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Published: November 6th 2010
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Did you see the movie Avatar. It was filmed here. This is a surprise for you. (And us) My bucket list item. Before this place gets really exploited, this is a must visit in China. It is a little hard to get to. There is a local airport that you can fly within China to Chang Sa, but not from HK. We opted for train as previously mentioned, and then a 5 hour car ride. We have to go back the same way. It sounds harder but it is actually less complicated because of where this place is located. There is a new highway built recently and actually it is a pleasant drive.
To begin with the national park is a gem. Thank goodness it is under protection. The views are nothing like we've seen anywhere in the world. China has made it a priority to allow access to this park from all angles. I mean, listen to this: This morning we decided to forage into the prk and view the lessor spectacular mountains and use the walkways. First of all, as high up as we were there were alot of monkeys. Friendly guys and girls who like to poke
around. He He . Whatever you do never look them in the eye. I did, and the monkey leapt me.
No I did not get hurt. A bus within the park took us to a small cablecar into which we were wisked upto a look out area. This smaller cablecar passed through 2 huge rock pillars about 1000 feet high and we were right in the middle of the two pillars going by. What a way to start the day. Just like in Avatar you feel like you can fly. That is the sensation I had all day. We spent the morning at this one location and then went for lunch.
In the afternoon we took the worlds longest cablecar 7.5 kms to another area of these beautiful mountains. I wish I had a 3D camera. We were treated with a 75 degree angle up to the top of one of the pillars , passing by a huge hole in another mountain that actually is big enough for a plane to fly through. When we got to the top we took a pilgrimage of 4 kms. and what we saw and did I could not believe. WE hit
upon a sky walkway that is attached to the cliffs. These were built and finished in 2009. It took 4 years to build. Well, we were 1000,s of feet up on a narrow path that went right around the mountain pillars. The path was about 5 feet wide. We could look down and to the side and we saw air only. The way these paths were attached to the cliffs were by using cement posts. Pics Pics Pics. Yummy. If I croaked right then and there I am sure I was in heaven. This place is amazing, and other than the pathways giving access to these mountains it is all naturally kept. I hope it lasts. We took the cablecar back halfway and boarded a bus upto another peak so that we could walk the 1000 steps through that hole in the mountain that the plane went through. What a bus ride upto the stairs. The pics show how steep the roads are, and we calculated that to get to the top there were 87 hairpin curves. Climbing the stairs was not easy as there is no place to rest on the way up except on the stairs. By the
Artistic Writing
I snapped a series of 15 photos in Burst mode and play them back in quick fashion so it looks like a video time we arrived at the top and through the hole it was pretty late and we just had enough time to take some more pics and climb back down. The bus ride back down was scarey in a sense that the roads were steep as I said earlier going up, and I am always afraid of driver error. WE MADE IT!!!
Next day we decided to get up early and beat the crowd. We hightailed it to another cablecar in another area of the park. We then took a series of buses, to arrive at one of the destinations of the day. Where they actually filmed the movie Avatar. Well, you really feel small an insignificant seeing all this. It was actually under water at one time. The pics speak for themselves.
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