After our visit to Fenghuang, we took a bus to Zhangjiajie national park. Known for its towering sandstone pillars and peaks which apparently inspired the Avatar movie, the park is a popular tourist destination in China. Wulingyuan Scenic Area, which is the actual name of the park, is a UNESCO world heritage site.

We walked for about an hour through the green valley, which, despite the monkeys stealing food and the occasional shouts of Chinese tour guides, was incredibly silent and serene. Looking up, we saw the peaks surrounded in mist. On the way, we passed some souvenir shops and girls posing in traditional clothing. For 10 kuai, you could take pictures of them and for my photographer-brother, this was an opportunity not to be missed. He popped out his camera, flashlight and reflectors and immediately drew the attention of several tour groups.

Our hostel was high up in the mountains, so in order to get there we had to take what seemed like millions and millions of stairs. With our heavy backpacks, each step seemed harder and harder. On top of that, it started to rain. When we finally arrived at our hostel, the upper part of the park (and thus all the peaks) were covered in mist and there was not much left to see.

On our second day, we literally crawled through the parks many different villages, pathways and scenic views. Our first stop was ‘Wulong Village’, which we could only reach via narrow stairways.

As it was only 3 PM, we decided to walk a bit more. According to our map, there was a road leading us down into the valley with viewing points along the way and then back up to our hostel. Spirits high, we decided to embark on our hike. It took us quite some time to reach the first viewing point but as motivated as we were, we decided to continue walking until we were completely alone and we could only hear the birds in the sky and the stream beneath us. The mist occasionally cleared up and showed us the scenery we were in. Between the peaks lie ravines and gorges with streams and waterfalls, all covered in a thick mist.

 On our last day, we took a bus to the Hualong Elevator.The elevator is built against a peak and takes you up/down while enjoying the scenery around you. The view is quite spectacular.

We left the park behind and went back into the village that is also called Zhangjiajie. We were craving for some of that delicious tasty Chinese food and decided to eat hot pot. In my experience so far, the best food is to be found in the little streets and small street stalls. We sat down on tiny plastic chairs and the ‘fuwuyuan’ immediately brought us two beers. Right next to us, the chef was slicing and dicing the veggies and the meat, which were then thrown into the boiling spiced up water in front of us. Chatting away, we feasted on the best hot pot I’ve had so far.

Before heading back to Shanghai, we had one more day to discover the town. Our hostel recommended we visit Tianmen Mountain. I had never heard of it and neither did Lonely Planet, apparently. Adventure! To get to the park, you need to take a 7455 meter long cable way, which departs in the middle of the city. The cable way takes you over the city, across the rice paddies, between mountain tops, over the impressing ‘Tong Tian Road’ until you reach your final destination way up high in the mountaintops until we could not see anything any more but a sea of white, thick mist. We reached the top, frozen and covered in snow. It was pretty impressive. We started walking the small path ways built right on the edge of the mountain cliffs.
Covered in snow and freezing our asses off, we left Hunan and its mysterious parks with millions of pictures and great memories. Time to go back to Shanghai and pick up my sister-in-law Mireille, my little niece Monah and our friend Nancy for another China adventure.

Tot blogs,

Maga