BigWorldAndSmallWorld Blog

The first time I went to Zhangjiajie was thirty years ago. It was a fun and memorable trip with some of my high school friends. Even today I remembered many things about the trip. The place was so rural and so different than the big city Shanghai where we lived. I remembered for the first time in life we had to stone a chicken for supper outside a restaurant. I remembered we stayed at a farmer’s house for a couple of nights because at that time Zhangjiajie was not a tourist place yet so there were no hotels. The farmer’s family was so nice to us and they yield their wedding bed for us to sleep. I remembered one time we were hiking on the mountains and all a sudden the rain poured down like cats and dogs, we had no place to hide so we kept walking on the muddy slippery road until we hit a small hut. We entered the hut for shelter and dried our clothes at a fire place. I remembered at the hill foot there is a small town called Furong 芙蓉镇 where a famous movie was shot there. When we arrived at the town, I got fever and our travel group was nice enough to stay an extra day there so that I can rest and feel better again to continue our adventure.

Thirty years later, this time I took a tour. So much has changed I almost could not recognize the place. It is very commercial now. Unlike before the only transportation is on foot, today there is a cable car taking you high above the mountains where you can view the misty mountainous outside from inside the car. The view is awesome and scary at times. The most notable geographic features of the park are the pillar-like formations that are seen throughout the park, like the rocks we see in the movie Avatar. In the park, Tianmenshan 天门山is probably the most well-known sight. The name came from the arched rock high above the mountain looks like a window in the sky. I walked the 99 steep stairs down; it was quite an experience and I think you definitely should try. Besides the rock formations, there is a cave called 黄龙洞，a waterfall at the entrance to a lake called 宝峰湖, and a show at night called 湘西魅力 are worthy to see.

Even though I like the rustic nature before Zhangjiajie was a popular tourist attraction much better, I have to admit that among the new things I do like the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge. Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon opened the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge in 2016, it’s the longest (430 m (1,410 ft)) and highest (300 m (980 ft)) pedestrian glass bridge in the world. Walking on the see-through glass bridge high above the canyon, the feeling was a mix of awesome and scary. At times I felt like I had to sit down instead of stand on the bridge. The other new thing I like is the cliff side glass walkway where you walk along the sharp and steep cliff side via a see-through glass walkway attached to the cliff wall. I highly recommend the experience, it’s very awesome.

Finally you may ask where is Zhangjiajie? It is located in Hunan province in central China. It is the province where famous Chairman Mao Ze Dong was born.