Zhangjiajie

Zhangjiaje (ZJJ for short) is a special, magical place.  Located in southwestern China in Hunan province it is far off the beaten path for Western tourists.  Though there are many internal Chinese visitors, we were often the only Westerners in sight.  Here, again, we were part of the attraction with many people wanting Kyle's picture (and a few even wanting us).

Downtown ZJJ is booming.  Our hotel the Qinhe Jinjiang, is practically brand new.  The rooms were fantastic.  And the place was only 1/3rd full.  One of the things we saw throughout China was the burgeoning effects of the construction bubble.  Much of the area is overbuilt and if we had to guess we'll see it burst in someway or another.

Another thing we experienced in ZJJ was Chinese exceptionalism (something we'd seen elsewhere already).  Here in ZJJ everything was the "biggest" or "best" or "oldest."  At one point, we were shown a natural arch bridge that had developed over time and told, it was the oldest in the world -- though how anyone would know that (and how it could be older than the ones in Zion) nobody every said.  Sometimes this exceptionalism was cute -- but sometimes it was kind of off putting.

On the other hand, the topography in ZJJ was simply awesome in the old sense of the word -- inspiring us to be full of awe.  We spend two days wandering around the Chinese national park that has stunning karst topography.  Tall spires of rock, all crowned and covered with trees.  Plateaus that looked the same.  If you can imagine the Grand Canyon, and then cover it all with vegetation you get some idea of what it looks like.

Or, you can just go see the movie Avatar.  Apparently, the Discovery channel did some filming in ZJJ and James Cameron saw it, loved it, and took it for his movie (suitably modified with computer graphic effects, of course).  But the floating mountain of the movie is a real place -- it doesn't float, of course, but it looks like it might.To reach the area (known as Yuanjijie) we took a 300m tall glass elevator to the top of the plateau  -- the top was crowded with tourists, but serene.

The third day in ZJJ took us in a different direction to Tianmen Mountain -- another plateau with a huge hole that had been worn through it -- called the Gates of Heaven.  To reach the top of this one, we did take the longest (8 km) cable car in the world.  Kyle walked along the edge on a glass platform and then we too 99 hairpin turns up to the bottom of the Gates.  Kyle and Paul climbed 999 steps up to the mouth of the gate itself (yes, 9 is a magical number for the Chinese).  Along the way Paul shared his water with an elderly Chinese man who was struggling up -- they shared mutual near heart attacks without a common word between them, but the looks conveyed everything.  :-) Over all it was a real adrenaline drain for us -- too many heights and too steep.  By the time we were done we were totally drained and jaded.

Two other highlights of ZJJ deserve mention.  The first is that we went swimming at the pool at the hotel.  Not normally a notable experience but this pool was NOT heated.  Now we know what the people who got off the Titanic felt like.

The other was the food.  Hunan is known for its very unusual and spicy food and it did not disappoint.  We sampled smoked pork; spicy hot beef with chilies and plenty of other novel food items.

After the relative quite of ZJJ, we left the airport (very small -- a new one with jetways is planned) and headed for the big city, Shanghai.