Tianmen and the Avatar Mountains

Dreams Come True

Unbelievable. 

When you have had the undeserved privilege of seeing a lot of beautiful things, you realize your pool of adjectives is inadequate. Or maybe that's just me. I'm settling on 'unbelievable' for this trip.

Taking full advantage of my 2-week winter break, I began by traveling to Hunan province. The trickiest part of this 4 day trip was keeping all the names straight. The names of towns, mountains and scenic areas seemed to overlap and be used interchangeably. The travel included a short flight and a 4 hour bus ride. Each of the 3 destinations I wanted to reach were about an hour apart from each other, as well.  Luckily China is pretty easy to get around and very well visited by locals and foreigners, so the travel 'infrastructure' though not flawless, is pretty well established.  

Tianzi Mountains- Day 1.

We had a clear day to see Zhangjiajie National Forest which, I think officially, has been renamed The Avatar mountains.  If that is true, it is sad. The Hollywood movie was man-made but the mountains are not. And the mountains existed long before the movie. Perhaps we should edit the name of the film if we are name changing. Whatever the name, the mountains are unbelievably beautiful. This was a place I started dreaming about after I accepted my job in China. We went during the off-peak season, so it wasn't as crowded and the tickets were cheaper. After entering the park, we took the world's tallest outdoor elevator up (the description is more exciting than the elevator itself) and we did a little hiking. 

Unbelievable.

Tianmen Mountain- Day 2.

I have already been searching for cheap flights for my return visit.  Tianmen, which is translated Heaven's Gate, was exquisite. I took, arguably, the world's longest cable car ride up to the mountain, and back down. On the return journey, I got a car all to myself.  That will probably never happen again. You're usually sardined with 7 other people, from what I hear. I, giddily, ran back and forth in the little car the entire ride. 

There was so much fog in some places that I couldn't see everything, but it was still amazing. I can only imagine what it's like on a clear day. Thus the hoped for return visit. They had stomach-dropping glass walkways that were unimaginably attached to the sides of the mountain. They were my favorite, but it was all unbelievable. The day was wet and cold, but possibly my favorite. 

Grand Canyon Glass Bridge- Day 3.

I had such high expectations for the bridge that I was slightly disappointed. Possibly the scenery, which we could never fully see, was breathtaking, but I'm not sure. Getting to the bridge was complicated and the bridge was shorter than I expected, though it is the world's longest glass bridge. I am still glad we made it there! I had a lot of fun "skating" on the wet bridge and I think my pictures are pretty. 

We also got to see another amazing show and I got to eat authentic Hunan food.  Though Sichuan food(the home of the pandas) may be more famous worldwide, in my home town, Hunan food is. The cuisines of both provinces are delicious. 

Though the weather conditions were not always what I would have picked for this Zhangjiajie adventure, I think they ended up being perfect. It was a dream come true.