Category: China

Day 186: Guilin

Today marks the beginning of “Golden Week” – the National Day week-long public holiday when EVERYONE in China has vacation. If we thought China was crowded before, this week is supposed to be “nightmarish” for tourists. We had no illusions about visiting any attractions today – our only goal is to return to the city of Guilin in one piece, and get a good night sleep before our escape from mainland China tomorrow morning.

New guests hadn’t yet arrived at our hotel, so the morning was still pretty peaceful – we enjoyed our al fresco breakfast and took our time packing our bags and checking out of our room. We expected a huge line for the buses back to Guilin, but luckily we seemed to be travelling in the opposite direction as the masses – everyone in China was on their way *to* Yangshuo, we were the only ones leaving!

 

Igor is super excited for his perfectly cooked sunny-side up fried eggs

 

Igor enjoys our hotel view one final time before we check out

It’s the beginning of Golden Week, and while this is the second busiest travel week of the year in China, everyone is going *to* Yangshuo, we are some of the only ones leaving, so we have a near empty bus ride to Guilin

Our hostel in Guilin was located in a (relatively) quiet neighborhood outside downtown. On the downside, we were not within walking distance of any grocery stores, pharmacies or fast food chains (sadly, we were really hoping for some KFC…), but on the plus side we were close to a walking trail that lead us on a loop through several little villages along the river. The attractions weren’t very exciting, but that probably helped keep the number of tourists low

 

Taking an afternoon walk along the outskirts of Guilin

 

Igor does his best “Chinese tourist” impressions: snapping selfies and hiking up his t-shirt when he gets sweaty – so charming.

 

We’ve been in China for a month, and we are still baffled as to the footwear the Chinese select when going for a walk.

 

We usually ignore the souvenir stands, but there are some impressive artisans outside the Reed Flute Cave! We watch a man create glass figurines with a blow-torch, and a woman hand-stitch elaborate silk murals

 

Dozens of local tourists, enjoying the flower fields outside Guilin

 

We try to ignore the dozens of touts calling, “BAMBOO?” at us as we walk around the pond

 

Igor indulges in a bottle of fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice – YUM!

 

After nightfall, we venture out of our hostel in search of dinner. We bypass the public stage (where a Chinese opera is in full performance) and take a table at the “Often Full House” – indeed, there were quite a few tables full, so they get props for accurate advertising!

 

Our waitress brings us our Saran-wrapped dishes and a couple of menus. We are *really* hoping the “Fried Dog” is just a really bad English translation…

 

NO, WE DID NOT ORDER THE DOG MEAT.

Day 185: Biking the Li Valley

One of the highlights of any trip to the Guangxi is taking a bike ride through the Li Valley, in order to admire the karst mountain peaks that surround the area. We rented a pair of 10-speed mountain bikes from our hotel (only RMB 30, including locks so we can secure that during our hikes!) and took off towards Yangshuo. We had fantastic weather in the morning, during the most scenic part of our ride. Though clouds rolled in in the afternoon, we welcomed the shade as we parked the bikes for a mountain hike.

One of the most famous mountain peaks in the area outside Yangshuo is “Moon Hill” – a mere hour away if we stuck to the main freeway. However, we had all day to explore, so we grabbed a tourist map and charted a course along the Li River, cutting inland around the half-way mark. When we asked our hotel manager how long our proposed route would take, he seemed aback; “I think, maybe, 6 hours just to get there!” We must be faster bikers than the average tourist – even though we ended up taking a wrong turn, doubling our distance – the entire ride there and back took us 7 hours.

 

According to our tourist map, we should be biking along the river. Once we reach the river, however, we discover that the road is set back from the river, winding through the little villages and farms along the way – it’s still very scenic, but makes navigation a little difficult for us whenever we come to a fork in the road

 

It’s a glorious morning for a bike ride in the Li Valley

 

Deserted roads and lovely landscapes in the Li Valley

 

We pass by many farms and fields of crops during our bike ride

The Li Valley: picturesque fields, mountains in the background

 

We reach the small Liugong Village around 11AM, and pull over to the a quick water break, before crossing inland toward the Moon Hill

 

All the cute animals we cannot pet! A sweet, attention-hungry puppy begs for a belly rub, and a drove of curious pigs

 

We end up taking a *long* detour when we turn right too early, but finally reach the Ten Mile Gallery, which is littered with scenic spots (requiring admission tickets). We first stop at the Big Banyan Tree – a 1,500-year-old tree that sounded a lot cooler in the brochure than it was in real life. Also, correct us if we are wrong, but it looks like their precious banyan tree is being attacked by a strangler fig?

More bamboo raft rides along the smaller Yulong River

 

After biking for about 4 hours, we were getting hot and hungry – we try to buy some ice cream in the Banyan Tree park but are horrified by the RMB 20 price tag! We exit and pick up a couple of chocolate ice creams for RMB 5 each immediately outside the ticket office – my mama didn’t raise no fool!

 

Another 2KM down the road is our main attraction: Moon Hill – a limestone peak with a round hole that looks like a half moon or crescent moon, depending on your angle (the sign claims you can also see a “full moon” – we didn’t see it really see how that is possible given the hole is not a full circle…?)

View of Gaotan Town from the top of Moon Hill

 

A rock climber hangs precariously from the roof of Moon Hill – watching him dangle, several hundred feet from certain death, we honestly have no desire to ever take up that sport

 

Hiking down the hill, Lindsay mimics the selfie-obsessed locals by posing at the appropriately named “Vanity Lookout”

 

Enjoying a peaceful alfresco dinner at our hotel on the outskirts of town, admiring the bright lights of Yangshuo *from a distance*

 

Bolstered by the delicious breakfast that morning, Lindsay finally braves some Chinese food for dinner. Igor sticks to Western standards, which works out just fine for his chicken sandwich and fries, but is a total disaster for his “French Onion Soup” – a milky mess of chopped red onion covered by a piece of white toast and slice of Kraft Singles!

Day 184: Xingping & Yangshuo

Even though the neighborhood and clientele of the This Old Place Hostel were incredibly quiet, Lindsay had a HORRIBLE night sleep due to a loose piece of metal sheeting that rattled, clanged, and SMASHED against the roof of the building – since our room was on the top floor, the banging was directly outside outside our window. Even with earplugs, the noise kept waking Lindsay up until 2AM when the wind finally died. Igor, however, can apparently sleep through a tsunami and slept like a baby. When the sun came up at 6:30AM that morning, Lindsay begged Igor to let her sleep in while he took a solo hike to the Xingping mountain viewpoint.

 

Igor takes an early morning hike to a lookout point, giving him a bird’s eye view of Xingping

Xingping and the Li River

When Igor returned at 8AM, we packed up and headed down to breakfast. We decided to try and find the Fishing Village again, carefully reviewing the directions for the hiking trail with the hostel staff before we left (good thing – turns out we were *way* off the track yesterday). Since check-out was at noon, we locked out bags in the hostel’s free storage lockers before we left.

 

We load up on a proper Western breakfast (delicious!) and run through the directions carefully with the hostel staff

 

Climbing stone steps on our hike over the mountain to the Fishing Village – crossing our fingers the “leaves of three” we see on the path are not poison ivy – we encounter more pomelo trees as we close in on the village

 

Walking through the 400-year old alleys of the Fishing Village outside Xingping

 

A big pile of tiny, dried fish for sale. Well, it wouldn’t be a Fishing Village without fish!

 

The #1 attraction at the Fishing Village is the “Clinton House.” Back in 1998, during Clinton’s inaugral visit to the country, he asked to see “the real China,” and was taken to this tiny, backwater village. The owner of the house the Clinton family toured has turned it into a little shrine to the US president (charging RMB 5pp for a looksie!) – you’d think the guy would play up the fact that Hillary was there too, given the current election, but he only has eyes for Bill! I guess he’s not really following the US election.

 

A mural of photographs dominate the wall of the “Clinton House”

 

The house visited by one US President…and maybe a future US president? (Lindsay’s keeping her fingers crossed!)

 

Following the stairwell up to the roof

 

Taking in the beautiful view of the terracotta tile roof of the Clinton House

We had no desire to climb back up the mountain and potentially expose ourselves to more poison ivy, so we followed a little old lady down to the river to see if we could hire a bamboo raft back to Xingping. She tried to sell us tickets on the cruise ship for RMB 200, which we refused as we didn’t want to be packed on a boat with 50 Chinese tourists. We asked again for “bamboo,” to which she argued back something we couldn’t understand. After several minutes of hand gestures and Google Translate, we finally figured out that the bamboo rafts weren’t allowed to run until noon (we had read about this – the local government bans bamboo rafts on the Li River from 10:30AM – 12:00PM everyday in an effort to control water traffic) so we would have to wait 15min, plus, the rafts weren’t allowed to go all the way to Xingping, we would have to walk a “little distance” then take a ferry for RMB 10. Price stayed the same though, which seemed like a rip off to us, but we agreed anyways.

 

Our little old lady waves to us as we take off from the Fishing Village

 

The bamboo raft crosses the river, then takes us down a narrow stream. Once the water is too shallow for the raft, the driver beckons us to follow him on foot – he guides us about 500m down the bank, and then leaves us at a paved path to find our way back to Xingping

 

We know the general direction for Xingping, so we keep walking along the riverbank for about a kilometer until we see the wharf

Once again, we take in the beautiful karst mountains surrounding the Li River

 

Once we reach the wharf, it’s a short ferry ride back to Xingping

 

Before heading back to the hostel, we have one last attraction to visit – the 20 Yuan Viewpoint – a vista of the Li River that is duplicated on the back of the RMB 20 banknote

 

It’s a 20 Yuan View!

 

Grabbing a late lunch at the This Old Place Café – keeping it simple and satisfying with a club sandwich and a side of fries

 

Buses to Yangshuo run every 15min, so we have no wait and there are plenty of seats available when we walk to the bus stop

When we arrived in Yangshuo, we were a bit disoriented – our cell phone GPS has been on the fritz ever since we arrived in China and we couldn’t figure out where we were on the map. Our hotel was supposed to be a 20min walk outside of downtown, and we couldn’t find a marked taxi anywhere! Just as we had resigned ourselves to walking with our 18kg backpack, a short Chinese guy came up to us and started to ask, “Where are you going?” We asked if he had a taxi – turns out Yangshuo is full of unmarked taxis, so we hopped in the guy’s sedan and let him drop us off (it would have been an hour walk, BTW – so relieved we caught a ride!).

We enjoyed the rest of the evening in our quiet, Riverside Hotel – far from the hustle and bustle from downtown.

Day 183: Li River

We left our hotel at 5AM and got to the airport 3 hours before our flight to Guilin. This might seem excessively early to some, but when we saw the MASSIVE lines at security we realized we would barely make it through before our boarding time. We watched Chinese travelers with suspicion, as they tried to casually wander to the front of our line, “pretending to look at something” before edging their way in – nice try! We, of course, accidentally chose the worst line – which was actually three lines merging into one. By the time we realized our mistake, it was too late to start over and we just tried to take pleasure in denying anyone behind us the ability to cut by swinging our backpack back and forth.

When we got to the baggage x-ray and metal detector, Igor could barely keep his temper as the security agents ran his bag through the x-ray three times, and dropped his telephoto lens in the bin after inspecting it. We were confused as to why Chinese airport security bothers to have us walk through metal detectors, as everyone is also patted down by an agent with a hand-held metal detector. Up until now, we have always been patted down by agents of our own gender, but today Igor got a very thorough pat down from a female agent, who seemed to think he had explosives hidden in his underwear!

We were finally cleared to go, and we rushed off to the Executive Lounge where we stuffed ourselves with as many cookies and crackers as we could in the 15min before our flight began to board.

Once we arrived in Guilin, we caught a taxi to the Yangdi boat jetty on the Li River where we planned to catch a one-way bamboo raft to the “ancient” village of Xingping. Unfortunately, our timing was off and we reached the ticket office just as they closed for their hour and a half lunch break. Igor remained in the line, however, and viciously defended his spot when cutters tried to edge in front of him when the ticket agents reappeared. Since each boat fits four people, we were prepared to fork over double the cost, but luckily a Chinese tour guide waved us over and paired us with a French couple. We scored the front seats on the boat (#1 – yeah!) and finally had a chance to kick back, relax, and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

 

Gathering strength for our final travel leg in mainland China – we load up on packaged snacks at the lounge in Chengdu and power through the ticket line for our bamboo raft ride down the Li River

 

A couple of boots on a faux-bamboo raft, motoring past majestic karst mountains surrounding the Li River

 

The Li River flows past a towering karst mountain

 

Even though there are hundreds of PVC “bamboo” rafts at the dock, the traffic along the river is pretty dispersed, and we enjoy a serene 1.5hr voyage from Yangdi to Xingping

 

The scenic landscape of the Guangxi Province, China

Cruising down the Li River

 

Our boat drops us off at a quay a few kilometers outside the Xingping “ancient” city, where a few hawkers stand by with trained cormorants for tourist photos. We bypass the birds and continue on to the city, ready for an afternoon hike

After dropping off our bags at our hostel, we tried to follow their hand-written directions for the nearby fishing village, but after two hours wandering around the farmhouses and orchards outside the town, we were forced to acknowledge we had gone the wrong way, and gave up for the day. We headed back to the hostel for showers and a good dinner – we’ll try again tomorrow!

 

Following a dirt path out of town looking for the Fishing Village, we get horribly lost amid the tiny farms and give up

 

Pomelo groves surround the Xingping village

View of the Li River from our hostel window

 

Staying in a hostel?!? Yes! And *Igor* booked it this time! This Old Place Hostel is awesome – the staff is fluent in English and have a wealth of printed information about activities in the area, prices and schedules for buses, and even help fellow guests advertise they are looking for more people to share the cost of a tour. When dinnertime rolls around, we head downstairs to play cards and order some pizza from their wood-fired oven

Day 182: Chengdu

No visit to China would be complete without seeing pandas, so Igor scheduled a 24hr layover in Chengdu so that we could visit the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base. Touted as a “wildlife reserve,” make no mistake – this place is a zoo. I don’t mean it’s overrun with tourists (comparatively speaking, this is one of the more manageable crowds we’ve experienced in China), I mean this place is where one goes to see captive pandas on display. Now, this might be a let-down for people who want to see wild animals, but as I’ve said before, we LOVE zoos, and had no illusions about what to expect before visiting.

Since our flight from Zhangjiajie landed at 11AM, we knew we would miss the best time of day to see the Giant Pandas (first thing in the morning, when they are the most active), but we took a taxi straight to the Panda Center with all our luggage anyways. Luckily, the Panda Center has free luggage storage services, so we were able to run around the park in comfort. And even though our visit corresponded with the sunniest and hottest part of the afternoon, we were lucky enough to see four very active Giant Pandas (when I say “very active,” I don’t mean they were doing cartwheels or anything, but they were sitting up and eating – apparently that’s really all you can expect them to do). We also saw a several *adorable* sleeping baby pandas (you have to get here at their 9:30AM feeding time if you want to see they playing) as well as some foxy Red Pandas. All in all, a very satisfying Chinese attraction – Recommended!

We arrive at the Zhangjiajie Airport at 7AM – 2.5hr before our flight – only to find the ticket counter isn’t even open yet! At least we’ll be the first ones in line…

 

We’re here to see pandas and chew bubblegum…and we’re all out of bubblegum…

 

We see a huge crowd with their mobile phones out – I think it’s safe to assume there’s a panda over there!

 

Eating and sleeping – what pandas do best

 

Igor rolls his eyes at the great wall of mobile phones – although, to be fair, this park was one of the least frustrating attractions we have visited in China. We suspect the visitors were more acculturated city-folk verses mainland “country-bumpkins”. True, there were crowds and lots of cell phones, but people were much more courteous about letting others take a turn with their camera, and no one pushed or cut in line all day!

 

BABY PANDAS! OMG, CUTE CUTE CUTE!

 

The raccoon-like Red Pandas – not really related to Giant Pandas, but they sure are cute!

 

Strolling the bamboo-shaded paths at the Chengdu Panda Research Base

 

The look of sheer bliss on this guy’s face as he chows down on a stick of bamboo is just precious. When he finishes the sticks in his hand, he starts frantically searching through his pile of bamboo, looking for another tasty snack – Who’s a hungry panda? You’re a hungry panda!

The park has a large population of raggedly-looking peacocks running around – we feel so bad for them as they are clearly harassed by all the local tourists who pull out their tail feathers for souvenirs

 

A flock of surprisingly friendly black swans swims in the “Swan Lake” – they seem jealous of all the attention and food the tourists give to the koi – they just want a little love!

 

Panda sperm! This facility is all about Giant Panda reproduction, and trying to bring the population back from the edge of extinction through breeding in captivity

 

China LOVES Kung Fu Panda – his image is EVERYWHERE: buckets of ramen, the sides of buses, and – of course! – at the Panda Research Center! Somehow, I doubt DreamWorks has approved the image licensing for these statues…but then, China doesn’t seem to care about American copyright laws

We spent a few hours at the Panda Center before catching a taxi to our hotel – a really cute place with staff that spoke *fantastic* English! Since we had an early flight the next morning, we pre-booked a car to take us to the airport in the morning, and called it an early night.

 

The Wenjun Mansion Hotel is so quaint – an old-fashioned (but newly renovated) building surrounding a courtyard in an “old-city” style neighborhood of Chengdu

 

Still boycotting “exotic” foods, we have a safe (and tasty!) dinner at Pizza Hut – which is surprisingly swanky: they even had a wine list!

 

The brightly-lit, walkable “old-Chengdu” neighborhood of Qintai Road – we didn’t expect to like Chengdu this much, but this city is really enjoyable! Wishing we had another day or two to explore

 

“Dance-aerobics” and a Chinese opera house in the Chengdu Culture Park

 

Walking by the Sanhua Tower during our evening stroll in Chengdu

 

Returning to the charming Wenjun Mansion Hotel – as much fun as Chengdu is, we have an early flight in the morning

Day 181: Zhangjiajie City – Tianmen Mountain

Our plan for the day was to visit Tianmen Mountain National Park – a 5,000ft high mountain featuring a distinctive “keyhole” opening on its highest peak and one of the world’s longest cable cars to the top. The hotel staff told us the cable car doesn’t start running until 8AM, so we headed down to the buffet breakfast around 7AM, before hailing a taxi to the park ticket office.

 

Waiting in line for the cable car up to the top of Tianmen Mountain – it’s just after 8AM, so the wait is very short

 

The 7KM cable car line is the longest in Asia and takes us half an hour to ride to the top. We snigger as one of the scared Chinese tourists holds onto the rail with white knuckles, but when the car started it’s steepest part of the ascent – 37⁰ angle with a good 4,000+ft drop – Lindsay started to get a little vertigo herself!

 

We have a foggy view of the surrounding peaks from the top of Tianmen Mountain

 

We have to wear protective covers for our couple of boots as we walk across one of two glass-bottom walkways that circumvent the cliffside

 

The view from the glass walkway is dizzying, as it is a straight 4,000+ft plunge to the bottom – no pushing!

 

A cement walkway plastered to the side of the cliff leads us around the mountain

 

We enter the appropriately named “Forest of Wishes,” where hundreds of thousands of visitors before us have tied red prayer ribbons to the surrounding trees and guardrails with their wishes written on them in Chinese. A nearby vendor is selling blank ribbons and markers nearby

 

We walk along the “complicated” landform, careful not to “drift” off the precipitously high walkway

 

We spot a rare break in the flow of tourists and take a few precious moments to admire the view from an empty bridge

 

Lindsay plays around in the “Bai He” – a wooden structure with moveable walls inside. It’s some sort of symbolic I-Ching art installation – whatever, it’s fun to turn the inside into a maze!

 

Lindsay tosses a pebble into the “Son Craving Cave” – hoping for twin girls!

 

Yu Hu Peak – more like, “YA HOO!” peak – just like in the other parks in China, the local tourists like to scream at the top of Tianmen Mountain to hear fellow travellers echo their call

View of Tianmen Mountain from Yu Hu Peak

 

Descending from Tianmen peak via a series of about a dozen escalators hidden inside the mountain

 

Hundreds of “locks of love” adorn a giant lock at the base of the “keyhole” opening of Tianmen Mountain. We walk down a very steep stone stair to the beginning of the road, where we will catch the bus down to the city

 

An incense-burning altar contributes to the hazy atmosphere at the keyhole viewpoint on Tianmen Mountain

 

We catch the bus back to the city – even though it’s only 11KM, it takes us a little over an hour to traverse the 99 hairpin turns down the mountain

 

We are starving by the time we get back to the city, and the humid heat is making us way too cranky to search for food. Without a second thought, we march into the air-conditioned McDonalds and pig out on fast food. We catch eyes with half a dozen fellow Westerners and the thought crosses our minds: “So…China has defeated you, too?”

Once our bellies were full of burgers, we got a second wind and decided to find a grocery store to stock up on snacks and pick up something to bring back to the hotel for dinner. We spent the rest of the afternoon hiding in our air-conditioned Best Western, uploading photos and writing blog entries.

 

Pairing our second bottle of Chinese wine with hard-boiled eggs, bread and bananas – real gourmands, we are. Unfortunately for us, the Best Western doesn’t have any English-language channels, so we watch one of our remaining “Continuum” episodes that Igor downloaded before we left the USA

Day 180: Zhangjiajie – Day 2

Lindsay (strongly) insisted I write a guest post.

Last time I wrote something that wasn’t code was in college, so I’m a bit rusty. Apologies in advance 🙂

So here’s all the wonderful things Lindsay missed:

After a strenuous hike of about 3 hours to a mountain top we skipped the day before….

…I emerge at the top a sweaty, tired mess. Besides beautiful scenery during the ascent, I was “rewarded” with a sea of selfie snapping tourists at the top who arrived by tram/cable car/elevator. They swarmed me for group photos as if I was Brad Pitt fresh off a divorce press release. I contemplated setting up a stand and charging 10 yuan per photo; surely it would be way more lucrative than my former career! but alas, I had more park to cover.

After 15 minutes of trying to do the penguin shuffle to “enjoy nature” with thousands of others (and resisting the very strong urge to jump off a cliff to make it stop — good thing there are signs… )

 

I saw the one person that would make it all OK. That would make the entire crowd fade away a distant memory. That would make Lindsay wish so much she was with me. He appeared high above the crowd, smiling at me with his long white flowing beard, with a halo of white and red lighting the way. Yep, you guessed it — it was the Colonel Sanders, and yes, the Chinese let us build a KFC at the top of their beloved national park. I bet if Trump privatized our parks, we’d have something similar at the top of Grand Canyon. With a “beautiful” Trump branded elevator 🙂

I won’t disclose whether I ate there or not — but let’s just say the other options in the park were limited:

Seriously, what is that? pigeon chicks? What ever happened to General Tso’s chicken or sweet & sour pork??

Anyway, back to the park. Chinese have an interesting approach to nature conservation — they litter their parks with (dare I say it, tacky) escalators, elevators, bridges, ‘glass’ walkways, trams, cable cars, and tourist shops. It’s really more of an amusement park vs. a natural landscape. Different strokes for different folks I guess, certainly not my (or Lindsay’s) cup of tea.

I did, however, cave and ride the “world’s largest outdoor glass elevator” (Lindsay refused on the first day due to the hefty $10 price tag); Luckily she wasn’t there to reel me in, and by golly, sometimes, you just gotta treat yo’ self 🙂 I got lucky — there was zero line, and in no-time I was whisked away in an elevator crammed with 15 tourists to the top of the mountain. Lucky for me, everyone in my elevator was incredibly short, so even though I was crammed in the middle of a heap of tourists, I had a lovely unobstructed view. The 3 minutes of Oooh’s and Ahhh’s from the other tourists were so intense, I thought we might be watching the moon landing for the very first time. Either that or they were having an intense 3-minute long orgasm. Either way, I thought the experience was just OK, certainly not worth standing in line for and not “Oooh/Ahhh” worthy.

 

As much fun as I was having, I did miss my dear wife, and was thrilled to reunite with her outside the park gate promptly at 5:30pm for our onward journey to Zhangjiajie city!

Day 179: Lazy Day at the Harmona Resort

On Saturday, we enjoyed a day of rest and relaxation at our oasis away from Zhangjiajie National Park. We spent the majority of the day on our computers (Lindsay catching up on blog entries, and Igor writing code for a new algo trading system), taking a break around lunchtime to check out the resort pool and gym. That night, while the rest of the resort attended an outdoor BBQ (USD$50pp), we hid in our room with our store-bought instant rice dinners and indulged in English-language movies.

 

Lindsay has to buy a swim cap for USD$2.50 in order to use the resort swimming pool – REALLY? Spitting indoors, coughing with your mouth open, letting your children defecate in the streets is all OK, but *hair* in the swimming pool is where the Chinese draw the line on sanitation?

Over dinner, we discussed our plans for the next day. We had to check out of the Harmona by noon, as we were staying in Zhangjiajie City (40KM away) for the next two nights. Lindsay’s ankle was still really bothering her from the previous day’s hikes, so we decided to split up on Sunday – Igor would take the free shuttle into the park at 9AM and use his old admission ticket (which was good for 4 days from the date of purchase) to explore the last section of the park that we missed while Lindsay would enjoy the hotel room and get some more writing done in the morning.

Therefore, the next entry will be a “guest post” from Igor, detailing his solo exploration of Zhangjiajie National Park, and the great lengths he went to in order to preserve his dignity and not cry from the terrible sadness of being away from his beloved wife for a whole day. What a little trooper!

Day 178: Zhangjiajie – Day 1

Even though the Harmona Resort ran a free shuttle bus to the park entrance, the first shuttle didn’t leave until 9AM, which was a much later start than we wanted, so we booked a taxi there and reserved seats for the 5PM return at the end of the day. We made our way to the buffet breakfast (which was AWESOME! Best breakfast spread so far in China – huge selection of Western choices) at 6:30AM, and took off for the park at 7AM.

We had tried to download an English map the night before without any luck, but we had a vague idea of where we wanted to hike, thanks to the Lonely Planet’s “Zhangjiajie in Two Days” recommendations. While most tourists head straight for the Bailong Elevator – a 1,070ft glass elevator which is the tallest lift in the world – we hopped off the shuttle bus early and approached the cliff on foot via the Golden Whip Stream.

 

As is the case everywhere in China, there is construction going on in Zhangjiajie Village (more hotels, no doubt), just outside the park entrance

 

We are shocked at the lack of a line at the ticket counter – at least getting into the park will be easy!

 

The park is massive – according to the Lonely Planet it is divided into three scenic areas. We start off on the canyon floor in the main “Zhangjiajie” section, and head towards the Bailong Elevator, which is the start of a second scenic area

 

While there are a handful of tourists on the trail next to the stream, very few plan to walk the whole way – most just take a few pictures then turn around and catch the bus. We plow forward and soon find ourselves ahead of the crowd

 

We have a clear trail along the Golden Whip Stream where we can admire our first view of the famous karst pillars of Zhangjiajie

 

Lindsay refuses to even consider taking the glass elevator up the mountain! Nevermind the long line of annoying tourists, or the RMB 75pp cost – we visit parks to enjoy the nature! The walk up the mountain wasn’t easy, and takes us over an hour. Lindsay has to redistribute her backpack during the hike, and watches in amazment as a local vendor carries 4 boxes down the mountian on his shoulders!

 

When we finally reach the top, we find ourselves alone with a beautiful, unobstructed view of the “Stone Peak Forest”

 

Just the two of us and a couple dozen karst towers in the distance

 

Backpacker Igor takes in the stunning view of the Zhangjiajie landscape

We were now in a second section of the park – Tianzi Shan Scenic Area. Even though we knew we would run into crowds, we had climbed all the way up here so we figured we couldn’t climb back down again until we had visited the famous view points. We joined the herd and slowly shuffled forward, like cattle being driven to a slaughter…

 

We cross a narrow ravine, where we get a bird’s eye view of more majestic karst pillars

 

The bridge crossing the ravine is *packed* with selfie-snapping tourists

 

Don’t care how long my life would be, get me away from this crowded puddle!

 

It’s a short circuit to visit the most famous lookouts, but it’s slow going due to the number of people on the trail

 

The No. 1 Highest Natural Bridge connects two of the karst towers, 350m above the canyon floor

 

Taking a break from the masses to check out the view

 

Thousands of red prayer ribbons and “locks of love” cover every inch of the guardrails on the “Mountain of Lock”

 

We return to the canyon floor and hike 5KM along the Golden Whip Stream to the other end of the Zhangjiajie Sceneic Area

It was only 1PM by the time we reached the end of the trail – far too early to call it a day (especially since we were planning to take tomorrow off). We decided to forgo the cableway and climb yet *another* mountain – 2+ hours up over 3,000 stone steps to reach the Huangshi Village viewpoints, 1,000m in the air! The second ascent of the day was a true test of Lindsay’s stamina, but the views were totally worth it – the late afternoon light lit up the rocks with a gorgeous golden glow, and (best of all!) this part of the park wasn’t nearly as popular as the section near the elevator, so the trails were actually pleasant to walk on!

 

The hike up to Huangshi Village is longer and steeper than the first mountain, but has the added bonus of lookout points along the trail

 

We pass a large troop of macaques on our way up – luckily we ate all of our food already and they ignore us as we calmly walk by

 

Getting a close-up view of a neighboring karst tower

Zhangjiajie – the “Avatar Mountains” of China

 

Taking our time to explore the many pillars surrounding the Huangshi Village mountain

We are utterly exhausted after our two strenuous hikes, but we feel satisfied that we covered a lot of ground during Day 1 of our park visit, and feel guiltless about taking it easy on Saturday. By the time we reached the base of the mountain, it was already 4:45PM, so we knew making it back to the park entrance in time for our 5PM shuttle was a long shot. Once we reached the exit, however, we realized it was impossible – apparently the shuttle buses within the park do not connect to the separate entrances! When we showed the park staff a picture on our camera of the entrance we needed to get to, they told us the only way back was to exit the park and take a public bus for RMB 10pp.

We were a little annoyed by the hidden cost, but as there were plenty of shops outside this exit for us to do our grocery shopping, we decided to make the best of it. We picked up enough instant dinners and snacks to last us for two days before trying to hail a taxi directly to the hotel. Unfortunately, the only guy we could find was an unmarked taxi who insisted on charging us twice the fair price, so we ended up taking the public bus to the main park entrance so we could find a real taxi. By the time we got back to the hotel, we had been out for about 12hours – we had earned a rest!

Day 177: Travel Day to Zhangjiajie

We had a mid-day flight to Zhangjiajie, so we didn’t have any time for sight-seeing today. We had a lazy morning at the hotel (so sorry to leave – the convenience and comfort made us really miss city-living), and still had plenty of time to take the subway to the airport. After checking-in for our flight, we headed to the Executive Lounge which was a *vast* improvement on the bare room we had in Jiuzhaigou: a big lunch buffet, dozens of packaged snacks and even booze! Needless to say, we were in a great mood for our flight!

Now *this* is a proper Executive Lounge! We help ourselves to a BIG lunch at the buffet (including wine & beer!), and nick a handful of snacks for save for later

The Zhangjiajie Airport is 40+KM from the park entrance, and we were staying in a resort a good distance from the park, so we headed towards the line of taxis once we arrived and picked up our checked bag. Igor had to pull out his “no-nonsense” negotiating skillz when these wise-guys tried to overcharge us on the fare. We knew from online research and the Lonely Planet that a taxi from the airport to the park should only cost RMB 100, but it’s *always* smart to confirm the price before departing. “Duoshao?” (How much?) Igor asked. The guy typed, “500” into his phone. Igor didn’t even dignify that with a counter offer, simply scoffed an started walking away. After rejecting “400”, “300”, and “250” Igor finally got the driver to agree to 180. That’s my baby!

It was close to 5PM by the time we reached the hotel and check in, so we didn’t have time for much else besides exploring the resort grounds – which were AWESOME! We were 20min by car away from the park entrance, so we were far from the chaos of the village. The resort was calm and peaceful, and we appeared to be the only guests! (This had to be an allusion, surely everyone was simply still in the park?) We admired the outdoor pool, gym and restaurants, making plans to once again skip the park on one of the weekend days and hide out in the resort. The only drawback to being so far from town is that we were forced to eat dinner at the resort restaurant, as we discovered a taxi to the village would cost RMB 80 each way. The money we would save by eating ramen would not make up the RMB 160 taxi ride, so we decided to order the cheapest option on the menu (club sandwich and fries – actually pretty tasty) and made plans to stock up on food before leaving the park the next day.

 

The Harmona Resort is several miles away from the park entrance, which means we are protected from the noise and mayhem of Chinese mass tourism – safe in a quiet, tranquil cocoon

 

Where is everybody? We come down to dinner at the “western” restaurant to find it deserved at 7PM! Maybe everyone else is at the Chinese restaurant? Whatever – not going to complain!