Blogs from Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China, Asia - page 2

Today was a relaxed start to the day, no getting up to early. Once we were all ready we headed round to the bus station via a food hall for breakfast, Claire and Marcus decided to opt for dumplings and I had noodles, the food was lovely and for about £2.80 you can't complain. After we finished we popped into the supermarket for supplies and onto the bus for Zangjiajie national park. Thank god for having Marcus with us who can speak a bit of the lingo. Once we got to the park and paid to get in we headed to the cable car, there was no way Claire was going to walk up this mountain and to be honest I'm glad we didn't, whilst walking to the cable car a guide stopped us and offered ... read more

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 ... read more

New photos on: http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/draftwrite/China-Hunan-Summer%202012/ …..I may consider Avatar a 3D movie with 2D plot & characters but the area used as a backdrop for the alien world in the film is worth seeing. I visited Zhangjiajie in Hunan province during the winter holiday but fog & low visibility gave only tantalising glimpses of the Wulingyuan national park & Tianmen Shan. This issue of the YYW will have to be devoted to the the small town with nothing much to attract the thousands of visitors other than its proximity to some of the most outstanding natural scenery I have ever seen. I had aimed to cover this & the final part, (Guilin, Yangshou & the beautiful Li River), all in this edition but, having looked at the photos, Zhangjiajie is just too big to shar... read more

Having lived in China for three years, we have seen all of the major cities and taken many tours. We have moved our travels to other countries in Asia thinking we have seen the best of China. I was at an Expat coffee one morning and picked up a brochure for Weekend Gataways in China. The one called “Finding Avatar” promising to explore the real “Pandora” looked extremely interesting. Our weekend trip ended up beginning on Sunday night and ending on Tuesday night due to work conflicts but it was well worth the effort in scheduling and traveling during the week. The Zhangjiajie area is known for producing mushrooms so our dinner Sunday night was at a mushroom restaurant. We love most Asian food and this was no exception. The meal was delicious and was a ... read more

Additional photos from 20/10 ... read more