We started this tradition of a Thanksgiving Adventure Trip to Yangshuo. This year the Turkey Gang is going new places – Zhangjiajie. Seven families are sharing the Thanksgiving adventure. It is the Turkey Gang of past Thanksgivings to include the Brennans (Judy, Dan, Danielle & Erin) and the Jacobs (Rachael, Mike, Joshua and Alyssa). This year new families have joined us – the DeJesus (Meggan, Carlos, Bella, Luci & little Carlos), the Yelland (Nicole, Stuart, Dracie & Alex), the Michaelson (Sarah, Jim, Hannah & Tommy) and the Mensonides (Pam, Mark, Grant & Anneke). We have 29 people in total with 15 kids and 14 adults for a big Turkey Gang. Our kids range in grades from a senior to 3rd grade…Hannah (12th), Grant (11th), Danielle & Tommy (10th), Emersyn, Bella & Josh (9th), Anneke, Erin & Dracie (8th), Alyssa (7th), Luci (6th), Eleri & Alex (5th) and Carlos (3rd).
The Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is a unique national forest park located near Zhangjiajie City in northern Hunan Province. In 1982, it was recognized as China’s first national forest park with an area of 4, 810 ha (11, 900 acres). It is one of several national parks within the Wulingyuan Scenic Area which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.
Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area is noted for more than 3, 000 quartzite sandstone pillars and peaks across most of the site, many over 200 metres (660 ft) in height, along with many ravines and gorges with attractive streams, pools and waterfalls. It features 40 caves, many with large calcite deposits and two natural bridges, Xianrenqiao (Bridge of the Immortals) and Tianqiashengkong (Bridge Across the Sky).
The most notable geographic features of the park are the pillar-like formations that are seen throughout the park. They are the result of many years of erosion. The weather is moist year round, and as a result, the foliage is very dense. Much of the erosion which forms these pillars are the result of expanding ice in the winter and the plants which grow on them. These formations are a distinct hallmark of Chinese landscape, and can be found in many ancient Chinese paintings.
One of the park’s quartz-sandstone pillars, the 1, 080-metre (3, 540 ft) Southern Sky Column, had been officially renamed “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” in honor of the film in January 2010. According to park officials, photographs from Zhangjiajie inspired the floating Hallelujah Mountains seen in the film.
As we were packing for our adventure, the forecast is rain all four days. We pulled more clothes and more rain gear – so much for going light as we needed extra shoes and clothes to replace wet gear.
Wednesday – Travel Day
The flights to Zhangjiajie are limited – as in one flight a day, therefore, the flight leaves Shanghai in the evening. We picked the girls up from school to head directly to the airport. Once we arrived in Zhangjiajie, our guides, David and Melody (a trainee), and the bus picked up the Turkey Gang. We have a very large tour bus for our group – riding in style!
After everyone has loaded onto the bus, we have less than an hour drive to the hotel in Wulingyuan. David had said the tunnel through the mountain opened up three years ago. Prior to the tunnel, it took over three hours to drive to Wulingyuan. We arrived at our hotel, The Pullman, and we were pleased as our expectations are low whenever we are in rural China. The lobby was nice and the rooms were nice – standard business looking hotel. We have 14 rooms all on the 3rd floor.
Thursday – Zhangjiajie National Park
Along with extra clothes, everyone has food in their suitcases. Our little pink suitcase was filled with food ONLY. We have been told there is no where to eat in the park. For breakfast, we filled up and grabbed extras for lunches. There was smoked chicken on the buffet which is perfect for my sandwich. We have good salami from the States for the girls and Jim to make sandwiches.
We met David at 8:30am to begin our adventure. It wasn’t raining when we left the hotel, but we all grabbed the one umbrella per room to be more prepare for the day of wetness. I had two pocket umbrellas from home so we were covered…along with our rain jackets and hiking boots.
The Park is very close to the hotel. With tickets purchased, we were ready to begin our adventure. On our walk to the cable cars, the rain began! Of course, there were ladies selling rain gear – jackets, umbrellas and rain booties. We bought a couple of the “disposable” rain jackets as Eleri hood wouldn’t stay on her head. Jim used one of the jackets as a rain cover on his camera bag. My Decathlon backpack had a built in rain cover so I was set for a day in the rain! After everyone was rain geared up, we were ready for the ride to the top.
Melody rode the cable car up with Jim and I. She informed us during the busy season (spring, summer & fall) the queue to get on the cable car is 3-4 hours. Our only wait was waiting for our group of 28 (one short as Jim M. is flying in tonight) to fill up the cable car at 8 people per car!
The cable car ride up was wet with steamed windows, but we were able to open a small window to get a view of the mountains below us. The view was beautiful with the fog hanging over the mountains.
The fog rolls in and out very quickly. When we got to the top to this overlook, we could see nothing but fog. In 5 minutes, the fog rolled away to open up the mountains…and just as quickly it disappeared again!
Of course, the Chinese tourist wanted a photo with our kids!
We walked in the rain to the next lookout point.
The girls looking a bit wet!
Girls trying to stay dry under any cover they can find!
While Jim stayed dried under the umbrella – the girls didn’t want to carry the umbrella!
The Turkey Gang in the rain!
The gang of kids posing in the rain for a photo – got to love them!
From this point, we all piled on little buses to the next stop. It is raining hard so the bus ride was a welcome dry place.
David informed us during busy season, the waits can be 2-3 hours to get a bus. The Disneyland “cattle gates” are throughout the waiting areas which I know are needed. The Chinese are terrible at queuing! I find the rain a welcome compared to being pushed by Chinese tourist. I have been at “nature spots” with thousands of Chinese tourist to realize that you can NOT enjoy nature in China. I think this sign covers it!
By the time we reached the next area, the rain had slowed to a drizzle.
The lookout areas are not large. Our group takes up most of the space so we only need to share with a few other tourist.
One of the guard rails had “locks of love or lovelocks”. A love lock or love padlock is a padlock which sweethearts lock to a bridge, fence, gate, or similar public fixture to symbolize their love. Typically, the sweethearts’ names or initials are inscribed on the padlock and its key is thrown away to symbolise unbreakable love.
And a beautiful view!
We walked to the next lockout area of beautiful mountains in the fog. By this time, the rain had stopped. Those in tennis shoes had wet feet. Those in hiking boots were all smiles! I had pushed my girls to wear their hiking boots. Eleri has Emersyn’s hand-me-downs, of course. They were a little big – nothing a big pair of hiking sock couldn’t fix and she does have dry feet!
With few people in the Park, we do have these look-outs to ourselves. Therefore, with no Chinese people squeezing and pushing, it makes me LOVE the weather! We were able to get some fun photos of the kids.
We walked to the next bus stop. This bus ride was to be about half an hour. The bus driver had the heat on high so we were sweating with all of our layers of clothes and rain gear. When we arrived, it felt colder outside after being in a hot bus. We saw McDonald’s golden arches. David said it was only a spot to get drinks and ice cream…no need for ice cream today. However, hot fries would be a nice treat. We did learn later that there was a full service McDonald’s in the park – David did not share this information with us!
We decided it was a good time to get out our packed lunches. There is no smoking in the Park so at this stop there was a smoking hut. It was big with benches and it was covered, therefore, dry! Lunch in the smoking room for the gang of hungry hikers. Every family arrived in Zhangjiajie with a suitcase full of food to provide lunches for the family and happy hour later at the hotel.
After lunch, we walked around the area with our guides. I had read you need a guide to get around the park and it was so true. I don’t know how you would know which bus to get on and where you wanted to go without a guide.
A little more walking and we came to the pond. One can buy live turtles to put in the pond for good fortune and throw coins into the turtles mouth for good luck!
Our next stop was “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain”. This “rock” is the inspiration for the movie, “Avatar”. We watched Avatar the weekend before our trip. Eleri had not seen it and I haven’t seen it since it was first released. The Rock does look as it did in the movie. We all commented it must have taken weeks to get a good shot. The fog rolls in and out very fast in these mountains.
The surrounding mountains around the Avatar Rock.
The Bailong Sightseeing Elevator was the next stop on our tour. The Bailong Elevator (literally Hundred Dragons Elevator) is a glass elevator built onto the side of a huge cliff that is 1, 070ft (333m) high. It is claimed to be the highest and heaviest outdoor elevator in the world.
The view going down was a bit wet, but still fun.
We were able to get a photo of the elevator once we reached the bottom.
At the base of the elevator, the rock formations are beautiful.
The girls need a few selfies on Bella’s phone!
The last stop of the day was a river walk. David said we had 70 minutes to walk to the end of the river to see the monkeys. There wasn’t much enthusiasm from the Turkey Gang for this walk. Most of the kids chose to watch a 30 minute 5D movie for the price of 80rmb ($E13) – a bit pricey, but the little hikers were done for the day. Eleri reported that the movie was cheesy but the affects were cool!
We took a short walk down the river to enjoy the view, but not all the way to the end for the monkeys!
Back at the hotel and it was happy hour time. In our suitcase full of food, we had wine and appetizers to share for happy hour. After long, hot showers, we were ready to unwind for the day. We have 14 rooms on the 3rd floor. On the 3rd floor near the elevators were a few offices. There is a cozy room with this sign on the door, “Chill Out Room”. This Chill Out room had sofas, coffee table and chairs that would be perfect for our group. We were told we could not use it. Therefore, we took over the big room next to it and moved the two chairs closer to the ONE sofa…not as much sitting area, but we made it work. Everyone brought wine and snacks to share.
We decided to stay in the hotel for dinner as there was a western restaurant for the kids. The kids went to dinner before the adults since we were busy at happy hour. We were the only people in the entire restaurant, but the food service was slow. The kids went upstairs after finishing their meals as they were tired of sitting in the restuarant. It was all fine as they had each other to keep themselves entertained.
When the bill arrived, our bill was 500rmb ($82) for 2 hamburger and 2 soups for our family (Jim & I split our meal). At these prices, we were eating out of the hotel tomorrow night! As we headed back to the 3rd floor, we all jumped in the elevator together as it was for 13 people and 1, 000kg (over 2, 000lbs). We were only 12 as Sarah had gone up earlier. The elevator got stuck! We were stuck for about 20 minutes. Finally, they were able to get the elevator to move so we could prior open the doors and jump out as it was stuck in-between floors.
I was happy to be stuck with people I know and not a elevator filled with Chinese people! After we were out, we asked the hotel for compensation for our “stress” of being stuck. What we wanted was use of the “Chill Out Room” tomorrow night for our happy hour. Mark did the negotiations for us! The Turkey Gang became stair users after the elevator incident.
When we finally arrived to the 3rd floor, our gang of kids were having fun in the hallway playing card games and other games. They were laughing and enjoying the time together! It is fun to see them unplugged from electronics and all hanging together especially with our big age span this year.
Friday: Zhangjiajie’s Grand Canyon
Jim and I were woken at 5am by our door bell. It was Emersyn telling us Eleri was sick. Jim said he would go and check on her. Emersyn climbed into bed with me. She then informed that as she was walking out the door to get us, Eleri vomit all over the bathroom floor! Great!
After a few more hours of sleep, we were up to start our day. Emersyn and I went down to check on Jim and Eleri. Eleri was feeling better, but didn’t want breakfast. She said she would go on today’s adventure. I bought some fruit back for Eleri for breakfast. She didn’t seem her usual self and today’s adventure was walking one-way with no opportunity to wait on the bus. Emersyn said she would stay home with her and they would watch videos in bed together. Eleri is a bit young to leave home alone in a hotel room!
Today’s start time was 9am and it was not raining as we left the hotel! We drove to the top of the mountain to be dropped off at the Chinese “Grand Canyon”. Again, we would take our lunches and needs for the day. The bus would pick us up at the bottom at the end of the hike. We began by going down the 900 steps through the big crack to the bottom of the mountain.
About half way down, we could slide on the granite slide for 22rmb ($3.6) or walk the last 700 steps down. The slide looked fun. We put on our “butt pads” to begin the adventure.
It actually looked scary as it was steep. However, we didn’t go fast as everyone was “stuck”. Our rubber soles of our shoes were stopping us. We had to lift our feet to get any speed. But, still fun.
The slide from the bottom looking back up. It was in two long sections – this being the last section.
When we walked out of the “slide house”, we crossed a bridge to see the waterfall.
Then, we walked down to the waterfall to get a close-up view.
The canyon is beautiful and peaceful. A wooden walkway runs along the river for a relaxing view – the beauty of nature.
After we hiked and slid to the bottom, the rain begun. It started as a soft rain. The one other Chinese group near us began to walk faster so we had the “Grand Canyon” to ourselves. I found it very peaceful walking along the river in the rain.
Then, we came to an area where the water was running over the cliff near the walkway. It was very beautiful and a bigger waterfall with the rain.
The river and views up the canyon were spectacular! The rushing sound of the river added to the peacefulness of walking along the river.
As we turned a bend, the rushing river came to a stop. Jim comment there must be a dam near for the water to stop flowing.
The water became calm and blue.
Sure enough, around the next bend, we came to the dam.
A beautiful photo of a bridge on the other side of the dam.
By the time we stopped for lunch, it was pouring! Some of the Turkey Gang found spots under the umbrellas.
Jim liked the cave as it was very dry under nature’s protection.
Judy was loving her banana and peanut butter lunch!
Danielle was daring to try some local food being cooked – lamb. Mike’s comment was, “I haven’t seen many lambs running around”!
Carlos was having a blast playing under the water drips…he was soaking wet by the time we left lunch.
After lunch, more beautiful views along the river.
This stone bridge was the last bridge before the lake at the end of our hike of the “Grand Canyon”.
A peaceful boat ride across the lake. Again, the Disney “cattle gates” was present, but we didn’t have to wait for our boat.
We finished the hike along the river around 2pm. Back to the hotel for hot showers and a rest. The girls had a quiet day watching tv together. Eleri was feeling better – it was good she didn’t spend the day in the rain. I was thrilled Emersyn stayed home with her so I didn’t have to miss the day’s activity!
The hotel agreed to give us the “chill out room” along with wine/beer and food for our trouble. We would have been happy with just the room. Happy Hour began at 4pm!
The Michaelsons are missing from Happy Hour. Since Jim flew in late last night, Sarah and Jim went to do a quick tour of Zhangjaijie National Park – two parks in one day.
We ordered pizzas for the kids for dinner at 100rmb ($16) a pizza. We ordered 6 pizzas, but they were small when they arrived so we had to order a couple more. After pizza, the gang of kids were going to KTV, except Bella and Emersyn. They are both trying out for the HS musical next weekend and the last thing they need to be doing is screaming at KTV. A KTV place was connected to the hotel. Hannah, our senior, was in charge. She was really sweet with Eleri.
The KTV room was a typical Chinese KTV room – plenty big with sofas. The kids had food, drinks and music – life is good!
The adults walked to a local place for spicy food. It was all good and it cost us 400rmb ($65) to feed ALL 14 adults…less than last night to feed just our family of four and less than the pizza for the kids at the hotel. And, we had a lot of food!
After dinner, we enjoyed foot massages back at the hotel – much needed after two days of walking! Everyone enjoy their massage, but Rachael – her lady was too rough on her feet!
Saturday: Decisions and changes
In the early morning, there was a huge thunder to go with the down pour of rain. It was pouring rain all morning. A change in plans was needed as walking in the pouring rain was not on the top of the list. We decided it would be better to visit the Yellow Dragon Cave. Now, our 8:45am start was moved to 11:30am. Everyone went back to their rooms to rest before check out.
Around 11am, the rain stopped. Judy text me to see the thoughts?? David text if we leave now, we could still do Tianmen Mountain. A quick text and amazing all 29 people were downstairs and ready to go! However, after more discussion, the group would rather go to the cave then risk being out in the rain. Judy was disappointed. It was decided Judy, Jim and I would take a taxi to Tianmen Mountain, which is in the town Zhangjiajie near the airport. We left our girls in the hands of the 11 other adults on the bus!
After shoving what items we would need for the day into our pockets, we got off the bus with Melody to be our guide. We were getting a late start so time was of the essences. We hailed a taxi and began our journey to the Mountain. We were in the taxi for 10 minutes when it began to rain…at this point we were committed as the bus had left us! It rained for about 20 minutes and stopped.
It took 40 minutes to arrive back at Zhangjiajie town. The cableway to the top of the mouton is right in the middle of the City. It took Melody over 20 minutes to get our tickets. David’s name was on the paperwork and she had to call her manager. Melody is young and not pushy – we were ready to send Jim as his Chinese is good enough to get the job done and he is pushy!
The elevation of Tianmen Mountain is 4, 980 feet (the highest in Zhangjiajie); people be amazed that about 40 peaks inside the mountain area are over 3, 200 feet.
The Tianmen Mountain Cableway is the longest mountain cableway in the world, the hypotenuse length of the cableway is 24, 459 feet (more than 4.5 miles), starting from the city center of Zhangjiajie to the ‘Hanging Garden’ on the peak.
We had to disembark at the half way point for the cableway. Generally, there is an option to take the cable to the upper half or take a bus to different areas of the park. The upper half of the cable was under maintenance. We walked to the bus area and past the cattle gates. One bus was full so we climbed on the next one. Then, we realised we had to sit here until this bus was FULL. Just the opposite problem of waiting! Luckily, the bus did fill up with the next big group from the cable cars and we were on our way up the mountain. We really couldn’t see anything – which was probably good as we would have been more uncertain if we could see the steep drop-offs.
At the top, we reached the temple. The top of the mountain was covered in fog. Melody told us we were in luck as we could take the new escalators for free today. We told Melody we were here to climb the 999 steps to Heaven’s Gate – rain or no rain. It wasn’t raining so it was an easy decision.
We began the 999 stairs to Heaven’s Gate – Tianmen Cave (means the Heaven’s Gate in Chinese).
On a fog free day, the view must be spectacular.
The cave is over 4, 133 feet elevation, the height of the cave is 431.5 feet and the width is about 50 meters, the unusual grotto is grand and magnificent. The cave is like the door to heaven; it looks like the junction of common world and the place where gods live. Guest may need to walk up 999 steps to reach the cave, it will be tried but lucky, because ‘9’ is the biggest number in Chinese culture and 999 means an eternal/forever life.
We could see the cave outline, but not much of a view today!
At the top, there is a locks of love area.
From here, we walked around the side of the mountain for this view of the fog…we are guessing there are mountains somewhere behind the fog.
Then, we entered the world of the escalators. These escalators are the new way to get up the mountain. They are still under construction as they need to be beautified. The escalators are very long and many of them – so Chinese to put escalators in the side of a mouton to move people!
At the top, similar views of Fog.
A snack shop – picking up the ideas from Disneyland to blend in with the surroundings.
A couple fun signs on todays’ hike. The fences have that Disneyland feel – made from man-made materials to look like nature.
More views from the top as we walked to the glass walkway.
This National Park is huge and we would have a hard time finding our way around without a guide.
More views from the edge…more fog!
When we reached the walkway, we paid 15rmb to entry and get these red booties.
The view looking down!
Do notice, the three of us have the walkway to OURSELVES!
The walkway looking back on our way down the mountain. We did not see it on the way up the mountain as it was covered in fog. And, yes, we had the same question – how did they build that walkway on the side of a cliff!
The fog rolled out, briefly, for us to see a few mountains!
Back to the world of the escalators for going down – all the way down to the cable cars with no 999 steps. We are on a time crunch and the three of us have walked very quickly through the park. The kids would not have been able to keep this pace. Jim walks fast all the time – Judy is in shape – so it was only me running to keep up!
The escalators have very long spans of steps. Once you reach the end of each set, you get on another set. We must of gone on over a dozen different sets of escalators. At one point, Jim was riding the rail down on the steps. He was doing fine until he hit some damp rails and gained too much speed. He tried to slow himself down by grabbing the rail, but he cut himself on a piece of metal. We bandaged him up with the “stuff” in our pockets since we left my backpack with the girls with the first-aid kit. I did have a couple band-aids in my pouch of tissues, wipes and other items every Mom carries in her bag for emergencies. Good thing I grabbed it to stuff in my pockets.
Last part of the journey was the tram down to take us back to the center of town. We had seen the McDonald’s on our way up and knew we could walk to it once we reached the bottom.
We called the Turkey Gang to determine where they were on their journey. They were at McDonald’s by the railway – perfect! We walked quickly to McDonald’s. Funny how you appreciate those Golden arches more in China. Warm fries and a warm hamburger was perfect after our journey on the mountain in the fog.
We had a quick lunch to get a report from our cave walkers.
Yellow Dragon Cavern is a typical Karst cave, an area of irregular limestone in which erosion has produced fissures, underground streams, and caverns. So far, the discovered cave is about 15 kilometers long and 140 meters high, covering an area of 48 hectares.
They reported – they thought they were taking the easy tour today, but the cave walk was up and down stairs for a long hike in the cave. When fitbits were compared, the cave walkers did 1, 000 more steps than we did on the mountain. They said it was pouring rain walking to the cave. Once they were in the cave, it was very hot. They all enjoyed the cave and it was very beautiful…and they were happy to not be walking in the rain.
The cave had a river which included a boat ride down stream.
There was a bit miscommunication about lunch. I thought we had the plan to meet them at McDonald’s – maybe the plan was only in my mind, but David tried to take them to some Chinese place for lunch. They all refused and googled the nearest McDonald’s on their phones.
We loaded up the Turkey Gang on the bus for the short drive to the airport. It was a fun adventure – a wet one, but still full of memories and beautiful photos. It is fun sharing this Holiday on an adventure with friends!