10 June 2016
As I type this, I'm awake at 4:45am having just arrived in the US after the long trip from China.
I have tried to make this blog post from China with no success. So, I'm taking advantage of wifi here in the hotel and the fact that jet lag is keeping me wide awake, so I might as well get something done! The signal strength and firewall blocking just wasn't letting it happen in China..so I'm doing a China Update from Louisville, KY, USA. Stranger things have happened!
Our trip to The national parks in China seems like ancient history, (1st week of May...so just about a month ago...seems like another lifetime with many important events in my work that forced me to focus on things one day at a time...which is really all we have isn't it?) First, I'll give a little information about the Zhingjiejia area. For those of you who have seen the movie Avatar, this area is where it was filmed. The hallelujah mountain really does exist (and does look like its floating, but of course it's not). The area is absolutely beautiful! We were there while the native azaleas and rhododendrons were blooming...I just loved that!
Zhangjiajie is located in the Hunan province Zhangjiajie 张家界 and before 1994 (what happened in 1994, not sure!) The area was was called Da Yong. 大庸。 this city is small by China standards at 1.7 million people. In this city, 70% are ethnic minority called the tujia people. 土家。(earth people). Our guide was a tujia person. The Main business is tourism, but some agriculture (rice and tobacco). In 1982 there were 8 places were established as the 1st national parks of China and this area was one of them. (I didn't write down the other ones!)
Originally this area was covered by the sea. Mountains carved by water as the land arose. The mountains here are sand stone in one place and limestone in the other.
Below are some of the pictures. I've tried to be very selective...and that is very difficult!
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| Early morning at Zhangjiejia |
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| Early morning on the lake at Zhangjiehjia |
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| I'm sure there is some animal form that the Chinese see in this rock formation..but I can't remember it! |
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| Rod and Sarah at the entrance to the park |
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| Sarah at the entrance to the Zhangjiejia park |
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| Entrance to Zhangjiejia |
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| LuvyDuvy at the park entrance! |
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| More strange mountains at Zhangjiejia |
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| Zhangjiejia |
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| a room with a view at Zhangjiajie |
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| More mountains at Zhangjiejia |
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| Sarah and Rod at the Zhanghiejia park |
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| Zhangjiejia |
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| Zhangjiejia |
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| zhangjiajie with the native azaleas! |
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| Selling beads in at Zhangjiejia |
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| another satisfied customer! |
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| Iris and rhododendrons..what a lovely combo |
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| Cable cars up to Zhangjiejia |
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| Just your local handmade baby carrier backpack |
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| A lovely plant along the forest floor in ZhangJiejia |
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| Exit from the park at Zhangjiejia |
Before leaving Zhangjiejia, we noticed there was a local cultural show
so we went there...didn't realize Rod would be the star of the show!
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| Rod was the star of the show at the Zhangjiejia |
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Can I have a volunteer from the audience?
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| Choose the prettiest woman on stage? |
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| With some Tujia people |
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| Just another beautiful waterfall at Zhangjiajie |
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| Rod and Sarah at the waterfall |
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| Japanese iris just after the rain |
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| Another cable car ride |
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| What's a little rain when you get to see mountains like this? |
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| A little souvenir shopping? |
After the walks among the sandstone peaks in sun and rain! We ventured
over to an area with Limestone and enjoyed the scenes and walking on a
glass pathway and taking the 999 steps (down) from the big natural
bridge. This "hole" in the mountain has had many daredevil competitions
including the Redbull extreme sports where people I'm a flying suit
navigate their way through it. We enjoyed it from the ground! The road
to the top is an experience all by itself!
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| Round and round she goes, where she'll stop, nobody knows! |
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| A nice cliffside walk at Tianmen park |
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| A long and winding road to to Tianmen |
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| Find a rock and get under it! |
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| Beautiful trees growing on nothing! |
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| The Glass sidewalk on the side of the cliff at Tianmen park |
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| Rod and Sarah at Tianmen park |
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| Our names engraved on a lock and put at Tianmen park in May 2016 (a copy of the locks in Paris, France) |
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| Hanging the lock at Tianmen |
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| Walking on the bridge at Tianmen park |
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| Rod the conquerer at Tianmen park |
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| Rod coming down the 999 steps at Tianmen |
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| 999 Steps done! (Coming down!) |
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| A mountain with a view! Tianmen |
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| Sarah and Rod at the foot of Tianmen |
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| Tianmen mountain on the way down |
These were just a few photos of Zhongjiejia and Tianmen mountains.
So that about wraps it up for part one of this China National Parks visit...Next stop Huangshan Mountain!
Beautiful pictures!
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