ZHANGJIAJIE NATIONAL FOREST PARK
"Memorable journey visiting Zhangjiajie scenic mountains!"
Zhangjiajie is a city in Hunan province of China. It is famous for its unique mountainous shapes and formations. It was recently elevated to worldwide prominence because these mountains were used as the mountains of the planet Pandora in the blockbuster movie "Avatar." Zhang is the family name, Jia means "family" and the last character Jie means "area" or "world."
We stayed at a hotel near the National Forest Park but breakfast buffet was not too good. However, the lunch and dinner at the hotel were excellent in their simple home-cooked quality. This food was much better than what we had in Guangzhou. Our guide that we engaged from World Heritage Network was a pretty and efficient local girl who spoke very good English. She also served to translate for us at the Jade shop (with a smooth-talking Chinese-Thai owner). She also showed her spunk when other tour groups were cutting into our line for the shuttle bus later in the afternoon. Anyhow, I must say we really had fun exploring the national forest park with her and if you are looking for chinese local who speaks english to aid in translation and guide for your tour, try emailing this network: worldheritage101@yahoo.com In addition, the network’s website: www.whnzhangjiajie.blogspot.com is definitely worth a surf to check out more information of the park especially their other optional itineraries and tourist maps which would be helpful for you to plan your journey with the network’s guide.
In our tour, we were fetched by our guide’s private car into a main tourist area at the forest park entrance. With our guide’s assistance, we were given individual swipe cards (with fingerprint identification, mind you) and get into shuttle buses. These shuttles will bring us to the particular attraction we were going to see. After lunch, we were taken to the cable cars. Now here was the real deal as the cable cars carried us among the peaks! We then rode another shuttle bus (driven by daredevil drivers) to reach a hiking trail which showcased several more peaks and natural stone formations, like stone bridges. At the end, we came down the face of one mountain via a 324km high tourist lift. It was an amazing day trip!
However, I cannot really convey the sheer awesomeness of the stone peak forests here. The magnificence of the natural beauty and splendor have to experience in person. Mere pictures and words do not do them justice at all. Lastly remember to get a local guide that speaks good english for communication and effective exploration purposes especially when you are in a foreign country as time is not a luxury that you will have while visiting this park.
...commented by Dan Macpherson, Sydney, Australia
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TIANMEN MOUNTAIN
We travelled to Zhangjiajie without any plan. It was just random trip and we just wanted to see what we see and experience what we were ready to experience. For some reason, Tian Men Shan is included in a tour package that we join from this network called World Heritage Network Actually we only thought of exploring Zhangjiajie alone but we only discovered that Tianmen Mountain is located at another place and has its unique attraction on its own. You can check out the 4D3N tour itinerary that we did which included Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Wulingyuan Scenic area and Tianmen Mountain in their website:www.whnzhangjiajie.blogspot.com After touring Zhangjiajie for 2 days, our guide brought us to Tianmen Mountain where you get to experience travelling by cable car, chairlift, bus and your trusty old legs. As it’s near the city and I thoroughly enjoyed Tian Men Shan. The journey starts with a cable car ride, followed by a 2-hour scenic walk at the top. The long queue and unpleasant jostling crowd was forgotten the instant we got into the cable car. Hovering between 200m and 1279m, it’s hard to stay glum for 30 heavenly minutes as 7455m of ever changing vista opens up before your eyes. At this elevation the temperature was a comfortable 18C in the morning despite the mid-30s summer forecast.
From the Upper Station, our guide took us to the scenic route covering 800m of The Ghost Valley Plank road at a gravity-defying 1400m alongside the Gui Gu cliffs. I particularly enjoyed the vertigo-inducing glass plank road for that standing-on-air feeling while staring down into nothingness from this immense height. Other notable stops are the Tian Men Shan temple, Gui Gu Moat and Yunmeng Fairy Peak Summit (1516m) for a bird’s eye view of Zhangjiaje. For the energetic, take the Central line from Tian Men Shan temple instead of the chair lifts to Cherry Bay.
On the way down, our guide guided us to the Middle Station by cable car. I always thought that Tianmen Cave is located at the top of the mountain but thanks to our guide, we didn’t end up wasting time searching for it as it was located in the middle of the cable car way. Then, we change to a sightseeing bus that travels up Heaven-Linking Avenue to Tian Men Cave. Measuring just under 11 km, there are no less than 99 corners as it winds its way up to 1300m. Here, it’s a climb up 999 steps to the top aka ‘gate towards heaven’. There isn’t much to see (or do) at the top, so do so for the adrenaline rush and sense of achievement. A half day was sufficient to cover all the above, which we did at a leisurely pace. If you have more time, you can also do the less trodden route (East Line) that overlooks Tian Men Cave, passing through Bonsai Stone zone to Yu Hu peak and if you are looking for an English speaking guide from a local guide in Zhangjiajie, I highly recommend this network and you can email them here: worldheritage101@yahoo.com In conclusion, Tianmen Mountain is the best mountain I have ever explored and if you are afraid of heights, this is one mountain that you might want to miss!
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YUANJIAJIE SCENIC AREA - "AVATAR" Hallelujah Mountains
"Zhangjiajie National Forest Park & Tianmen Mountain explored in just 4days 3nights !!!"We were actually looking to explore both Zhangjiajie and Tianmen Mountain after we have seen the stunning great views in Youtube videos. So we were searching for any tour companies in China that could provide us some good itineraries that covers both places. Much to our disappointment what we received were itineraries that ended up going to shopping places which we were not keen to go. So after doing further research in the internet, we came across a network called World Heritage Network that specializes arranging tours in South East Asia including China for tourists and we loved their published 4D3N Zhangjiajie and Tianmen Mountain Itinerary in their website. We decided to email them and engaged their guide services. I also heard that the 4D3N itinerary was very popular among local tourists and you can view it in their website:whnzhangjiajie.blogspot.com
We spent 3 days at Zhangjiajie with another day at Tianmenshan Mountain. The scenery here is absolutely breathtaking and no where else like it! The views almost seemed surreal! We used a guide under the network during our stay even though we probably could have done it on our own. Having a guide saved us time I'm sure in going from one place to the next, as well as giving us the convenience of a private transport than having to push our ways in public buses including finding some fantastic eats. We highly recommend our guide from this network as we really had a great time exploring this park with our guide and hugged each other at the end of the tour. If you are looking for a friendly and trust worthy local guide as what we did, you can email them: worldheritage101@yahoo.com
We also visited Yuanjiajie, Tianzi, Wulingyuan, Hallelujah Mountain, Golden whip stream and Yellowstone village. Golden whip stream is a must see and a fantastic walk with random run-ins with wild monkeys. I realize I am putting this many areas of the park all into this review, but it just seemed easier for me this way. There are a couple cable cars and Bailong elevator. Try and get there early in the morning for some of these to avoid the lines. We found the lines moved relatively fast wherever we went so it really wasn't too bad we found. Even though we had 2 full days for this park (the 1st day was spent sleeping in our hotel due to long train journey from Guangzhou), we got lots to cover, if you have an extra day, you'd probably be better off, just to sit and enjoy the scenery as we were just constantly on the go. I would have loved to just sit at one of the viewpoints and take it all in. There were lots of people, but that was never an issue for any of the viewpoints.
If you are visiting China, I would put Zhangjiajie on the MUST SEE list. It was definetely worth it and so stunningly breathtaking!!
...commented by Kate Witter, Ottawa, Canada
