Wednesday, November 28, 2012

27/09/2012

ZhangJiaJie Day 1.

The hotel we are staying in during the time at ZhangJiaJie is the Sunshine holiday hotel, which is said to claim to be one of the top rating hotel of the area. Although, there really isn't many people in this small town of a province.

Today's breakfast buffet, again, simply marvelous, choices are extensive just as our previous hotel. and the ambiance of the hotel, along with its staffs, really goes extra miles to emphasize their belief and the performance worthy of a 5 stars.

Our first destination today is the first national park officiated by the China Republic, which is currently nearing its 30th anniversary and we are warned about larger tourist flow.

It's a 50mins bus ride up and into the inner part of the state where the park lies.

We can clearly notice that the locals are definitely driving much more aggressively than the previous city, lack of enforcers per se, our driver and all the other road users just keeps hitting their honk all the time.

So, the first area of the park is where the name ZhangJiaJie came from, story goes that the province was first visited by a General with the first name "Zhang", and upon reaching this serene, mountainous haven decided to claim the land for himself and was thus named ZhangJiaJie, which literally means the Region of Zhang  by the man himself, and he claimed a huge amount of the land circling a tree of that time. However the story also goes that the General's arrogance roused another General's anger and was beheaded in a duel, and the tree was chopped down, though the name remained unchanged.
In this side of the park is a gallery exhibiting naturally formed mountain peaks that resembles certain characteristics, an electric train was constructed along the gallery to take tourist for a spin showing these characters, along with a timed, pre-recorded guide played all the while.
The one easiest to spot and imagine is "The old man picking Herb" among one of the peaks, where in we can clearly sees an old man with his clear chin feature carrying the herbs he picked on his back.
The other side of the park, which we shall proceed over to on another long bus ride after lunch is YuanJiaJie, which is where its breathtaking scenery are featured in the Avatar movie.
We proceed up to the mountain roads which is 3km in height on a cable car, whereas the rest of the journey within the 396km square park will requires much work on our feet.


We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking along the beautifully made park which preserves many of the original nature and look on to the numerous amazing feats done by mother nature herself.
We took many pictures but this place really requires you to see for yourself to be awed by its many seemingly impossible beauty.
At the end of the day, we descend from the mountain on a lift which is one of its kind, built to one of the mountain peak, it is the tallest lift as well as the fastest. 

Photos:


A stone with ZhangJiaJie written on it by the previous Premier.

10 "Li" gallery, where the art is nature itself.

Look at the Top right corner, can you see the "Herb picking old man"?

River flowing down the mountain, they're green...

Entrance to where they take the Avatar movie's scene.

A naturally formed door in the mountain, an auspicious sign in Chinese culture.

A.K.A Mt. Hallelujah as in Avatar.


Layout of the park.

A bridge was formed between the mountain peaks. named "World's No.1 bridge".


As in the Avatar movie, familiar?





It's so cold, we took the lift down the mountain, last scene is this uniformly aligned peaks that looks like soldiers.


Claimed world's tallest lift.






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