After the days on the boat with all the Chinese cruise passengers I was looking forward to some nature around the Zhangjiajie national forest park. The place where the mountains come from int the movie Avatar. Unfortunately I already knew that the place its gonna be busy since China went into its golden week. A recently designed holiday for the Chinese nation. And Zhangjiajie national park its one of the most famous one in the country. I was lucky enough to get booked my first night in the place. For a further one the hostel didn’t have capacity left. However, at my arrival I could extend my booking by one night giving me two days in the place.
Zhangjiajie city is a mid sized place quite busy with tourists coming for the national parks around it. One is the mentioned Zhangjiajie forest and another one in the reach of the city is the Tianmen Mountain. Second one can be reached with a cable car leaving from the city center.
The forest park is a bus ride away form the city and brings you up into the surrounding mountains in the north. Into a place which makes you feel like you are in the movie Avatar if there wouldn’t be all those Chinese. The first line was at the cable car inside of the park. It took me 90minutes waiting in the line till I got up the amazing mountain. And on top i had to figure out that from somewhere the free buses were running up there.
Its beautiful nature around there just a pity that the park is visited by so many people and it is not really designed for trekking but more for those typical Chinese hop on/off busing systems. Lazy nation!
And it also feels like its designed that you leave your money. All the transportation beside the buses cost extra and its hard to get to the upper part with those extra transportation. At least you get a ride in the so claimed world’s tallest outdoor elevator.
For only 72 RMB which is about 12$. The cable car in the morning was only 68 RMB and the entrance 250 RMB including a insurance for whatever. Pretty much normal prices for Chinese national parks.
I skipt the Tianmen mountain since I didn’t want the same mess again. I really wanted to go up there but I dropped it and took a day off instead. Originally I wanted to be in this region by mid-end September since there should have been an event happening. Later on I figured out it was not September but October. Fucked it up …
One funny thing happened anyway. The hostel was on the roof top of a building. The elevator brought you there straight away. The button for this floor wasn’t clearly visible so it happened that I once pressed the key for a floor lower. Which to my surprise looked totally different. I was not even able to leave the elevator since a guy blocked it and asked me where I want to go. It was a big room and all the walls were kept in red as well as the floor and ceiling. In the background where a couple of bouncers and somewhere between a receptionist! Or shall I say a hostess? Yap, the hostel staff told me that this is a brothel …
Once more I got the second last ticket for a train. And even luckier, I also got the bottom bed. no climbing and plenty of space for my baggage as well as a save seat during day time. And when I got on the train I couldn’t believe that there was a english specking couple on the same car.