Zhangjiajie – Day 3

To see the start of the story or to catch up, see my first, second, or third post. If not, I’ll pick up the story the next morning, seeing new sights in Zhangjiajie, away from the spikey mountains.

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Today, I’m not going back into the forest. There is a little bit more I could see, but, according to the map, it’s just a lot of out and back trails (the map I have could be wrong and they’re all circles), there’s not much new, different, or a big attraction, and I’d have to take transport up and down, or walk down the same trail again, and as much as I like Day 2’s trail down, I don’t want to see it again.

Today, I’m going to a cave. My first one in China!

But first, I talked myself into going to Baofeng Lake. I don’t really know why I’m going, aside from I need something else to do today or I’m going to spend half of it in a hotel room.

I know it’s supposed to be gorgeous, just like everywhere else around here, but I don’t really want to see it. It just doesn’t seem that interesting or different. I know it’s my first Chinese lake, but I’ve seen tons of lakes before.

Going to the Lake

I, for some crazy reason, decide to walk to the lake with all of my stuff, as I’m changing hotels to be closer to what I’m doing tomorrow. Apparently, I didn’t learn my lesson on Day 1.

It’s less than 4km away from my hostel. Google says it should only take a little over an hour to get there. It shouldn’t be too hard. The weather is lovely, not too humid. And there’s plenty of shade.

And, it starts out as a very lovely walk. It’s also helping my legs remember how to work correctly and stop cramping. Finally, I can stop walking like an old lady, at least for now.

But, what Google didn’t mention was that half the walk was uphill. Granted, it wasn’t a steep hill, but it was a constant up for over 2km.

I considered quitting halfway through and just grabbing one of the few cabs I saw pass by, but I managed to convince myself to continue on. I made it in about an hour and a half.

Eventually, I noticed a very steep hill. It’s not short. There’s no way I was walking up this thing. If I have to go up this on foot, I’m turning around and going back the way I came and giving up on seeing the lake as a bad idea.

Instead, I realized I was at the entrance.

Getting in

Finding the ticket counter was a little challenging, as there was no mass of tourists waiting to get in or English. And, after a lengthy health/identity check by a group of what I’m assuming were some sort of security, I was allowed to go to the window and get a ticket.

The lady behind the counter knew one English word, one very important word – bus. As in – there is a bus that will take me up this hill to the lake. Of course, this being China, there was an extra cost, but it was at most 20 yuan. Nowhere near as bad as the extra fees in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. I jumped at the chance to not walk to the lake.

Then it was on through security and onto a minibus.

But there was no rush. The bus was only half full and had no plans to move until it was. It only took about 10 minutes for enough people to show up that they decided it was time to go.

The ride up the hill was eerily similar to the bus rides of the past few days – too fast and trying to throw me out of my seat at every turn. But there were a few good views and then we went downhill a bit. It was a surprisingly short ride after the 5-15 minutes of the past few days.

The whole bus climbs out and lines up to get in the boat. Slowing the process down was the need to have one of those green screen photos taken first. I’m last in line and just walk right past the photo thing. I don’t like them. But, once through, I just walked right on the boat.

Unfortunately, the boat is mostly empty and we’d have to wait until another bus load of people makes it up here, about 20 minutes.

To help keep me entertained, I noticed that there’s a pair of English speakers on the boat with me. We get to chatting, sharing life stories and work experiences. We eventually moved on to sightseeing plans and we’re both going to Huanglong Cave after. I have some new, temporary travel companions.

The boat ride itself was mostly uninteresting, the views weren’t impressive after visiting the Forest Park, but there was the occasional singing. Someone would come out of one of the little floating buildings, sing a song, and go back inside.

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After the short trip around the lake, it was time to all pile back into the minibus and ride back down to the park entrance. But, before leaving, we stop to check out and gorgeous waterfalls and a giant salamander. They are just inside the entrance gates of the lake.

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On to the Cave

Next, my new friends and I are off to the Huanglong, or Yellow Dragon, Cave. It’s too far to walk and we don’t know anything about the local bus system. That just leaves calling a Didi.

However, trying to call a Didi/taxi took forever. Apparently, there are 5 taxis/Didi drivers in the whole city and we’d have to wait in a virtual queue. We had just decided to give up and start walking to more populated areas to see if we could catch a taxi the old fashioned way, by wandering into the street and waving an arm at it. But, after going all of 5 feet, we remembered that we needed to cancel the ride and realized that one was coming to get us.

Once we reached the cave, I had to stop for some more fried potatoes for lunch before we went in, after showing both the local and the travel health codes, purchased tickets to the cave, the surrounding park is free. Then, it was time for some ice cream. (It was a really hot day.)

Eventually, we made our way over to the entrance of the cave. And, once again, we got to wait in a line for a while. As we got closer to the front, the workers were handing out a little box with a headphone. We don’t get the fancy ear pieces to hear the guide, but it’s ok, they only spoke in Chinese.

Finally, it was time to go into the cave with our guide and about 30 other tourists. It was like most other guided tours – we’d walk for a bit, then stop and something would be pointed out, and there’d be an explanation. Just not an explanation I understood.

The cave is massive! It’s supposed to be 4 floors and 20 hectares. And, there’s stairs. Lots of stairs. Why are there so many stairs in a cave? I thought it was going to be an easy day, give my legs a rest. I’m the last one up most of the staircases, huffing and puffing the whole way.

There were also a couple spots that had a professional taking pictures if people in front of some feature of the cave. One even had a gold throne to sit on!

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When going through the cave, there were people going the other way, so some tour groups must start somewhere else and go along the route backwards, or on some other route.

Eventually, there’s a boat that is too small for the number if people they’re shoving on it, especially with the “life jackets” which are bright orange squares with straps.

The boat ride was nice, especially the sitting. But there was no moving, as it was too squished. I could barely turn to look to the side, taking a picture was a herculean effort.

And that was the end of the tour. Thankfully, we didn’t have to go back the way we came, as I’d still be in there. It was mostly flat on the way out, mostly a long walkway a few inches above the water. And there was a little dog that followed us out. Why was there a dog in the cave?

The size of the cave was very impressive. However, that was all that was. There were almost no stalactites on the ceiling, and those that were there were very small. All the stalagmites had the tops lopped off at some point and were slightly rounded. The multicolored lights were also a bit distracting after a while.

Getting to my Second Hotel

I needed my new friends to rescue me from the cave and get me back to civilization where there are cabs, since I don’t have Didi. It worked out as they were going to the entrance of the forest where there are tons of cabs.

I was able to get a cab in a couple of minutes, probably could have gotten one sooner if I was paying more attention and not trying to get out of the sun.

As my new hotel is steps from the cable cars to Tianmen mountain, my entertainment tomorrow, and I can say it in Chinese, that’s where I went. It was just 16 yuan more to get there than I paid to get away from the train station.

Once again, my hotel was down an alley that I missed on my first walk past. But I got it in the second try. It didn’t help that the sign was only in Chinese.

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Food and water spending: 78.5

Attractions/activities cost: 205.4 (+125.1 on taxis)

Today’s total spending: 409