Zhangjiajie: Day 2 (11/18/19)
My thought last night was that if I woke up when the park opened I could avoid any opening crowds or lines, while still having the entire day for exploring. So I had set my alarm for 7am, closed my eyes, and then immediately opened them to the sound of my alarm going off. I woke groggy and a little disoriented, but it was in fact 7am and I had, in fact, just slept for 10 hours like a dead man. I guess that speaks to how mentally exhausting yesterday was. I only had my day pack with me and hadn’t really unpacked it last night so I pretty much just rolled out of bed into my hiking pants, threw my mostly-dry rain jacket back on, and left. I didn’t see anyone downstairs and considered waiting for breakfast and to give my room key back to someone directly, but I was starting to reclaim my giddiness from yesterday and that ended up winning out over any sense of patience. So I left my key on the desk and ducked into a small convenience store next door to buy some food: a pack of sweet rolls and a bag of trail mix (which was pretty much the same as trail mix everywhere with granola/oats, nuts, and dried fruit).
The mists from last night had burned off giving me a clear view of the town with its grey brick buildings and styled roofs and balconies. It reminded me of Kuan and Zhai Alley from downtown Chengdu, just with the crowds and noise replaced by parents walking their kids to school. The pillars just outside town and the park entrance, which had been just peeking out of the mists yesterday, were now also visible and got me smiling at the thought of seeing the park in full view.
I walked to the park entrance, scanned my pass, waited for a bus, and rode up to the Tianzi Mountain (Helong Park) stop where I planned to start my journey for the day. I didn’t have a specific route set in mind and figured I would just wing it since I had plenty of time. Even if I ended up spending all day in the park and couldn’t catch a bus back to Zhangjiajie, I was confident I could just find another hotel near the main entrance south of the park. It’s a tourist attraction after all.
I disembarked at Helong Park and was a little taken aback by the presence of a McDonald’s, Starbucks, and many, many trinket shops. It was in pretty stark contrast to the stylized small town vibe of Tianzishazhen and not what I was looking for from the park. So I veered off the tourist area as soon as I could and ended up at the Helong Bronze Statue, a 20 ft. tall statue depicting one of the Ten Marshals from China’s Communist Revolution. (See! I knew my high school Chinese history class would come in handy one day!)
The statue courtyard was set behind a line of trees which obscured the canyon beyond, but I could see a several story tall tiered pagoda a ways off (which I did visit a little later). I wasn’t interested in seeing a building though, and a few small flights of steps brought me out to Yunqing Rock, which had an phenomenal cliff-side view of the entire park. The same incredible spires that I had caught glimpses of yesterday and this morning sprawled out, defining miles of interwoven gorges, valleys, rivers, and forest within a massive canyon that I stood on one edge of. The size of it all was mind boggling. We’re talking perfectly clear visibility across the 5 mile wide canyon and spires towering over a mile high themselves. Each 3,000 ft. tower of rock topped with little patches of grass or a single tree hanging off the edge of the world. Some of the valleys held trapped clouds between their pillars that wisped lazily along, slightly obscuring the patches of river poking out from between the lowland trees. And waaaaay off in the southwest I could just make out a lake, or maybe wide river, where the canyon opened up and began to flatten out. The fact that the surrounding landscape was all rolling mountains covered in natural forest, whose bases were at my level, and dropped away into mile-high vertical walls, gave the whole area the feeling of an ancient landscape. Seemingly uninterrupted around the canyon, but then carved away into a hidden wonder. I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to be one of the first people to summit a nearby mountain only to have what you thought was ground level give way to this breathtaking view. It was awe-inspiring.
I spent a good long while soaking up the landscape and taking my time meandering between lookout points. A few were named for specific spires, like the Imperial Writing Brush Peaks, named for their resemblance to a set of ink brushes and a legend about being formed from an ancient king’s discarded brushes.
Once I was satisfied and ready to move on I made my way down the main street, past the restaurants and tourist traps in search of the trail head for my descent down to the valley floor. Turns out that it was located next to the pagoda I saw earlier, which I briefly stepped into. Half appeared to be a small stage, unoccupied, while the other half was a silver shop. They had a slew of silver animals, watches, and an engraved thermos I might have considered buying if not for the extra zero on its price tag.
Exiting with my wallet intact, I began down the stairs which quickly almost immediately opened back up into a small station. Based on the pictures and posters around I think it was for a litter service, I think that’s the right name for a chair carried between two poles. I couldn’t inquire however because it was completely empty with not a chair or soul in sight. I didn’t pay it much more mind and set out determined to be done with touristy stuff and actually tackle some trail. There were a few small houses here and there on the side of the path, whose purpose I can only guess since there was absolutely nobody around, so I pretty much ignored them.
About 10 minutes into the walk a sign marked Heavenly Platform noted a viewing area up a steep flight of steps. Of course I couldn’t resist a little detour and it was well worth the climb for another incredible view of the park, the pagoda from earlier, some of the small houses, and a tiny bit of civilization way off in the distance. I took a minute to admire the view and snack on some sweet rolls before setting back down.
At this point the trail started getting interesting. It would branch out to little lookouts with stone benches and would often have carved stones noting what that particular lookout was called or the formation it had the best view of. I have to imagine they would be absolutely packed with people taking pictures like in Tallinn or Budapest during the busy season, but I got them all to myself and the wind. I got very excited when I spotted the top of a tower below me, which I assume was Tiazi Tower, and when I got near couldn’t help but ignore the “Off Limits” signs and jump to fence for a closer look. I obviously wasn’t the first person to hop the fence and scramble up, since there was trash scattered around inside, but it was still exhilarating to duck inside the crumbling tower and the view it would have had of the region.
From there the path left the steep mountainsides and clung to the spires themselves. So rather than dirt and undergrowth on one side and views obscured by trees on the other, it was now sheer rock face and unobstructed views of the valleys and spires. The experience was made even cooler with how as I descended, my perspective changed, and the spires that had seemed like thin fingers of rock below me turned into towering monoliths at my level and eventually above my head. I can’t really relate how unique of an experience it was, feeling my sense of scale of the park change every few minutes as I grew smaller and small compared to the now immense pillars that I had to strain my neck to see the tops of, but it left a lasting impression on me. I could not have been happier that I went through yesterday’s ordeal to start on top of the mountain so I could appreciate this while I was fresh, instead of exhausted after climbing up thousands of steps. Plus, it’s always easier to go down then up.
After the cliff-side lookouts the path turned into a pass between two spires and pointed itself straight down into the valley. It was the first day hiking in Nepal all over again, but this time I was coming down and the half dozen or so people (the first I had seen since leaving the pagoda) coming up were the poor suckers heaving and panting their way up the never-ending stairs. Appreciation for surviving yesterday hit me again every time I strolled past a family dying or couple leaning on each other breathing too hard to talk. It was still a solid 15 minutes of stairs going down for me, so I have to imagine it would have been over an hour going up for all them.
From there the path flattened out significantly, becoming a stone boardwalk set above the valley’s stream bed and leading to an open-air pavilion at the base of the Three Sisters Peaks. The entire area was heavily populated - well, compared to the practically empty park so far, it was still nowhere near packed - so I diverted off onto a side path that wasn’t on the map. I didn’t go very far before running into a crowd of people feeding monkeys. There were probably 5 or 6 of them in total, and they would come down in turns to eat nuts that folks were tossing. People got really close for selfies and such, but I kept a little more distance after witnessing a monkey run out of snacks and punch a dude in the shins for more. Which had me absolutely cackling inside. I stayed for a few more minutes and left as a larger group came over.
The pavilion had several food stands set up, most of them grilling meat skewers. I went for one that smelled spicy and wasn’t a hotdog which the guy put into bun: hot, spicy, a little nutty, and the perfect treat for a slightly chilly day of hiking. According to the park map, my way forward was either a half-hour walk or mini train past the Ten-Mile Natural Gallery. And I mean … come on, its a mini train. You know I had to take the mini train. So I wrestled with a ticket machine for a few minutes, emerged victorious, and enjoyed my spicy bun while listening to the train’s speakers tell me all about this part of Zhangjiajie in Mandarin. It was a nice break for my legs too.
The train dropped me off at a bus stop where I caught the next bus heading west. I was originally planning to ride the Bailong Elevator, a 1,000 ft outdoor glass elevator, up to the Zhangjiajie Glass Bride and Heavenly Pillar, then hike back down into the valley again. But I think I got off a stop early at the Water Winding Four Gates, a large area with shuttered buildings and a detailed trail map laminated onto a very old tree stump. I didn’t really know how to get to the Elevator from there though, or want to wait 30 minutes for the next bus. Plus, the bus was pretty full so I expected significant crowds if I went to the major tourist locations and I was really enjoying the whole solitude thing. So I decided to just walk the valley path along Golden Whip Stream, and if I felt like it I could always climb up to the Glass Bridge and Pillar manually when the paths intersected.
Just outside the Four Gates area the river was intersected by a line of skipping stone, like the kind your skip/jump on to cross, which I just had to traverse a couple times. For a while after there was also a similar set on the path’s edge that kids were often jumping along, giving them a chance to burn off energy their exhausted parents definitely couldn’t match.
The walk here was mostly flat forest, the spires a little ways off and obscured by foliage, which made the sudden emergence of Camel Peak quite dramatic. Three large formations in a sort of head-hump-hump grouping. Personally I thought the coolest part was the walkway up to rock face where you could touch it and take pictures. There wasn’t anyone around to take mine though so I forged on selfie-less.
After Camel Peak the path turned into a narrow river gorge with a fantastic view of the pillars making it up. You could always see the next set of peaks ahead and you had to crane your head upward to see the spire tops directly above. The buildup from flat river to brush to young tree to old growth to cliff to spire made for an awesome effect, where it felt like you could look at any height and see a different part of the gorge. Combined with the lack of people actually on trail (I don’t know why everyone was sticking to the bus route, these trails were the bomb!) got me right back into the giddy explorer mood. Not to say I was in like a bad or even neutral mood between Heilong Park and here, I was between 100% and 150% jazzed out of my mind at any given time!
The walk had me in a great mood, but not a great enough mood to overcome sore feet so when I arrived at the crossroads between continuing my lowland journey or climbing up to the Glass Bridge I decided to ere on the side of restraint and not push my little walkies too hard. The last thing I wanted was to push myself too far and end up spoiling what was so far a perfect day. Continuing down the Golden Whip Stream the next sight to see was the Zicao (purple) Pond. Named after the purple-red sandstone that forms a deep pool once used for washing papyrus. Not sure why that particular info sign stuck in my head but hey, fun facts!
Sometime around 11:30am, so like 3 hours after I set out from Heilong Park, I arrived at the Golden Whip Stream’s namesake: Golden Whip Rock. I honestly couldn’t see any sort of whip shape in it but it was nonetheless a great rock. 10/10 would look at again. From there the path turned into a boardwalk above the river for a long while before returning to land, but now with a lot more pizzazz: like multiple colors of stone, or more stylized skipping rocks like from Four Gates, or engraved slabs noting where famous TV drama scenes had taken place. One particular site had an abnormally large crowd of people, seemingly mostly moms, all taking pictures for each other or recreating a dramatic dip-kiss. The nearby tablet mentioned some fantasy drama finale. I didn’t particularly care, but I did find watching them all geek out about it entertaining and wholesome.
I finally emerged from the confines of the stream gorge into a massive garden/park around noon. The cloud cover was just starting to burn off so it was kind of like emerging from a dark alley into the sun, just slower and less dramatic on the lightning front. Anyways, the park was gorgeous with a grove of red trees that struck me since I pretty much all the forest I had seen at Zhangjiajie had been green, maybe a little on the yellow side with winter coming. I kind of wanted to spend some time under them but a tight knit tour group was obsessing over a monkey in its branches and I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble (or my shin getting punched.)
A huge sign stone declared the area Oxygen Square, a natural Oxygen bar and natural museum. A little pretentious if you ask me but I literally lost in childlike wonder less than 24 hours ago so I think they earned a little poetic license in my book. I wandered around the park for a while, doing a full circuit and admiring the view of Zhangjiajie’s stone pillars and how it would have been if I had started here. Seeing them loom upwards before walking beneath them and finally climbing hours upward to the majestic lookouts I had started the day with. And I decided that my way was better. Less pain more staring with my jaw on the ground.
Exiting Oxygen Square, I made my way to the main park entrance. The path widened to an extreme degree the closer I got, to the point where it would be more accurate to call it long plaza, and I was really thankful that it was a weekday in during the off season, because I have to imagine the whole place gets swamped with people on busy days. I passed through the turnstile to leave the park, located the bus station, deciphered the bus times, wandered around the area while I waited for my ride, skillfully and without issue caught a bus (that’s sarcasm there), and returned to Zhangjiajie City and my hostel right around nightfall. I did consider finding a place to stay near the park but I honesty felt like I had seen all I needed to. It was a memorable experience, but I also maintained a sense of mystery about the park in my mind. I had seen a lot, and it was absolutely incredible, and there was more to see next time if I returned. It could be tomorrow for an few hours in the afternoon, or it could be in a decade to show my family. I would be happy either way.
But I’m coming back - that’s absolute!
