We both slept very well last night (probably due to exhaustion). We made it to the airport with time to spare. It is interesting watching the Chinese line up for service…we were in one long line to check in with there being about six ticket counters. When they got near the head of the line, they would move into little mini-lines behind each ticket counter instead of waiting for the next available. There was also a second adjacent line to a single ticket counter…have no idea why. Occasionally individuals in that line would move over and insert themselves into one of the mini-lines. Upside is that they were actually using lines…not something we always saw on our previous trip to China.
The flight to Zhangjiajie was pretty uneventful. The plane was propeller driven and wasn’t particularly large. The plane loaded from the back so the two large first class seats were in the back of the plane. We managed to get a few nice pictures from the plane of the countryside and rivers.
Our three pieces of checked
luggage constituted a full 60% of all luggage checked for the flight. Needless to say there was a very short wait
for our bags.
We were met by Gabby, our guide and driven to the cable
car station for our trip up Mt. Tianmen.
She stated that the cable car is
reported to be the longest in the world (although we could swear that some of
the other cable cars we took in China were at least as long).
We had some very good views of the town and buildings on the way up. There were also fields of rape plants in bloom (vivid yellow flowers).
The views of the surrounding mountains from the cable car were pretty awesome most of the way up although it was pretty hazy.
We also had some very good views of the really windy road up the mountain.
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| Heaven's Gate...see the tiny slit in the mountain. |
and of people walking along the paths (suspended over the cliffs) along the mountain top.
At the top it was pretty cloudy with minimal visibility (no thanks again to the capricious Travel Weather Gods). Occasionally the winds blew holes in the clouds so we could see some of the surroundings. The walk on top of the mountain (at 4700 feet or 1,430 meters above the valley floor) was lovely even with the limited views.
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| Sending up prayers via red ribbons |
One section of the walk was over glass panels, allowing you so see straight down the side of the cliff. However, with the clouds the view was limited to 15 or 20 feet so, for Mary with her slight height issues, this was not a deterrent.
Then it was half way down the mountain to the mid-point
and a bus to take us to Heaven’s Gate, a 131.5 meter (431 feet) high hole in the
mountain. The 20 minute bus ride was on one of China’s 10 most famous drives, the “99 Bends Mountain
Road”. It was extremely windy, had
several tunnels and several stretches where the road was carved in a partial
tunnel with one side fully open to the views.
From the bus stop at the top one could take the Stairway to Heaven up to
Heaven’s Gate. There are 999 steps to
the gate (999 being a lucky number in China).
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| View of the mountains |
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| Heaven's Gate in the Distance |
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| 99 Bends Road |
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| 99 Bends Road cut into the side of the mountains |
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| 99 Bends Road |
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| Paul heading up to Heaven's Gate |
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| Part way up the 999 steps |
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| View of the valley from part way up the stairs |
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| The crowd heading up (and down) the stairs) |
Paul did the round trip hike in about 40 minutes, Mary
didn’t even try it. Paul believes that,
on an age adjusted basis, he probably did a better job than a lot of the
younger folks who were huffing and puffing and stopping to rest at least as
much as he was.
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| Can you see Paul? He's all in white standing in the middle of the stairs. |
The tour included a number bedrooms,
the old private school,
the library,
a huge dining room suitable for banquets (when you an imperial official you do banquets),
One item that was very interesting around town was the black stone pavers, many of which had the fossil remains of shell fish.
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| Fossils in the pavers |
We had dinner at a favorite local restaurant of Gabby’s that backed onto some vegetable fields that were being worked while we had dinner.
When the wait staff brought our dishes and utensils Gabby poured hot tea into a cup, dipped chopsticks into it and stirred, then poured tea into bowl and swished it around then poured it out over the back fence. This is to make sure things were sterilized. We think another pepto meal. (We did see this happen in other restaurants as well.) The tables were low with a large round hole in the middle into which was placed a large kettle with glowing bricks.
The large wok shaped bowl with fish stew (for Gabby and the driver, Mr. Wan) was placed in the center to keep it hot. The fish stew must have contained 6 or 8 whole local river fish about 5 – 6 inches long. It was interesting watching them debone the fish with chopsticks in order to eat it.
When the wait staff brought our dishes and utensils Gabby poured hot tea into a cup, dipped chopsticks into it and stirred, then poured tea into bowl and swished it around then poured it out over the back fence. This is to make sure things were sterilized. We think another pepto meal. (We did see this happen in other restaurants as well.) The tables were low with a large round hole in the middle into which was placed a large kettle with glowing bricks.
The large wok shaped bowl with fish stew (for Gabby and the driver, Mr. Wan) was placed in the center to keep it hot. The fish stew must have contained 6 or 8 whole local river fish about 5 – 6 inches long. It was interesting watching them debone the fish with chopsticks in order to eat it.
After dinner we went to a large outdoor amphitheater at the base of the mountain. Just before the start of the show they had a lively auction to auction off "art"?
The pageant was about a Woodman and the Foxy Lady, where the fox tried very hard to become a lady. She and the Woodman fell in love and faced terrible discrimination from the people and the foxes.
The show was developed for the setting at the base of the mountains and at various points the mountains themselves were light to bring them into the pageant.
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| Mountains light up for the pagaent |
The cast was stated to be over 500 (with an additional chorus that must have been at least 200 voices).
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| The Choir |
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The stage was huge and included a lake in the front,a large "village" on one side, and a large bridge in the "forest".
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| Main stage with tree "bridge". |
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| Village |
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The lady was often shown (both as lady and as fox, and in silhouette and front lite) in front of a large full moon. Very effective.
The show included great magic including instantaneous, right before your eyes, changes in the costumes (e.g. from red fox costumes to elegant court lady costumes)…impossible to figure out how they did that.
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At one point, when the fox lady wept, the mountains “wept with her” in that cascades of water flowed across part of the stage, fountains shot up from the small lake and huge waterfalls appeared in the back.
And of course, in the end the lady got her woodsman and they had a family and all lived happily ever after.
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All in all it was a magnificent show. They even had some English subtitles to help us figure out the plot. On the way out we saw what appeared to be administrative buildings that were beautifully lit.
We then had a 40 minute drive to our hotel, so it was a pretty late night for us.
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