Today was my second day in Zhangjajie National Park. It was another day full of gorgeous views and sights, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t exactly “gorgeous.” I woke up to the sound of rain pouring outside the window, and immediately turned off my alarm and went back to sleep. I woke up again around 8:30am, and decided to get up.
After consulting with the hosts at the hostel, they suggested that I head to the Golden Whip Stream and the Huanglong cave. I headed out, but not before stopping for a delicious breakfast. I was passing a small shop thinking about how much I wanted a coffee, and as I glanced to the left, I noticed a sign offering coffee, tea and pastries! When I went in, it turns out that the restaurant was serving a traditional Chinese buffet-style breakfast for just 10 rmb, which included a cup of coffee! I sat for a while in the restaurant enjoying my meal of steam buns and noodles, before heading to the bus station.
I hopped on the bus, and was at the Golden Whip Stream entrance to Zhangjiajie park in no time. I’d been talking with a few of my roommates at the hostel, and they offered me a peach before I left. As I walked into the park, I remembered it in my pocket, and took it out for a snack. Little did I know this was a really bad idea. About 100m down the path, a monkey came charging toward me, shrieking. At first, I had no idea what was going on. All the other tourists were yelling, but I couldn’t understand them, and I did not know what to do. After a second, I realized the monkey wanted my peach. It didn’t even cross my mind to fight for it, I immediately surrendered and threw my peach to the monkey. After that, I did not eat any more food in the park.
Golden Whip Stream is a small river that runs between the mountains, and around the Hallelujah mountain area of Zhangjiajie park. Even in the rain, it was absolutely stunning! Yesterday I had a view of the mountains from above, but today I really got to
appreciate the true size of the mountains. Since it was raining, it was a very peaceful walk along the stream, with not many other tourists around. I too my time, admired the views and took a lot of pictures. It took about 2 hours to make it through the entire pathway.
Once I made it to the other side of the stream, I hopped on another shuttle bus, and headed to the Huanglong cave. The host at the hostel suggested going to the cave to avoid the rain, which I though was a good idea but everyone else also had this idea! The caves were full of tourists, and funniest of all was that, since the caves were dark every group had to go with a guide. But, the guide only spoke Chinese, so I had no idea what she was saying about the cave. The only thing I figured out was that Huanglong means Yellow Dragon.
The cave was very large and spacious on the inside, which I did not expect. To get to the cave, you have to walk through some gardens and restaurants, and it doesn’t really seem like the kind of place a huge cave would be! But there were tons of winding paths and stairs all around the inside. Huge stalagmites rose up from the ground, the largest being over 19m tall. Even though there was a ton of people inside, it didn’t feel too crowded at all. The cave was lit up with different coloured lights to accent and highlight the different areas.
The best part, in my opinion, was a boat ride at the end of the tour. We hopped into a boat and headed down an underground river back to the entrance of the cave. What’s really funny is I am not sure I was supposed to be on a boat. When I got my ticket, I just asked for the normal one, which I am pretty sure does not include a boat ride. However, I was just following the people in front of me, and hopped into the boat before anyone noticed!
I arrived back at the hostel around 5:45pm, grabbed my bags and headed back to the bus station to catch a bus to my new hostel. I stayed two days near the park so that I could explore the area easily, but I also wanted to climb Tianmen mountain, which is not near the park. Instead, it is in the city, which is good for me because it will make it easier to catch a bus back to the airport.
I got an electric scooter taxi ride to the hostel (very scary), where I met with some travellers from England. They are also planning on going to Tianmen mountain tomorrow, so we decided we would go together!
I hope you’re enjoying the blog. Sorry for the delays in uploading, but it’s been really difficult to get the pictures up onto the website (the internet connection has been really slow), so thanks for waiting!
