Terrific Tianmen Mountain.....

Zhang Jia jie, China, 09.24.2017

Left Guilin yesterday for Changsha. Pretty easy trip and was not a problem getting to my hostel. Changsha is my base for the Zhangjiajie park. Known lately as the Avatar park because they had filmed a lot in the park. My problem is Changsha is a 4 hour bus trip to the town near the park. Not possible to make day trips, so I booked a night in a hostel close to the park. Haven't given myself enough time to do this properly, but given I can't change the date of my Tibet tour, I really have to stick to schedule and do as much as I can. My hostel in Changsha is a real dirty crappy place, but it will do

for the couple of one nighters I am doing there. I stayed the night and woke up early to catch the first bus to Zhangjiajie. Again everything went as planned and I arrived at my hostel around 1:00 pm. Got some advice and dropped my things in the room. Off to Tianmen mountain. Grabbed a number 4 bus and off to the cable car to take me up the mountain. What a zoo! Crazy amount of people trying to get up the mountain. Took about an hour of lineups and up the mountain I go. What a ride! Cable car was about a half hour trip. Took us pretty near right to the top of a beautifully rugged mountain. Met a Brazilian and American guy on the way so I hiked with them for

the afternoon. A lot of the hiking around the top is via a trail that is attached to the sides of the cliffs of the mountain. Some parts they put glass bottoms so you could see straight down. Fantastically beautiful place. Hiked for about 3 hours on top. Day was a bit hazy and misty so at times it was hard to see too far. The amount of work the Chinese have put in to create this place is incredible. As it approached dark, we decided to go back down. If you came up with cable car then you had to go back down by means of an escalator (bored through the mountain), stairs, and a wild shuttle bus trip to take you back to where the cable car picked you up. Never thought I would take an escalator down a mountain. Chinese tourism is crazy! Round trip was about 5 hours and was really worth the time and money. Was an expensive trip! Tomorrow I have to get up and leave by 6:30 to catch the first bus to the Avatar park. Need to get about 6 hours of hiking in before I have to catch the bus back to Changsha.

Hopefully it all works out!

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