Next up I packed up my stuff in Wulingyuan town and hopped on the bus back to the larger Zhangjiajie City, which is where Tianmen mountain is. One of the cable cars actually goes directly from the mountain to the center of town, which is pretty cool. So I dropped my bags off at the hotel and bought my $42 entrance ticket, shuttle buses and cable cars included. It would start with a shuttle bus to a different set of cable cars. From there you walk up 1,000 steps to and through the giant rock arch called Heaven’s Gate. Or you can take the boring way, the tunneled out escalators. But the walk up is a pretty spectacular entrance to the mountain. From there in order to get to the top plateau of the mountain you must take a series of huge escalators cut though more tunnels in the mountain, there’s no option to even hike up, just 20 minutes of escalators! It feels so weird for being high up in the mountains. You do pick up about a 1,000 feet of elevation this way though.
park entrance
Can you spot the shuttle bus?
Tianmen means Heaven’s Gate. Makes sense!
999 steps to the arch
One of many escalators
From the top plateau there’s about 5 miles of hiking boardwalks, making one big loop. Although it was drizzling the whole time and the views from the top looking down don’t really change all that much, so I was pretty happy to get out of there after completing the the full loop. And then from there it was the endless tunnel of escalators. Normally this is where you could take the cable car that takes you to the center of town, but the top part is under construction, so unfortunately they take you by shuttle bus to a lower section, where you can then take the cable car straight to downtown. So many shuttle buses and cable cars!
The popular nature tourist nature attractions aren’t really like US ones. They’re generally much smaller, designed around one particular mountain or attraction, are almost always ticketed, have tons of extra paid activities, have plenty of food and drink stands (and toilets) and designed to handle large crowds of people - like sometimes having to choose a time slot + itinerary that forces you to take a specific one way route or direction to limit congestion. Even if you have your own car you can’t drive though them like in US parks. It’s always these shuttle buses. Without having a car this is okay with me. I can only imagine what would happen on a weekend or holiday when thousands of cars descended on these narrow winding roads, it would be madness. But I do get annoyed when they don’t even give you the option to hike from place to place and the shuttle bus or cable car is the only option you have, the actual feeling of hiking and exploring is very limited. And the prices are quite expensive. $42 US dollars is much more than $42 in terms of peoples salaries in yuan, 300 yuan is a lot!! No parks for the poor.
Some of the paths are built right on the cliffsides
Somewhere off in the distance
Lunch. I like those big fat noodles
That big electronic sign in the background annoys me
One continuous cable car from the mountain to downtown ZJJ
fun little restaurant section of Zhangjiajie. China is good about having these little pedestrian only areas
Mostly abandoned bar street. Not many people are drinking these days in China.
Not so lovely river
I like the restaurants that are completely lit. They’re probably also the biggest tourist traps :)
Later that evening I had booked a $30 massive live show that’s held at the base of the mountain. This happened to be the same night my Esim decided it was going to stop working. You basically have to get a Didi (same as Uber) to get up there, and then down from mountain. And without my internet working, I couldn’t figure out how to get there. I couldn’t order a rideshare from my hotel, as I it was in a no-car walking district. I stopped in a coffee shop, but the wifi wouldn’t work, and even then, how would I get down with no internet? So I ended up just bailing and eating the ticket. Seriously, without internet in China you are you can’t do anything.
I decided to check out a cool looking group of lit up buildings called 72 Qilou, which I took by bus paying cash to get there. What I didn’t realize this area was a special tourist zone that cost 50 yuan to get in, and you needed your passport to buy the ticket. I didn’t bring my passport. Aghh. So I could only get photos from the outside, damn. Welp, China won the battle this night. Lesson learned about the passport! I must have run out of data (2gb/day) because my Esim worked fine the next day…
View from outside the gates
I finally slept in the next morning which was also raining, hit the gym, and then checked out at noon. Most people take the high speed rail to get to Furong Ancient Town, which only takes 15 minutes on the tracks, but you have to take a Didi both to and from the high speed rail stations (they’re usually on the outskirts of town). I opted for bus as the station was only 500m away and I like taking the bus, even though it takes 1.5 hours. This part of the country has beautiful countryside and you don’t get a good feel for it when you’re constantly in the tunnels of the high speed rail. Plus I wasn’t in any hurry as Furong is tiny, and it only starts looking cool at night when all the lanterns start coming on. And maybe the rain will stop by the time I get there!
No such luck on the rain, but I liked my hotel, right on the river, nice window views, 15 minutes walking along the river to get to the Ancient Town, and the cost of the room: $14.50! On a weekend no less. While they rake you over the coals a bit at the popular tourist attractions, the hotels are just insane value.
Southwest China is the best
Around 4:30 I made my way into town, bought my ticket (obv have to pay to get in!) and had a stroll around. You can walk the whole thing in well under an hour. These old town are not exactly authentic, they’re kind of tourist zoos, rebuilt to look like ancient towns, made to appear as photogenic as possible. For example along the river in Furong above the waterfall, they have fake trees with bright pink flowers to make it look nice, and they have fog machines going off at regular intervals to give you that atmospheric effect! The main attraction of Furong is the waterfall itself, which does not need any enhancements, as it’s rainy season and the flow is strong, and its right in the middle of town. Also you can walk underneath it, which is kinda neat.
This is just a baby waterfall on the walk into Furong
Not too crowded on a rainy afternoon
The view from the main bridge connecting the two sides of town, and fake fog :p
Another way to get over the river
walking under the waterfall
makes for good Instagram photos or Little Red Book (Chinese social media app)
On one side of the river they basically made it so you can’t take any cool photographs (because there’s no public viewing decks) so you have to go into a restaurant and order something to get a view from the balcony, which is what I did. It’s absolutely gorgeous watching the lights and lanterns turning on in all the “old” buildings with the waterfall roaring in the foreground.
The top section of the main waterfall, with the lights just starting to come on in the background
You have to buy something to get this view…
From there I made my way over to the far viewing deck on the other side of the river, this where you get the classic photo of the waterfall front and center, with the lit up buildings all around it. It’s almost impossible to not make this photo look good!
Back to main bridge, everything looking cooler now that the lights are on
The waterfall viewpoint
Then I had to eat a quick dinner, fried rice and dumplings, as I was running late for the Tujia ethnic dance show, which is the local minority group in this part of Hunan. I already missed one show, I wasn’t going to miss another! It was nice, well done, kind of modern version with light effects digital screens going in the background. Kinda cool, but by no means a must-do.
The next morning I was up early, so I walked around town some more with no people around, made some doggo friends, and then it was off to the high speed rail station for the next ancient town, Fenghuan.
