Zhangjiajie – Day 4

To see the start of the story or to catch up, see my first, second, third, or fourth post. If not, I’ll pick up the story the next morning, my final day in Zhangjiajie.

---

To start my last day here, it’s raining. And it’s not a little drizzle. It’s pouring! Cats, dogs, and frogs are coming down. The weather apps say the rain shouldn’t last that long, and I just have to hope they’re right, for once.

But, it gives me a chance to watch a little of the Olympics. I don’t have a TV so they’ve been more than a little challenging to watch. I still haven’t seen more than a minute of highlights of the opening ceremony.

It also gives my employers a chance to pester me some more about being somewhere that someone with Covid was. About a week before I left, Nanjing had an outbreak due to some improperly attired airplane cleaners. It’s spread to almost 200 people in over 10 cities in 5 provinces.

One of the infected people went on vacation to Zhangjiajie. They left before I got there, but their itinerary and possible contacts were discovered while I was there. The day after I got home, Zhangjiajie went into lockdown and closed everything.

Going to Tianmen Mountain

Once the rain finally let up, I was able to go out, grab breakfast and water, and cross the road to the cable car station to get my ticket for the day.

There are 2 main options for tickets – one has a bus ride along a very winding road. It is not recommended for those that get car sick, like me. The non-bus ticket it a little more expensive, but it’s worth it to not throw up halfway down the mountain. Once you selected whether to get the bus or not, you also need to select the order of your transportation. Do you want line A, B, C, 1, or 2? I went with A.

Since I’m taking the cable car up, I need to figure out how to get in the correct door of the building. Turning the corner leads me to several different bus stops and waiting areas. I see a sign for lines B, C, and 2. No A.

I decided to join a random line off to the side and ask where to go, but I had accidentally joined the line I needed and was able to almost walk right on a cable car.

I’ve heard that it could take an hour or 2 to get up the mountain on busy days, but, since the attractions have been mostly empty and I’m visiting on a weekday, I had no such issues.

The ride up is long and slow. For most of the beginning of the ride, you’re just over the tops of the trees and buildings. You need to go a ways horizontally before you start going vertically to get to the top of the mountain.

But there were some great views along the way. And lots of clouds.

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Mountain

Once off the cable car, I had the option of taking either the East route or the West route around. Both paths meet up on the far side of the mountain top and form a big circle. So, there’s no wrong way, just the first way. I go East as it was right in front of me, although it would have made more sense to go West because the escalators down are a little bit into the East route.

There are 2 or 3 glass bottom walks you can do when circling the mountain top, but as I am not a fan of heights, especially anything that it looks like I can fall off of, I avoided them. They are also an extra 5 yuan each.

But, the cliffside walks are free and part of the normal path around. There’s no way to avoid all of them. They aren’t that wide and they terrified me. I was able to recognize a few other people with a fear of heights as they would grab the railing any time they moved to get close to the edge for a picture.

I also discovered the world’s worst animal. Its call sounds like a metallic scream because of all the echoing. The worst part was that it’s at a pitch that hurts my brain and it won’t stop. One calls, then another, and another, and another, on and on.

But, walking along the Eastside, I did get to see some amazing views, even if they were a little covered by clouds. And only be a little terrified of the height.

• 

• 

Eventually, I made it halfway around, just in time for lunch. There was something calling itself a restaurant and it had some good dumplings. Yum! But I did miss the fried potatoes, just a little.

Also at the back of the mountain was a ski chair lift to take people up to the very top of the mountain to see the building they built there, for an extra fee, of course. I did consider going, but if I took the chair lift, I would wind up back at the beginning and I wanted to go to see the West route.

Instead, I walked around behind it and saw a temple that was up there. I have no idea why it was there since all the explanations were in Chinese. It was a fairly nice Buddhist temple, if a little run down and in need of a coat of paint.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Going Down

After the temple, it was time to start my way down the mountain. The first step, make it back to the escalators. I could have walked back along the East route and seen all the same sights again, or the West route and seen new things. Obviously, I chose the new things.

What I didn’t realize before starting was that the path was all uphill and mostly a cliff walk. I was not happy with the discovery. I had hoped that there’d be some more options to not be on some concrete bolted to the side of a mountain.

The West side looks shorter on the map, but, in reality, it seemed to take forever. I don’t know if it was just the fear of heights getting to me, the uphill, or I was just tired and didn’t want to walk anymore. At least there were some great views to entertain myself with, as long as I didn’t look down.

• 

• 

• 

I think the worst part of the west route was either the suspension bridge that went up and down with each step or the little glass lookout that I went on for some crazy reason. But, eventually, made it off the never-ending cliff walks and back to solid ground.

• 

• 

• 

Next up was the escalator down through the mountain. Yes, they really built an escalator inside the mountain. Well, technically, there were 8 escalators all in a row in the mountain. They ended at the cave, or as I like to think of it, the giant hole.

Being in the cave was not all that interesting. There were some nice views on the little walk from the escalator to the hole, but the cave itself was unimpressive from the inside. Not helping was a really ugly and formerly see-through protective partial roof above the walkway, probably to prevent things from falling on the tourists. And some construction going on, probably to add either a gift shop or a food/convenience store.

Most pictures of Tianmen Mountain have the cave and this massive set of stairs in front of it. After taking some pictures of the stairs from the top, I go off to the escalator, thinking my ticket will let me on. It doesn’t. I’d have to pay another 32 yuan. So, word of warning if you decide to go up via my down route, you’ll have to pay for the escalator or walk the stairs. All 999 of them.

Walking down them was not a pleasant experience either. They are narrow, nearly a third of my foot didn’t fit on the steps, and steep, very steep. There are a lot of handrails and announcements encouraging their use.

Miraculously, I don’t kill myself on the way down. And I decided to reward myself with an ice cream and a seat.

Once I’ve recovered enough from the ordeal, the speedy cable car ride the rest of the way down the mountain was just a quick walk across the plaza away. Most tourists take the bus the rest of the way down, but the road has 99 horrifying and hairpin turns. And I highly doubt the bus drivers on this mountain are any different than those I met on previous days here. And after getting a good view of the road, I’m more convinced that I made the right choice in spending the extra 40 yuan for the cable car.

This cable car was the largest one I’ve seen here, at 20 seats, and the least popular, as I almost got to ride down by myself but 3 others got on at the last second. One very steep descent later and I’m back on the ground. Finally. It took almost 2 hours for me to get from the escalator to the ground, granted I did stop to eat a popsicle. So, remember to leave plenty of time for going down, if you have to catch a train or plane afterwards.

On the way out, I passed by the Fox Fairy show’s theater. It’s like a little city! There are 2 shows that you can see while visiting Zhangjiajie, and I’ve heard that the Fox Fairy show is very good and I meant to go see it, but there was another Covid outbreak going on in China and I didn’t think it would be a good idea to go (it’s not that I was just lazy and didn’t feel like moving the night I had planned to go. Honest!).

(Update: A few days later, I found out a guy who did have Covid went to the other show when he was there the week before I was. A few people at the show did get sick along with some of the locals. The whole city went into lockdown.)

Once I finally reached the exit and was out of the park, it was like a ghost town. The exit of the park is not the same place that I got my cable car ride up. It’s nearby, but it’s a 10-minute car ride away. For a second, I’m terrified that I’m going to have to walk out of here. There is no one here, no cabs, no one. But then, I see a sign saying “Shuttle Bus”. I’m saved!

After yet another minibus ride, I’m back where I started. And in a wonderful location to hail a passing taxi to take me back to the train station.

At the Train Station

This time when I go through security, they actually do more than look at my passport before waving me through. The guard types out my passport number first, then waves me in. And I quickly shove and push my way through the rest of the security process. They really don’t believe in lines here!

I grab a quick fast food dinner and a couple small bottles of water (they made me drink that last of my last bottle when I went through security). And I really don’t feel like paying 5 yuan for a normally 2 yuan bottle of water again.

Then, it’s time to wait for my train, for about 90 minutes.

---

Today’s route:

Food and water spending: 141

Attractions/activities cost: 278 (+22 for a taxi)

Today’s total spending: 441

Trip total costs: 2,543.5 (about US$400!)