99 curves or you can take the longest cable car ride in the world from the middle of the city to the top of the mountain.

This was the last thing I did on my trip before going to Pudong to fly home. I want to thank George for traveling with us and Tiago for accompanying me to China. George and I went hiking more than half of the weekends in China. Tiago and I haven't spent this much time together since we were little kids. If I feel like it, then maybe I will write another post. Otherwise, this may be my last post.