Yesterday was my last day in Zhangjiajie. I met up with Darius and Josh (the guys from England) around 8:00am, and we headed to Tianmen Shan. Tian means "sky" or "heaven" and men means "gate." Shan means "mountain." So we visited Heaven's Gate Mountain.
Tianmen Shan is known as Heaven's Gate because of a really interesting rock formation, that looks like a gateway to the sky. There are 999 stairs leading up to this gate, and so it really is like a "stairway to heaven." Josh, Darius and I decided we would rather walk down the 999 stairs rather than up them, so we opted to ride the world's longest cable car to the top of the mountain. The cable car is almost 7km long, and starts right in the middle of downtown Zhangjiajie, so we had an amazing view of the whole city as we climbed higher and higher. Unfortunately, it was quite foggy in the morning, which made it difficult to see some of the views.
We got off at the top of the mountain, and decided to do the entire hiking trail. By the time we got to the top, it was about 11:30, but we still couldn't see anything due to the fog. What we could see was pretty amazing though. We would be walking a path and turn a corner, and then all of a sudden the fog would shift and out of nowhere, we would have this crazy view of a mountain peak we hadn't even known was there.
Tianmen Shan is very popular because some of the paths are completely glass, giving a great view of the drop down the mountain. We decided to check one of the glass paths out. Part of the rules require you to wear special shoe covers so that the glass doesn't get too scratched, so once we had those on, we ventured out onto the path. Unfortunately, it was a little underwhelming. Because of all the fog, it didn't really seem as though we were walking on glass at all. We were a little disappointed, but decided to continue our hike nonetheless. Luckily, as the day wore on, the fog started to lift, and we were happy to get the chance to see some truly amazing views. Unlike Zhangjiajie park, Tianmen Shan does not have the same kind of tall, bamboo-like peaks. It's more what I would call a "regular mountain," except that the edges are almost all sheer cliffs. When you look down over the railings on the paths, it's a straight drop down about 1500m.
After we had made it the entire way around the mountain, Josh, Darius and I found our way to the top of the 999 stairs. I'll admit that when I first saw them, I didn't think there could possibly be 999 stairs but I was wrong. The stairs are just incredibly steep, and thin. I don't think that even half my foot could fit on each step. Waling down was pretty nerve-wracking, but I think we were all glad that we hadn't decided to walk up. From about halfway down the stairs, we had an amazing view of the Tianmen Cave, or the Gateway to Heaven. I love how something so amazing can appear so naturally. The sun was shining too, by this point, so we had a spectacular view of the whole mountain and the cave.
We made it down the 999 stairs without too much trouble, except that all of our legs were shaking by the time we made it down. From the bottom of the stairs though, we weren't even halfway down the mountain so we hopped on a bus that would take us the rest of the way down. One of the other attractions of the Tianmen Shan is the road, which is common known as the road with 99 bends. It's certainly very winding and a little bit scary, with tons of blind corners. To make it even worse, the edge of the road is pretty much just another straight drop-off.
By the time we made it to the bottom of the mountain, it was about 4:30, and we were all starving! I had left my bags at the hostel for the day, and Darius and Josh had sent their's ahead to a new hostel. They will be saying in Wulingyuan to see Zhangjiajie park for the next couple of days. They needed to catch a bus to Wulingyuan by 7:00pm, so we decided to get some dinner near the bus station. We ended up in a little shop that served "cast-iron dishes" and I had some scrambled eggs with rice and tofu! After that we said our goodbyes, but not before adding each other on Facebook.
I headed back to the hostel then, and arrived at about 6:15pm. I grabbed my bags and caught a bus back to the airport to catch my flight to Beijing! I arrived about 7:45pm, and my flight was scheduled to leave at 10:00pm. I was completely exhausted and became even more tired whenI found out my flight would be delayed until 12:10am. We ended up boarding at 10:30, which I thought was a good sign, but then we ended up just sitting on the runway until 12:30. Luckily, my parents had advised me to book a hotel near the airport for the night, so I wouldn't have to make my way downtown to the hostel in the middle of the night. I arrived about 3:30am, and was so relieved to find out that I had a room with a king-sized bed! What a nice change after almost a week in hostels!
I slept in late today, and had a relaxing breakfast. It's now about 1:00pm, and I've figured it'll take about an hour and a half to get to the hostel, so I'll be leaving soon. It's crazy to think that I'll be flying back to Canada in just 5 days! It feels like I've been in China for hardly any time at all, but also like I've been away from home forever. I'll try and get some more pictures up as soon as I can. Thanks for reading :)
