Early Start 6.30 am. Tour company car picked us up to go to our bus. It is a 1.5 hour ride to the Zhangjiajie village for the mountain tour to begin.
I am the only English speaking White man on this tour. It is a Chinese speaking tour for Chinese people – so Ruth is my translator.
Off we go and this man we thought was our guide gets up the front with the mic and talks for the whole 1.5 hours non stop. I asked Ruth what it was about and mostly some history but mostly to keep them entertained during the bus ride.
We are now in the country – so lots of rice and corn growing. It would appear that most just grow for themselves and not a lot from this area is sold in the big cities. The average Farmers house is three stories and the houses seem to be close together overlooking all their farms.
The old time farmers still drive trucks that would never be allowed on NZ roads
Finally we arrive at our hotel (because I needed a western toilet – Ruth and I stayed at a different hotel to the rest of the tour) but this hotel was the base for the two days (1 night). We left our luggage here in the main reception area under a netting. This was common in all tours.
Back on the bus and off to Tianzi Mountain. The heading photo shows the main entrance to this part of the Zhangjiajie National Park. Once through and onto the park bus for the first trip to the cable car.
Ruth on the walk to the cablecarCablecar
We are on our way to the top and into the mist and clouds. This is the area in which Avatar based their “Floating Islands” and the locals make a big thing of it. Same as we do with Lord of the Rings and Hobbits
Now we are all together at the top – it is follow the leader. Each guide has their own coloured flag and personal speaker system . and I mean dozens of guides with their groups following – and not a westerner in sight. So I made sure to follow a few I knew are from our group because Ruth was the only one in our party who could speak english and most of the time she is last – taking photos.
We are in the mist so the first sighting of the sandstone peaks was exciting until a few minutes later the mist lifted and wow – this is what we saw.
Each time you went from one area to the next – you would have to walk past the sellers of food and other goodsWe joked – if you bought on the way in – food was Y5 but if you waited until you came out – the price was Y10. Now in NZ dollars this is still very cheap – NZ$1 – 2.00, but it was 2 – 3 times the price you would pay in the city. I love the cooked corn on the cob – both yellow like we have and white corn (not as sweet as the yellow)This was our Guide checking up to make sure we had all returned from Lunch and no we did not have KFC. We went down into the basement area of this complex to a massive dinning area with round tables seating 10 people. There would have been at least a hundred tables and two help yourself areas with staff making sure you moved thru quickly. This was my first group meal.
We are still on top of the mountain , so off we go walking to a Historic house/Museum.This is the exit gate from that.
This walkway is all around this mountain.This is another area that was used in the Avatar movie.Had to prove I was there and not just my camera. Look closely at the fence. It looks like wood but in fact it is made of concrete – as are all the fences we saw around this and the other mountains. All a bit different and some darker colour than this one. Not sure how they managed making them but looked great. Here is another type of fence with the stone steps.They have done a great job in signposted the main things and including English – even though sometimes the translation is not quite proper English.In most of the Parks you can hear music playing – this one was no different. This was one of the speaker boxes – also make out of concrete and painted to look like a tree stump. I wondered about these speaker boxes and when you remember that this is a country ruled by the Communist Party – you need to be able to contact people no matter where they are. there are also camera everywhere.Time to come off this mountain and return back to our hotel for the night. This is the top entrance to the Bailong Elevator or what would call a Lift. It is glass and on the outside – so good views of the Sandstone peaks on the way down. Except when we got in – it started to rain and by the time we got to the exit it is really hosing down. we had to walk about 500 metres to the bus. We had umbrellas but the water poring down the stairs was like a river and my shoes got well and truly wet.
Back to our hotel for Dinner and a very quick clean up and back on the Bus to go to a Chinese concert.
This was a treat even though I could not understand what they were singing – but it was amazing both inside and the final 20 minutes outside.
Concert HallRight side of stageLeft side of stageSongBuilding HouseWhat I did not realise at the time – this ladder outside was actually swords and he climbed up bare-feet.
It was after 11.00pm by the time we got back to our bed. Long day and over 20,000 steps.
Tomorrow breakfast 6.30 and ready for bus at 7.00am with Luggage.
