Monkey King Commanding Troops (Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China)

---

(Day 95 on the road)Zhangjiajie National Park is about six hours by train from Yichang on the Yangtze River, and it is not (yet) on the map for western tourist. It is a big thing however for Chinese tourists, as I was soon to find out. The area is renown for its magnificent karst landscape, and as you can see from the pictures, it is a truly amazing sight. Some of the solo sandstone peaks dotting the landscape look like they will tumble any second, and especially when viewing them from above the views are very dramatic.

Having teamed up with easy-going Karen from England whom I had met on the Yangtze cruise and who was also going to Zhangjiajie, we arrived in the city and were promptly greeted by a very slimy tout who turned out to be giving us wrong information and just trying to rip us off. He did not get any money from us at all, though it took us about 30 minutes to get rid of him. After one night in the city we headed over to the entrance of the National Park, where we had top spend one day due to pretty heavy rain. The next day we finally entered the park (having paid the steep entrance fee of 245 Yuan, ouch!) with small overnight backpacks, and the next three days and two nights we were to spend in the park, sleeping in the only hotel on top of the mountain.

On the bad side, the whole place was swarming with Chinese tour groups. In all the time we spent in the area, we saw only about a handful of "private" tourist not in a group. We got very crossed with them, as their main enjoyment in the park seemed to consist of making as much noise as possible. On top of that, their tour guides all carried megaphones, of which they made constant use. It was really impossible to enjoy this beautiful landscape with all this noise - have a look at the videos I took to get an impression of the level of noise. Having said that, we did manage to get away from the crowds (who all do a one day hectic tour of all the main sights) by walking in areas that were not marked on our map at all. So if you go to the area, don't be afraid to walk off the beaten path, it is well worth it.

The only peaceful time we had was after 1700h when the groups had left the mountain and we had the peaks all for ourselves. There were no tourists at all on the whole mountain after the groups had departed, and we cherished these two nights, enjoying the beautiful scenery with nobody around. On the second night, we talked some bus drivers into selling us two of their spare packed dinners, and then enjoyed our improvised food sitting on the edge of the cliff, watching the sun setting on the mountain peaks. Later, we threw heavy rocks down off the cliffs, enjoying the deafening sounds as they burst into pieces in the valley far below - perfectly childish and great fun! We ended the evening by watching a James Bond movie with the shopkeepers at one of the souvenir stalls, who had invited us to join them.

One other thing worth mentioning is the Bailong Elevator. A controversial engineering feast (build right inside a protected UNESCO Heritage Site without permission) and holding a few Guinness World records, this elevator is attached to the outside of one of the karst peaks, and is (probably by far) the highest outdoor elevator in the world. The windows are all made from glass, and one stands on the inside looking out as the elevator is taking you up 326 meters at a speed of 3 meters per second. A thrilling ride!

Funny as hell were the names that were given to the scenic spots in the area. I think the Chinese are generally quite inventive when it comes to naming places, but in Zhangjiajie they have done one hell of a job! My favourites were "Monkey King Commanding Troops", "Mother Splitting Rock", "No 1 World Natural Bridge", "One Dangerous Step", "Fairy Tortoise Asking For The Sky", "Getting Together From Far Away" or "Border between Life an Death". Also, there was no consistent spelling of any of them really on the various signposts in the National Park, so for instance "Monkey King Commanding Troops" would also be listed as "Monkey Marshall Assembling Soldiers".

Next stop: Longji Rice Terraces (Guangxi Province, China).



To view my photos, have a look at pictures.beiske.com. And to read the full account of my journey, have a look at the complete book about my trip at Amazon (and most other online book shops).

---

Comments

[J]

limestone?
I thought those are sandstone formation, not limestone.

[LivingTheDream]

Sandstone
Thanks for putting this right, they are indeed sandstone, and I have changed it in the blog.

[Hienye]

Rock throwing
For all the noise the local Chinese made it is lucky they know better than throw rocks into the valley just to hear the loud noise they made splitting into pieces 'cos the valley will be filled up considering the Chinese population!! Also I thought you complained so much about noise so why create it when you can finally have silence?

[Raymond HM Abero]

Yes, I would like to see more than I should