The Middle Kingdom Part III

 Zhangjiajie - Tianmen Mountain ("Gate of Heaven" Mountain)

The highlight of the entire tour was really Zhangjiajie ("Zhang Family's Region" ), which is a town-city surrounded by mountains.

One of the more famous mountains, Tianzi Mountain, uses an old-styled painting as the park map, which I thought was pretty neat. You prob. can't see it, but the line running up the middle of the picture is the gondola route.

Never a big fan of heights, I wasn't very happy about the gondola ride. Luckily for me, the weather was pretty miserable that morning. The fog-cloud was so heavy that I couldn't see what was underneath as we rode the gondola, but just based on the movement of the gondola, we were going pretty high up. And just I saw a mountain peak that seems to be the gondola's final destination, we went over the peak and even higher up. Not sure you can see it on the map, but the gondola runs from the bottom (the little red house), hits a peak about 1/3 up, and then all the way up to the very top.

Some pictures from the gondola.

On the way down, we saw the road leading up another location - Tianmentong ("Hole in the Gate of Heaven") - on the mountain. Classic "hairpin" loops. While it was super cool looking from above, my stomach was starting to churn from just thinking about the potential for motion sickness. A genetic weakness. Curse you, sensitive inner ear!!!!

We finally arrived at the very top, above a sea of clouds. Very very cool (in both senses). I had to wear my extra thick jacket.

 

Along the mountainside, a scaffold pathway was built right into the face of the cliff. I pretty much freaked as I walked (lots of cursing inside my head) trying to convince myself that we weren't THAT high up and try not to look down. All the while, my mom walked super fast (by my standard, and I already walk pretty fast), zooming pass tourist groups. Basically, when you look down, it's clouds and more clouds so you can't even see the bottom, which I'm not sure added or subtracted from the fear factor. On the left is a picture of the beginning of the pathway. This is where the path was the widest and the easiest to walk. As it continues, it gets narrower (about 1/2-2/3 the width) and the side of the cliff becomes more and more vertical. Not sure what the ribbons are for. I'm guessing for luck?

The scary height aside, the view was amazing. The fog-cloud was starting to clear up.

 Right: I was totally coerced into this picture. I did not want to step onto this platform. The floor is FRICKIN' glass! It took my mother a good 10 minutes lecture about "once-in-a-lifetime blah blah blah" to get me on there. I didn't let go of the railing the entire time. It might seem hysterical on my part but I really REALLY don't care for heights. And when she told me that the picture was bad and she wanted to take another one, my answer (I believe) was, "Uh...thanks, but no freakin' way!" I can deal with a bad picture, but not the mental anguish.

Going down the mountain on the gondola. Yes, I held my camera outside the window (even though the sign said not to). Why? Because my mother said that since I was closest to the window, I was obligated to take the picture (I promptly switched seats with her after this picture). I can just imagine it now, losing my grip on the camera and watching it fall into the mountainous abyss below. And of course, if that really happened, it would have been my fault for losing the camera.

The bus ride wasn't too bad, but a few people on the bus were looking a bit greenish afterwards.

What you're looking at, my friends, is the nine hundred and ninety-nine steps of the Stairway to Heaven, and the Hole in the Heavenly Gate.

As the youngest person my group (my aunt and uncle are both in their 70s), I felt it was my obligation to conquer the stairway. Yeeeeah, big mistake. About half way up, I thought my heart was going to jump up from my throat and kick my ass for being overly confident and for eating all those fries in my youth.


 But in the end, conquered it I did. Muhahahahahahah!!!! That's my foot on the bronze turtle-dragon at the the very top (left). Whooo!!!

Unfortunately, the euphoria waned quickly as I realized I now had to get myself down without tumbling down. In retrospect, getting down safely was more difficult than climbing up. Number one, the stairs were steeeeep, and number two, the stairs were short (bottom), only covering about 3/4 of my feet.

 In the end, it took me twice as long getting down as it did climbing up. And my legs were shaking so badly afterwards that I couldn't even walk properly.

And to think, my mother wants to go to Huang Mountain next time, which, according to sources, requires so much climbing/walking that it makes this place sound like a cakewalk.