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Published: March 2nd 2013
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park This was one of my favorite places so far this trip. Zhangjiajie (pron. "jang-jah-jee") features hundreds of these bizarre sandstone towers formed during many years of weathering and erosion. The climate here is usually wet year round so the foliage is super dense and there are small streams running everywhere. The Chinese like to say it's more impressive than the Grand Canyon. Hmm, we'll see about that!
In 1982, Zhangjiajie was declared China's first national forest park (much like our Yellowstone!). It must be a national showcase because it is VERY clean. The trails were cleaned up, the park enforced a "no-smoking" policy, they posted good trail signs (in English, Korean, and Japanese!), and the park also provided many other pleasantries for visitors. The one pleasantry that stands out in my mind were these special "foot massage walkways", pathways lined with smooth river pebbles meant to massage your feet as you walk the the final 500m toward the park exit. It was encouraged to walk these paths in socks.
Zhangjiajie's most distinguishable geological feature is a 3,544 foot tall sandstone pillar named the "Hallelujah Column". It was what film director James Cameron used to
create the floating mounains of Pandora in his 2010 movie "Avatar". After the movie's world wide success, the Hallelujah Column was renamed the "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain". A marketing move that I believe sells more T-shirts now. I've already forgotten about Jurrasic Park. Seriously, how many decades will people still remember Avatar?
The park is absolutely massive, about as large as the lower Yosemite Valley and all its rim trails. Here's a
crappy gangyam style parody that the park created this summer.
Huan advised it would take me at least 3 days to explore the best parts. I took his advice and bought a 3-day park pass for ¥325 (about $50 USD). The first day I ventured to the park with Francisco, a 25-year old Chilean acoustic engineer who had arrived in Zhangjiajie after spending a week in Shanghai visiting his older brother. He was an avid hiker so he and I would make good hiking partners. In the morning, we rode a bus down from the hostel to the Zhangjiajie City bus station an then caught the ¥12, 40 min hiker's bus. Upon arriving at the park's entrance, we were awestruck by our surroundings. The sandstone pillars were unbelieveable. Better than
the photographs!
Walking through the main entrance, we passed a huge group of wild tree monkeys. Many of the other tourists were tossing them snacks and trying to take photos of the monkeys close up. One guy placed his camera case on the ground while he took a photo and this BIG monkey snagged it, probably thinking it was food or something. The man eventually got it back, but the monkey was PISSED, like REALLY pissed! It was hilarious! The monkey howled and flared its teeth at the man!! The man was lucky he didn't have his face and balls ripped off although I'm sure this type of tourist-primate interaction happens on the regular.
Francisco and I made tracks that afternoon. We first visited HuangShi Shan (YellowStone Mtn). The saying around ZJJ goes, "If you haven't visited Huangshi Shan, you haven't seen Zhangjiajie". We took the cable car up to the top, circled the entire peak and then walked down nearly 4,000 stone steps to reach the Golden Whip Stream in the bottom of the valley. We followed the Golden Whip, testing out various bouldering walls until we reached the Zicao Pool. From here, we hiked up another
The Hiking Group
Jesus (Mexico), Francisco (Chile), Tony & Cat (Australia), Marcus (USA)heart attacking 3,000 stairs until we reached the Back Garden trail. We took this trail to see Avatar Hallelujah Mountian and Lofty Cliff. The Avatar pillar viewing deck was crawling with Chinese tourists. There was all sorts of touristy shit going on. Many of the Chinese tourists had gotten their faces painted blue to look like avatars. I offered to pay for Francisco to get his face painted but he refused. We later passed by the "No.1 Natural Bridge". Many of the signs we passed showed other translations of the word, "No.1". "First, world's greatest, best, etc". "World's Greatest" is probably the correct word they were looking for.
At this point, Francisco and I had endured enough stairs for one day so we planned to head back to our hostel. Our plan was to ride the Bailong Elevator down the mountain to catch the park shuttle which would then deliver us back to the park entrance. When we arrived at the Elevator at 5:45pm, it was already getting dark. The park charges ¥72 to ride the Elevator. Down or up, it doesn't matter, it's still 72 kuai. We agreed it was a rip-off. They should charge less for the
48 Generals Peaks
The view from the top of the Bailong Elevator trip down, right?! With only an hour left to catch the last shuttle, we had to double-time it back up the road to the Back Garden and fly down the same 3,000 steps we slogged up earlier that afternoon. When we reached the Golden Whip Stream (valley floor) the sky was black and the stars were out. We had ~4 km to go and only 25 minutes to make the 7 o'clock return shuttle. Shitballs. By the looks of it, we were going to be stranded in the park overnight!
We reached the park entrance at 7:20pm but the parking area was completely empty and there were no shuttle buses in sight. Damn. We were so S.O.L.! Our last option would be to walk to the nearest village and ask a taxi to take us all the way back to Zhangjiajie City. It would be expensive (maybe ¥200-250) but we were totally exhausted. At the village, I spoke to a women standing outside her restaurant. Just as I had finished explaining our situation, her teenage daughter walks out all dressed-up and made-up like she was going out for a night of clubbing. It was a Friday night afterall! The
woman instructed us to "go with her" and asked us to pay her ¥100. Not bad! The ¥100 note quickly changed hands becoming the daughter's "spending money" for the evenning. Haha, wow. Didn't matter though, everyone was stoked on the outcome of our arrival.
The 2nd day, Francisco and I banded together with the Aussie couple, Tony + Catherine (see Tianmen Shan), and a chipper Mexican named "Jesus". Jesus was also travelling solo through Southwest China for a month. His English was poor so he and Francisco spoke Spanish with eachother and I would occasionally jump in with what words I remembered from elementary school and Duolingo. If you come to China unable to speak Mandarin, well then English is your next best option. Jesus couldn't really speak in either. He used hand motions and his latin charm to communicate his way through China. It was crazy, our group conversed in the languages English, Spanish, and Mandarin! You know we must've been an odd sounding bunch! When were stepped on the bus that morning, the Chinese locals were probably thinking, "What f**king country are these people from?" I love to travel, and adapting to communicate in other languages is
always an enriching experience.
That afternoon we entered the park from the Wulingyuan Entrance, rode a cable car to the top of Tianzi Mountain, stopped to watch Jesus yell "VIVA MEXICO" and other profanities from the Arranging Battles Platform, then hitchhiked our way around the backside of the Tianzi Mountains to Wulong Village. After a short visit to the Wulong Hostel to confirm our directions, we hiked down another 2,000 steps into the Shadaogou Gorge. This route doesn't see much foot traffic, we walked along moss-covered stones and occasionally had to step over a fallen tree. Green moss and perfect silence; it was almost like traveling back in time.
The 3rd day, Fransisco and the Aussies moved on to their next destinations and the Jesus of Mexico stayed behind in the hostel to sleep. That day I travelled through the park solo. In two days, Francisco and I had explored nearly the entire park. The last destination to explore was a route through Yaozizai; probably my most favorite hike in Zhangjiajie.
Yaozizai was wonderful. Like the Shadaogou Gorge, this was another road less travelled by tourists. Many of the trails were covered in leaves and overgrowth. It
Jesus Saves!! Sticks Supporting the Rock
These were everywhere! A very creative activity for children throughout the park. provided great lighting for taking photos becuase the sun was always shining from behind you. I began the long hike uphill from the ZZJ Entrance, passed through a crazy looking stone Yaoying Fortress and then reached a high pass called the Echo Valley. From here I made a 90 minute loop around the Jinbianxi Mountain before walking across a long, steel arch bridge over the Echo Valley. I followed this new path up, and up past features like "Natural Flyover", "Rabbit Watching Moon", and then finally made my way down to have a look inside "Fairy Cave" and then cross over the "Heaven Bridge". The pathway from Heaven Bridge down to the Golden Whip Stream was super sketch. The timbers of the boardwalk were rotted and had already collapsed in many places. The last thing I wanted was to have a boot bust through a deckboard and for me to get nutted, or even worse; tetnus-nutted. Rusty nails been all over the place. So anyways, I got to do some sidecountry detouring. Making my own paths down along the stream bed, clambering over slippery river rocks, and balancing across some of the many fallen trees. I finally made it out.
It was definitely adventure worthy.
I'd definitely recommend visiting this park to anyone who is passing through Hunan province! Three days is a perfect amount of time to see everything. Don't assume that shuttles or elevators will get you to your intended destinations though, it's always better to ask in advance to avoid getting stuck there overnight. Now it's back down to Loudi. Tomorrow is wedding day!
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Amanda
non-member comment
Awesome stories!
It is amazing how locals are more than willing to help out tourists. It makes for a great story and you end up learning more about the culture than if you were to only take the shuttles or book through hostels, etc. P.S. I got your postcard and squealed with delight. I read it aloud to Megan and we laughed at your funny comments about traveling abroad!