Zhangjiajie National Forrest Pa, Hunan, China
November 20, 2013
I feel a bit lost for words on this post. Simply because the things I have seen the past couple of days are really hard to portray in just words alone and I am tempted to just post the pictures and let you all decide yourselves what you think. Then again that said the photos alone also don’t do the place justice either. I have never been to a more breathtaking, jaw dropping place of natural beauty in my life, anywhere, ever. I know in earlier posts I’ve used words such as awesome, inspiring, amazing etc but this place is in a league of its own.
This was easily the highlight of my trip so far and until you are actually stood among and on the top of one of these limestone pillars then it’s hard to fully appreciate what the place is actually like until it is surrounding you in every direction.
I was really lucky with the weather as apparently it had rained the past few days but the first day I got cracking sunshine and almost regretted wrapping up in my big new thermal coat that I had bought to get me through Mongolia and the Himalayas. I ended up going with a Chinese couple from the same hostel I was staying at and their friend. I can’t for the life of me remember what their names are in Chinese so they gave me simplified names of Doc, Shua and Hui. All three are really nice and Doc is the only one who speaks a little English. Shua ended up getting the name of Monkey girl as she was always a good 15 yards ahead of the rest of us scurrying and clambering about up to the peaks!
We started off early and were at the park ready to start hiking at 9am. The park itself is pricey to get in at £25 for a couple of days pass, but it’s worth every single penny for the views you get to experience. Again it seems popular with the Chinese and I think in the past two days I have only seen 5 other westerners clambering about.
We started at the Zhangjiajie entrance and made our way along the Golden Whip River at ground level before breaking off the river at a place called ‘Getting together from far away’ to start the long hard trek up towards the peaks. All the various peaks and views have fairly cheesy names. It was a good couple of hours trek up before we were level with some of the peaks and the views were unbelievable. We passed views called such names as ‘Back Garden’, ‘Enchanting’, ‘Greatest natural bridge’ which is a natural limestone bridge that you cross over between two of the massive limestone towers. The trek was pretty tough going and looking back at my map which tells you the various distances and steps involved I have climbed up and down over 14,000 steps and metal rung ladders in the past two days….and my legs feel it now for sure.
We grabbed a bit of lunch then took in even more, higher towers named ‘Top of the village’ and ‘Tianbo Mansion’ which was a really scary climb at the end. Clambering up vertical rickety metal ladders at over 2,000 ft hanging off the side of a big massive tower of stone! I have to admit I am absolutely petrified of heights as a few of you probably know so I really surprised myself by pushing to do this.
When I first headed off I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to make the most of the experience and although I did bottle one point during the two days which was reversing down some ladders hanging off the side of a cliff I was really proud for how much I pushed myself helped and encouraged along by my three Chinese comrades. It was well worth overcoming my fears as standing on the top of one of these towers is something truly special when you get a full 360 degree view of the pillars and valley around you.
The Hostel at the top was pretty shabby and freezing at night so I had to sleep fully clothed with my jumper and hat on but I didn’t mind and was out for the count by about 8:30pm ruined from the first days trekking.
The next day was even more awe-inspiring as we climbed up even higher towers named ‘One step to heaven’ (the title says it all!) and ‘Corridor in the Cliffs’ before catching a bus along to climb ‘Yunqing Rock’ and then working our way down the 8,000 steps to the foot of ‘Three sisters peaks’. From there we walked what is called the ‘Ten Mile Natural Gallery’ which is about a mile at the most! Then headed for the bus at Wulinyuan Village back to Zhangjiajie. It is really hard to sum up how I’ve felt since doing this so I will leave it with what will probably be enough Photos to bore you all.
The guys I did this with have been great and have very nicely asked me to come along on the next stage of their trip to Fenghuang Village on Friday for a couple of days. The Yes Man in me can’t say no so that’s the next place on my list in China.
Enjoy the Photos.
