Adventures in Asia: Zhangjiajie, the place of the heavens

Zhangjiajie, the place of the heavens

Tianmen Mountains and the Gate to Heaven

This place was truly unbelievable, and made a lovely break from the cities. We were just in wonder and awe on the car journey from the airport on these lovely fields upon fields of rice, corn and other crops all sloping up the mountain side. This was a really rural experience even with all the pot holes, the chickens running across the roads the people chilling in their basements. Just great to see. The potholes filled us with a sense of dread that our accommodation was going to be a run down hut with no running water, but then again the potholes were no worse than those in some parts of England ;)

The view from our room

The particular place we stayed was in Yangjiajie which was near the entrance to the national park in the Mini Inn.  This was a great Inn, the food was picked from the garden and prepared for us by the mother of the family, they even had a really friendly dog called Summer (a miniature golden retriever). A Chinese has never tasted so good.

Monkeys!

We spent our first day in the clouds with mist all around us. So we decided to walk into the valleys along the ‘golden whip’ stream, apparently created by some emperor and his whip. Despite the rain the whole area felt quite majestic. 

Views from Golden Whip Stream

The second day we went to the tops of the mountain by cable car again just incredible scenery, slightly too many people posing for selfies though. 

Natural Great Wall of China

We walked for quite a while up the top and leant over the 1000 meter drop, saw the natural bridge and the heavenly place. On the way home as we walked down Andrew and myself  did a little detour to a place called the ‘maison’ so I was expecting to see a grand house up in the mountains as some of the land was farmed. But no it was a walk up through rocks and climbing of dodgy ladders onto one of the rock formations on the top.  I believe I gained extra wrinkles on that journey, the Chinese holiday makers were laughing at how long it took me to climb back down the ladder from the highest point (approx 1000 meters till the splat). 

At the top of the 1000 Meter Drop

Though we felt quite triumphant on the way back down, we decided to walk the whole mountain side down and Neil and Cheryl took the lift. It didn’t take too long but it was a little off the beaten track, though it was a proper path, the grass hoppers kept on jumping betwixt  your legs and in front of you. When we got down to the bottom there was a sign marking out the route, which said ‘Maison 20Km’. What a triumph.  This place we were truly sad to leave, it is a must do in China.

Victory! We made it to Tianbo Mansion

For those interested this place may look familiar as it was where Avatar is based on. 

Next time we'll be talking about Chengdu

In the meantime

• Check out the rest of our destinations in Asia here
• Have a look at Instagram to see how we're getting on in Singapore here.
• Want to see what we did in Europe try here
• Or check out my published article for Chasing the Donkey here, who knows maybe you'll feel inspired to travel the Beautiful Balkans?
• Have a look at where we are going next here