Getting ahead of the hordes - Day 4

 

One more day in Zhangjiajie

Conditions on our final morning in Wulingyuan 武陵源 reverted to the haze and smog of our first day in town, and not the relative clarity of the day before. But this is China, and sadly the sky don't lie (to quote an infamous YouTube channel), so you comfort yourself with the knowledge that at least the AQI hadn't reached the 200 level, and get on with what you had planned for the day:

The view from the dining room in our hotel where we had breakfast, a scene unlikely to inspire Gary Snyder to dash off a paean to the beauty of the Chinese mainland:

Because my wife wanted to conserve her energy for the day, we eschewed the twenty-minute walk and instead called a Didi to take us one more time to the east gate entrance of the Zhangjiajie Forest National Park 张家界森林国家公园. From there we boarded a park shuttle which deposited us at the lower station of the Tianzi Mountain Cableway 天子山索道. The views on the way up to the top: 

Looking down on Wulingyuan through the haze from the upper cableway station:

A sign welcoming us to the Tianzishan Scenic Area 天子山风景区:

From there we rode a shuttle to Helong Park 贺龙公园, established to create a previously nonexistent patriotic military connection between the national park and the Chinese Civil War 国共内战:  

Yes, there was a McDonald's welcoming people as they stepped off the shuttle, an ironic capitalist outpost. It wouldn't be the first American fast-food chain to have set up at a famous Chinese sightseeing destination that we would see on this trip:

As usual many of the rock formations have been given unique names, which sometimes require some stretching of the imagination, as in the case of "The Girl Holding a Bouquet" 仙女献花: 

Or "The Imperial Writing Brush Peaks" 御笔峰:

"The Warrior Training Horses" 武士驯马:

A small onsite museum displayed items related to the Tujia people 土家族, an ethnic minority group who live in the Wuling Mountains 武陵山脉, which includes the Wuling Scenic and Historic Interest Area 武陵源風景名勝區, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of which Zhangjiajie is part. Below is an example of the kind of traditional wedding outfit worn by Tujia brides: 

According to my wife the Tujia are also known for their silverware:

Continuing with the Tujia theme, Shu-E and I had a lunch of fried rice, river fish and mountain vegetables served from a small shack advertising, you guessed it, Tujia Snacks 土家小吃. The food was pretty good, and we couldn't complain about the view from our table:

Bellies full, we ambled over to the bus station, and hopped on another shuttle to a small stop along the road, then walked downhill to arguably the most scenic lookout of the day, "The Commander's Platform" 点将台, which explains all the photos and videos that follow:

If you're wondering why my wife always seems to be touching her cheek in these selfie-stick photos, it isn't to look coy or to hide some physical defect. Instead she's hiding the shutter button, and doing so for, um, no other reason:

On the way back up to the shuttle stop we passed by this grave hidden to the side of the trail: 

We caught a bus back to the cableway station. By this point it was early in the afternoon and we needed to move on to our next destination, so we rode the cable car back down to the lower station:

Pretending to be on the phone for some reason. Shu-E thinks in mysterious ways at times:

Close up views of the pillars as we said our farewells to China's Avatar country:

Perhaps connected to all the hiking options inside the national park, there are numerous places in Wulingyuan to get foot and body massages. My wife did just that the previous evening. Feeling self-conscious about having the world's ugliest feet, I passed on her offer to join her:

After three days and two nights at the Atour Hotel it was time to bid 再见 to Wulingyuan. We took a Didi to the Zhangjiajie railway station 张家界站. An hour-long ride on a high speed train, followed by yet another Didi trip, saw us checking into the Hampton by Hilton Zhangjiajie Tianmen Mountain, a four-star hotel in Yongding 永定区, the second of the two urban districts (the other being Wulingyuan) of Zhangjiajie City 张家界市, a huge city in terms of the area it administers. The view of the construction site and the smog from our room on the 10th floor provided the kind of typical Chinese urban diorama not usually seen by foreign tourists or influencers. 

Shu-E had chosen this hotel because of its close proximity to the Tianmenshan Cableway 天门山索道 (the building on the left, next to the construction site), only to find after making the booking that the gondola was closed and would not reopen until the start of the Lunar New Year holiday week:

This video shows what we would be missing by its closure:

That evening we ventured out in search of something to eat for dinner. Restaurants, there were many; variety, there was virtually nothing. Almost all the establishments in the streets around the Hampton were serving the same Hunan dishes, making it difficult to discern one restaurant from another. The persistent touts standing outside many of the businesses trying to get customers inside and into seats were also a turn-off: 

Passing by our hotel while still searching where to have dinner:

In the end Shu-E suggeseted this restaurant, part of a chain (there was a branch near our hotel in Wulingyuan). Being a chain meant they didn't need to have an employee standing out front calling out to passersby: 

The local beer I ordered turned out to have a disappointingly weak 2.5% ABV. It looks like I forgot how cameras work when I tried to express my displeasure to my wife: 

The food, fortunately, turned out to be much better than the beer. I had the pork-and-taro dish in the top left, while leaving Shu-E to "enjoy" the duck blood soup next to it:

I really enjoyed our time spent in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. The unique quartz-sandstone rock pillars, which served as the inspiration for the scenery in Avatar, truly lived up to their hype, and it's a pity their awe-inspiring magnificence has been poorly served on these pages by the limitations of my iPhone camera. The relatively few tourists during our visit also heightend the pleasure of our visit. As I'm putting the finishing touches on this post, China is getting ready to commence this year's edition of the Lunar New Year holiday, which will doubtless see huge crowds descend on Zhangjiajie. All thanks deservedly go to my wife, who planned the itinerary and made all the reservations.

Next up will be our day on Tianmen Mountain 天门山, another remarkable natural phenomenon that will be groaning under the weight of all the visitors descending upon it during the next week. Seeing it as we did by keeping your eyes out for the next blog post.