We flew to Changsha from Shenzhen. A 120RMB cab ride got us to the bus stop in 40 minutes from where we could take a bus to Zhangjiajie.
We were hungry as we had missed breakfast due to the early flights. Usually KFC is my #1 breakfast choice in China when available, but we got adventurous and tried some vegetarian street food options. The fried noodles looked quite good, a lot like the ones back home in India. You could see and choose all the ingredients and so nothing went wrong. We could have done with better cooking oil though.
The trip from Changsha to Zhangjiajie city takes around 3 hrs 45 minutes by bus costing 110 RMB per person. The bus was recommended over the train because it apparently takes less time, however it did stink a little. The highway and the ride was smooth though.
Zhangjiajie city was cold and it was around 5 in the evening. I found it a little grimy and depressing and was glad that we decided to go up to the village outside the park gates to spend the night - after we had a (very) late lunch in the city.
It is the off-season time and so most of the hotels had their shutters down. The few ones still open were not very good at offering even very basic facilities like running hot water.
We checked into the Minzu hotel (or something very similar in name) - Tujia style building. The whole family was playing cards in the reception and looked like they were not expecting anyone. It seemed like a good bargain for 60RMB a night.
It was a decent sized hotel, however, we seemed to be the only occupants on that night. It was terribly cold (near to zero I guess) and quite dark and spooky. I hoped that the hotel family would manage to keep their slasher instincts under wraps.
I was feeling a little bad about the planning. Since we had booked a early morning flight from Shenzhen, I had it in my mind that we would have the whole day to ourselves - which was essentially spent in just getting to the park.
The town around the park was mostly deserted. Since it was off-season, most of the hotels were closed and there were only a couple of similar looking restaurants that were open. We just picked the one closest to our hotel which had also been the most crowded (a good thumb rule)
(Friday, 26-Dec-2008) We made it to daybreak alive (no "Hunan Chainsaw massacre") and the view was quite nice from the balcony.
The hotel was about 10 minutes walk from the park entrance. We made it there after a quick breakfast of soup-noodles at the same place we had dinner. The normal entry ticket to the park costs around 250-300 RMB (China really tries to kill you with the entry tickets to every nook and cranny), but they have a special tourism promotion from the 25th-30th Dec every year during the off season for this park and charge only 3 RMB for entry. Great!
HuangShi village at the top of one peaks and having a number of amazing viewpoints around it could have been reached by a 2 hour hike or a 48RMB cable car.
The landscape is surreal ! The view is "out of this world", I couldn't think of any other place which would be a better candidate for an alien landscape.
It was a little bad idea to get back to the same restaurant where we had dinner and breakfast for lunch, as it was quite a walk from the base of the hills where we were and from where we could have continued on to our next destination.
By the time lunch was over, it was already late afternoon and we were feeling a little tired after the long walks.
Golden Whip Stream: A stroll alongside the golden whip stream. The best part being that it was flat and did not involve any stair climbing.
There were lots of stalls outside the park entrance which sold decorative items and also shawls. These pashmina shawls were the cheapest that we could find. They were selling them for 20RMB (willing to go down to 16). Similar ones which were being sold in Zhangjiajie city (as we found later) were selling for much more, around 30-40RMB.
(Saturday, 27-Dec-2008) We checked out of Hotel Horrible in the morning and made our way to Baofeng town for the Baofeng Lake. It took about 40 minutes by car and I realized how big Zhangjiajie park really was.
Baofeng Lake: This is a huge man-made lake at a fairly high altitude. There was a crevasse in the mountains and they sealed the openings so that water could be held and the lake was formed. The entry was about 110RMB per person and there was a walk and a short steep hike in order to reach the lake. The entrance fee also included a boat trip on the lake.
After driving back down to Zhangjiajie city we deliberated whether it was worth making the trip to the top of Tianzi mountain. As with everything in China, they literally slaughtered you with the entrance fees and stuff. A round trip on the cable car costed 250RMB per person! That was close to 30% of the return airfare from Shenzhen. Darn! Anyway since the Tianzi mountain viewpoint closed around 04.00pm and it was already afternoon, we decided to leave it for the next day.
So we had a leisurely lunch and did a little bit of shopping. Bought a nice sand-painting of Zhangjiajie from a gallery and checked into a 140 RMB hotel.
(Sunday, 27-Dec-2008) The first really pathetic day in the whole trip. It had been drizzling all night and the morning was foggy and cold. Thankfully there was a KFC just across the street from the hotel where I could stuff myself with a double breakfast.
Tianzi Mountain: We made our way to the cable car to the Tianzi mountain top and pleasantly found that our guide buddy had managed to get tickets which were 10% cheaper. So, we bundled in to one cabin and I hoped that my acrophobia would remain under wraps. It was going to be a 40 minute ride by cable car one way, and the views are considered to be amazing!
At such times, I simply cannot help but imagine what would happen if the cable broke or the cabin derailed (de-roped/de-cabled..whatever) and we plummetted towards the ground. My vivid imagination makes matters worse as I imagine how I could prevent my body being smashed to pulp. As the car starts is fall, I would probably float in it in zeroG .. for 5-7 seconds ...
Pheewwww... stop thinking. Just stop. And concentrate on capturing the scenery on film. But, soon after we left the outskirts of the city and the cable car began its climb up the side of the Tianzi range, dense fog enveloped our cable car and blotted out everything. Everything! We couldn't see a thing. Damn.
When we reached the top of the Tianzi mountain, we had no enthusiasm in going to any of the different viewpoints. We could not see absolutely anything from the first one. The fog was too heavy, it was too drizzling and it was quite a bit below zero. So, the wetness on our jackets because of the drizzle was freezing in the cold.
We also had to get back to the lower cable car station before 1.00pm as we had to be on our way back for the four hour bus ride to Changsha to be able to catch our flights back to Shenzhen.. So, instead of wasting any more time on the top of the Tianzi mountain we decided to head for the Tianmen cave for which we would have to take the cable car back down and get off at the one intermediate platform where it slowed down. And, take a shuttle bus from there.
Tianmen Cave: Had an unreal aura about it with all the fog around it. The climb to the top was killing and essentially fruitless because there was no view to be had blanketed in thick impenetrable fog. But we had still puffed and panted all the way to the top just for the heck of it.
We managed to get back to Zhangjiajie city in a hurry and half-ran all the way from our hotel to the bus-station.
I have noticed this once before in China, bus drivers go a lot faster, at an almost maniacal pace when it rains heavily. It was raining heavily and the bus was going much faster, lurching once in a while compared to the one which had idly taken its time in the fine weather at the start of our journey.
Twas dark by the time we reached Changsha but we still had enough time for a short snack by the roadside of Chinese parathas and some fast food and then made our way to the airport.
Our flight was an hour late and by the time we reached Shenzhen Bao An airport it was past midnight. Since Huangang is the only border crossing which remains open for 24hrs, we managed a Cab there from the airport and back home.
