Zhangjiajie – Day Four – The Mountain – A Real S.H.I.T Experience

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Spectacular...

Harrowing,,,

Intense...

Terror...

All this awaited us as we drove the hour back into the big city and were dropped off at the cable car station.  This cableway is the LONGEST in the world…are you starting to get a picture of the primary objective of just about every Chinese construction project!  The entrance gate was packed.  It too us nearly two hours to get to the actual gondola for the ride up.  It took a full 40 minutes to reach the top of Tianmen Mountain.  

First floor cattle fencing...one hour.

 Second floor cattle fencing.

Third floor cattle fencing.

Take off.

 A long way up the mountain.

Until 2004 the mountain was not accessible.  The cable system allowed for the construction of another massive infrastructure of suspended walkways all around the cliff face…some with glass floors.  The paths were beautifully constructed with railing made of resin composite to resemble fallen branches.  The paths were mosaic cement blocks, natural stone, and ceramic tiles.  The walkways around the cliffs featured drops straight down the valley floor some 4,000 feet below.  It was dizzying and not a great place for those with a fear of heights.

I tried to step off into oblivion and Bobbie stopped me.

Getting ready for the glass walkway...it is a long way down.

 Ceremonial prayer ribbons.

In addition to the walkways were many suspended bridges over open spans between rock pillars.  This one swayed and bounced with each step.

The gardens were beautifully landscaped and there was a huge temple project that until the cable system was built, could only be visited by monks and the faithful who were willing to trek the one-person wide system of paths and rope ladders to the top.  We visited the temple grounds and discovered an massive an intricately designed main worship hall.  Throughout the grounds they were playing a very musical chant recorded by the local monks and of course for sale at the gift stalls.

We enjoyed a quick lunch of noodles and roasted corn on the cob and then walked the other side of the mountain, again along suspended walkways.  Another hour past and Bree announced is was time to head down the hill to the Gate of Heaven, a huge opening in the mountain where skydivers, wing flyers, acrobats, and even small aircraft often provide a show.  We entered a tunnel only to find a system of EIGHT huge escalators that took us down over 3,000 feet to the opening and the viewing platform.  In case you thing each of the below picture is the same escalator, look at the pictures on the walls.  

Then it was down 999 (triple 9 meaning the height of spiritual enlightenment) and also the actual number of steps…down to the bus terminal.  It was quite a long journey as the steps are only about 6 inches deep and my feet are size 13.  All along the way we stopped and took pictures with the local folks. 

At the bottom we boarded a small transport bus for the harrowing ride down the rest of the mountain to the city below.  The road is nothing but downward hairpin curves and the driver steered it as if he was on a turnpike.  After the initial screams the bus quieted to silent terror as he sped down to the safety of the lower parking lot.  We transferred to a much slower bus where the drive took us back into town.

Once on safe ground we found a large supermarket where we stocked upon crackers and peanut butter, cookies, some pastry, coffee, and additional snacks.  Bree said goodbye to us at the train station.  We later boarded our train to Shanghai, 21 hours in hard sleeper cars…open berths with three story bunks.  Our stall-mates were a family of three, a mom, Susan, who spoke excellent English, and her two adorable children.  A young woman who was pleasant but did not interact with us much, and a fellow who we knew existed only by the fact that he snored most of the 21 hour ride.  The kids were very animated and we shared pictures on our phone and computers, played some games, and enjoyed the scenery.  We ended up on the “family car” for some reason as there were numerous families with A LOT OF KIDS.  It was a great trip to Shanghai were we plan to spend a full week recovering from our treks and adventure thus far.

Susan, "Monkey." and "Bahdee-bahdee."