Zhangjiajie we meet at last

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The drive to the hostel was nice going through mountains and little towns such beautiful scenery and I was hopeful when I seen the reception area of where I was staying bug chandelier and balcony thought I'd hit it lucky until I seen the room felt the bed and nearly died upon opening the bathroom door. It's ok I can do this I repeatedly told myself it's only for a few days so I jumped in to bed and had a few more hours sleep. Woke up in need of a shower so let's brave this bathroom with a squatter toilet close enough to spit in I stood under the shower head that looked older than me turned it on and let out an almighty scream it's bloody freezing!!! I'm already soaked so can't go anywhere so I grit my teeth swore under my breath and took my cold shower when I mentioned this top all the manger/driver/ receptionist he was like " oh yeah we only have hot water 6-10 and 7-midnight" oh thanks for telling me that!! I carried on reciting its fine only a few days if I say it enough I'll believe it I think there are more moths in this place than guests and they are huge. Well I wanted to stay in the national park and I suppose this is what you get.



For my first day I took the bus to town and headed for baofeng lake was given multiple incorrect directions before getting totally annoyed with guys on mopeds trying too act like taxis and stalking me down the road after I said no numerous times, I went in to a police station and asked for help finding the bus and a nice officer walked me to the stop he spoke a little English but kept aggressively asking if I was winning I think he meant is this ok or is this correct but dam calm down dude you don't make sense. Happily on my bus to go to the lake when some people get on from the national park and an old Chinese guy try's to make conversation with me so out came the translator and we did our best with the assistance of some other passengers who joined in he then took pictures of me which I'm starting to get used to. After some other passengers got off the. Is the old guy moved to sit in the seat behind me and I swear he was trying to put his arm around me round the seat OMG I shuffled forward in my seat awkwardly laughing when we arrived at the lake the old guy was still in tow waving his passport at me and tapping his pocket I thought he was asking me to pay for him so I tried to move away saying no I don't understand sorry he was persistent so I got the translator back out and it said he wants to pay for me I quick said that wasn't necessary dam if he was trying to put his arm round me on the bus I didn't want him walking round a lake with me creepy 101 I bought my ticket shook his hand and quickly walked to the entrance. weird! The lake however was beautiful I took lots of pictures going round on the boat the water was as green as emeralds and the surrounding hills where so serene it would have been nice to stay there longer but it was a little lake a conveyer belt off the bus on the boat off the boat back on the bus heading back down I went to the waterfall which was amazing lots more photos. I took the local bus back to the national park and decided to pop inside to have a little look a went to the huge elevator and was tempted to go up before I seen it would cost £17 think I'll pass I'll get pictures tomorrow and I headed back. Near the hostel I had some beautiful dumplings and headed home for an early night. Later that night my friend from being training arrived and we made our plans for the next few very busy days.



Early the next day we set off for the national park so much to fit in to one day it was going to be pretty hard. We took the bus to town got cats ticket and hen took the bus to the cable car now being afraid of heights this was bloody terrifying but I did it and rather bloody proud of myself took lots of photos on the way to the top the view was totally worth it! To see all of those pillars and mountains all together was surreal it was a lovely sunny day as well so you could really see in to the distance. We walked all around the top of the mountain area and visited all the highly recommended scenic spots the place is breathtaking if you ever get chance to visit you definitely should. We took another cable car back down (getting brave now) and continued to bus our way around the park to see everything and finished off in the dark at cute little steam where we pretended to be mermaids sitting on rocks think the altitude and lack of sleep had started to have an impact. Dinner and bed got another early start tomorrow as we planned to go to Tianmen mountain.

We woke a little later than we wanted but we still set off to town to try and buy tickets we got there at about 12 and there were no tickets until 4pm so we decided to turn around and do something else and come back tomorrow. We managed to get a bus directly to the yellow dragon caves and went underground with the scorching heat outside it was pleasant to be nice and cool in the caves. They were brights lit up with all colours of lights reflecting from the water dropping down and the slag-mites that had grown over thousands of years so tall almost reaching the top of the cave it was amazing we even took a little boat around the river through the bottom of the cave it's amazing to think who found all of this for the first time and what they must of felt it really was hypnotising to see all of the different peaks of colours all working well together and the natural details of each one all completely different in every way. I won't lie it was one hell of a workout walking up and down all of the stairs inside the cave but worth it and when we seen the light at the end of the tunnel it was like emerging from the depths like you see in those horror films only we were met with swarms of Chinese people and not a random rescue team.

Final day in zhangjiajie and we woke up at 5am in attempt to get to the mountain early enough for tickets as I was going to the airport afterwards there was no point in coming back to the hostel so I said my goodbyes and took my case with me. Can't say I'll miss taking a shower in the toilet!

When we arrived there were still no dam tickets until 4pm unbelievable you would literally have to be here at 5am to get a ticket crazy so we opted for the bus route so that we didn't miss out completely the road advertises 99 bends and it wasn't kidding I frequently felt as I we were going to go off the edge cringing and holding on to the seat handles for life like they would make a difference if the bus was to go over but you can see the idea anyway. As we got higher the view got better it was insane to see how high we were and we could also see all of the bends in the road that we had passed we could see right out over the city for miles and even huge buildings looked tiny in the distance. The next part of our climb was aptly named the stairway to heaven consisting of 999 steps each one narrow and steep I of course ran up them (did you believe that for one minute) I decided to skip cardiac hill and opted for the elevator which took us through the mountain instead I know it's a cheat but I was really glad I did when we then had to stand in a ridiculous queue to take the next 7 elevators up the peak in total it took us about 3 hours just to get to the top give you an idea of the height. All the way along we were getting pushed and shoved by people that seemed to think if they pushed hard enough you could move in the space less crowd or perhaps they thought they could just climb through you who knows but they thought they could go somewhere. Once at the top and able to breathe again we attempted to buy a drink and some snacks seen the rabble of people fighting each other for the counter and turned away you would honestly think they were starving children fighting for bread it was quite embarrassing to see how they acted really.

We set off around the pathway to the west of the mountain checking out the breathtaking scenery along the way then the moment I realised the path we were walking on although it was concrete it was suspended by huge stone pillars and you could clearly see underneath the bridge it was called the skywalk and I can understand why if there was going to be a day to face my fear of heights I do believe it was that day! I timidly walked along the bridge and got super stressed out when people pushed past forcing me to go anywhere near the railings OMG I'm going to die on this rock were the words flying through my head but we carried on. After visiting various amazing viewing points that gave us superb views of the mountains and city below we came to a cliff side pathway as we are walking along I seen on the opposite side of the cliff face in the direction we were heading that the path was simple sticking out of the wall oh no way I can't walk on that too scary until cat pointed out I was already walking on that as this was the same path hmmm might as well carry on then as we strolled along taking photographs it got easier to get closer to the edge taking photographs of the drop it was immense. We eventually came to the famous glass walkway that simply floats along the cliff edge once I stepped on and started moving I realised I wasn't so scared you could see that it was solid so decided to sit in everyone's way for a few photographs well they had pushed me enough for one day to hold them up for 5 minutes at least. Jumping off the other side of the walkway I was amazed with myself and totally chuffed that I had done it had really thought I'd bottle it and run the other way so now I have walked along a glass bridge in the lack of health and safety capital of the world I can do anything. We didn't make it to the plank road which is apparently pretty dangerous so you can imagine I was devastated about that! Time was getting on so we made our way back to fight the escalators and were not too happy to find another queue this one slightly more civilised until you got to the entrance of the escalator building and at that point I can honestly say I might as well have been surrounded by cattle because that is how these people were acting pushing shoving to the point were I had a full grown man completely pressed up against the back of me so close I could smell him not a happy bunny we were pushed along with crowds and kept trying to make some kind of personal space in this madness kids where being pushed in to gaps in an attempt for the parents to push past to get them one old woman elbowed me in the ribs and then I lost it. I pushed backwards spread my arms out and shouted at the top of my voice enough is enough this was awful and ruining a place that was beautiful and supposed to represent kissing heaven etc well if one more person pushes me I won't be getting in to heaven. We got through to the escalators and slowly made our way back down. To avoid more queues we decided to run down the 999 stairs and took some pictures on the way before jumping in buses to go back down the 99 bends they must like the number 9 I'm guessing.

With time to kill before I had to be at the airport we popped in to what looked like a restaurant / cafe type place and they were very disgruntled that we only wanted a couple of beers said they were too busy whilst we were surrounded by empty table yea ok this isn't worth the Argo so off we went to find somewhere else. We got our beers and chilled out for an hour and ended up ordering a little something to eat anyway. Then it was time to say goodbye to zhangjiajie and off I went to the airport after dropping cat off at a closed bus station oops not on purpose ofc but she managed to get back to the hostel. If anything all this flying will get my over that fear because they have really bad turbulence out here for some reason. Off we go to xi'an for the next part of this olden week adventure!

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