Zhanjiajie

The school gave us an 18 day vacation before we headed back to the US of A. So we turned it into an 18 day party! First Stop: Zhanjiajie. We only had two days here so we had to make the most of it. On train there I sat with two 27 yr olds, a cute little family, and their grandma. The baby was our constant source of entertainment and came to sit with me several times throughout the 21 hours train ride. It didn't take long before we all felt like family. A long overnight train ride will do that to you. The 27 yr old helped me with my bags, shared his food, and offered one of his headphones so I could watch his movies. Movie of choice: Weird low low low budget film about deathly fire ants, a murderous boss, and an awkward love triangle. We all exchanged contact info at the end and tried to converse in our broken English/Chinese. They were wonderful travel companions.

Anyway, there are two National Parks in Zhanjiajie; Tienman Mountain and Zhanjiajie National Forest Park. We decided to hit both. To get to Tienman Mountain we rode the longest cable car in the world! It was the best thing thats ever happened to me. Part of the way up we were just surrounded by clouds and we couldn't see anything. Then we could see mountains peaks shooting up in the fog and below was the most dangerous road in the world. It was just beautiful and pictures just don't do it justice.

Brinley, Kate, Rachel, and I had limited time in the park so we hit the big stuff. The glass walkway was our first endeavor. Then we headed to Tienman Cave or more commonly called "Stairway to Heaven" and rode the longest escalators ever to get there. We didnt even realize we had made it straight to the cave without walking the 999 stairs. BUt we decided to do it anyway so we walked down and up. Take that 1,998 stairs! Then we took the cable car back so we could hit the next park!

The face of bravery.

To get to Zhanjiajie National park we took an hour long bumpy mini bus ride. Straight to the AVATAR MOUNTAINS. We hiked some thousands of stairs to different lookout points of the forest and made some monkey friends along the way. Apparently I got too friendly cause one slapped my cheek. I GOT MONKEY SLAPPED! 

We were hiking so hard that we lost track of time! That night the four of us planned to stay at the hostel in the National Park. But you have to hike 3 hrs and take the Bailong elevator up to a different level of the park to get there. It was already late afternoon and elevator rides only went until 6:30. We turned the three hour hike into a 1.5 hr hike in pouring rain. We barely made it to the elevator on the last ride up because a nice bus driver took us the last 30 ft. We literally wouldn't have made it without him. On the way there we kept looking for alternative sleeping arrangements just to keep our minds from heading to shear panic. These are the sweat and rain soaked faces of pure relief and exhaustion.

Welcome to my crib.

But the adventure was far from over. We still had about a 2 hour hike to our hostel and it was starting to get dark. With my head lamp on and our feet drained from 16 miles of hiking, we were lured to a hostel only to find it was the wrong one. We continued on feeling mostly like a mix between pioneers and wet dogs at this point and stopped a man with a moped cart for directions. With a few bats of our sweaty eyelashes, he agreed to give us a ride.But unsure of where to go, he calls our hostel. The following occurred:

Man leans in and asks in Chinese: "Where are you from?"

Four girls: "America"

Moped Man in Chinese to phone: " I have got four very lost American girls here, how can I find you?"

Eventually our hostel came to pick us up and we arrived looking like Tom Hanks after Castaway. The following was a blur of a shower, drying off with my dirty clothes, peanut butter for dinner, and going to bed without even brushing my teeth. Our beds were on the floor in a little closet of a room but it was heaven compared to the makeshift shelters we had been creating in our heads all day. After 3800 steps, 17 miles and literally my favorite day in China, we were sleeping in Zhanjiajie National Forest Park. The cherry on top: waking up to a rooster at 6:30 in the morning.

Day 2: This is where we were supposed to ride the bus all the next day to different lookout points to allow minimal (if any) walking. However, the language barrier is REAL. We rode the bus several times back and forth to try to find the stops but no one understood even Rachel's 4 yr Chinese. So we thought, "Who wants to spend their last day in a national park on a bus?!" "NOT US!" We toughed it out and took a trail down Tianzi Mountain to hopefully get a scenic walk to the exit. In this never ending stairway down, we saw this arch, so many monkeys, and the craziest spider webs. We also got this scenic view!

 But there was no time to rest. After Leaving the National Park, we had a 6 hr hard seat train ride to Changsha where I met the cutest little friend.

I try to seduce all the Asian babies in trains to love me. Usually it takes several rounds of peekaboo and maybe a candy. But she was an extra shy little diva. However, before long we had a game going. We would copy each other's every move. She clapped her hands, I clapped mine. I waved my first finger, she copied. Soon we were fast friends and she would throw a tantrum if her grandma tried to move her from the seat facing me. We caused quite the ruckus. The train ride was followed by a 3 hr layover (12-4 am) in the train station with no air conditioning. I ate two ice cream cones at that ungodly hour just to keep cool! I also left a banana on my suitcase, took a nap on the chairs, and woke up to find my banana had been kidnapped!! Luckily for me, this is the only thing that was stolen during my China trip. Our 7 hr train ride to Guilin was mostly uneventful except for a lady demonstrating her cucumber peeler by spreading cucumbers all over her face. That kept us entertained for far longer than it should've.

I spy Megan in the top left corner....