April 3, 2015 –
Wakey, wakey!
Time for breakfast (they don't start serving breakfast at the hotel until 8am…doesn't that seem late to you? It seems late to me.)
Chris is coming at 8:30am to pick us up….
Our room is on the third floor. This hotel reminds me of the one we stayed at in Chengdu.
This is the hotel lobby which also happens to the breakfast seating area:
Chinese breakfast which consists of hard-boiled eggs, a mildly spicy cabbage dish, a mildly spicy cauliflower dish, fried rice, several kinds of tasty baozi (steamed dumplings), sweet cakes, oranges, and fresh hot soy milk (with a little sugar…so yummy!). Ah, and since we're waiguoren (foreigners) they brought us four glasses of sweet instant coffee (which tastes more like hot chocolate than coffee…but I'm happy to have it!) By the way, we've learned to bring the Starbucks VIA coffee packets wherever we travel. In most places in China the hotel rooms are equipped with electric tea kettles and mugs/cups. I really needed that cup of coffee! (Mark and I enjoyed our cups of "real" instant coffee in our room before heading down to breakfast.)
Check out these pretty chairs and pillows:
I do love this wooden bench and the colorful pillows located in the lobby area (where can I get a bench and pillows like this?? So pretty!):
Hey, if you haven't already figured out…this post is loaded to the brim with photos. I hope you are able to easily load this page and view it (if not, can you please let me know? Thanks in advance!)
Chris showed up while we were eating breakfast and he outlined our activities for today…hike Golden Whip Stream and then see what else comes available. He suggested that we pick up lunch food at a "Western" bakery. Okie dokie. We bought some "food"….one package looked like it contains a crepe. Hmmmm….sounds good. Right?
Chris bought our tickets (yikes, these are expensive! At least they're good for three days).
Ready to go on a walk? Here's a sweet *tiny* lady selling cheap protective rain gear. Mark bought one and I asked her if I could please take her photo. Isn't she cute? She's maybe a tiny notch taller than Ava…which is quite small for an adult. I love her bright happy smile!
Welcome to Zhangjiajie National Forest!
This heart lock was big enough for people to stand inside and have their photos taken with (there was an opening on the other side of the giant lock). I'm sure you can imagine the hilarious and funny poses that are so very typical Chinese that we watched while we quietly photographed this lock.
It says to not tease the wild monkeys….sadly it doesn't mention anything about NOT feeding them!!!
Here's one of my little monkeys:
And here's the other TALLER monkey:
Such a glorious walk with FRESH air! The sky might look gray but it's the kind of gray that isn't filled with poisonous air; it's the kind of air that is heavy with water droplets when you know it could rain at any moment. REAL clouds. REAL mist. REAL fog.
I just wish, wish, wish we had a guide that knew more about the plants and animals of the area. Chris tried to mention to us about some tree that he called a "friendship tree" while we were driving to the park but it was so difficult to understand anything he said and he didn't know the scientific name (and he certainly didn't point it out to us on our hike). I can just imagine that many years ago botanists coming to this area and discovering new plant varieties. I wish I could have learned more about plant discoveries.
Every. Single. Rock. Formation. looked like an eagle…or a general.. or a monk….or a …..whip??? (whaaaaat???? Seriously???? Most definitely and emphatically DID NOT look like a whip. I'm wondering if there's a mis-translation going on)…or like an old man collecting herbs (umm, NO!)…or a turtle…or a dragon…or a face…. Did I actually see any of those in the rock formations? NO. Most definitely I did NOT. Not even when I squinted my eyes or held one eye shut. Some great imagination happening here! ;-)
However, we enjoyed the beauty of the country WITHOUT needing to know the names of every single formation.
How would you get water from the stream up the bank???
Here's one way how! Turn the wheels of the gear which in turn brings up the water. Yes, it really does work!
Fresh mountain stream water. This is the real deal! I don't think I've seen this kind of fresh water anywhere in China!
Now, we can actually drink from this stream!
Check out these fellas taking what I'm sure is a well earned rest. These guys actually get paid to haul people around as they sit in the carrier.
Beautiful blooming trees. I sure wish I had a deeper knowledge of plants and animals in this area. Sadly, Chris is not a naturalist and doesn't seem to know the names of the plants here. Or, at least not from what I've gathered with our limited oral interaction.
Monkeys????
Hello, Tree Monkey!
Check out this tree! It started as one trunk, split into two trunks before joining back into one trunk:
You can see the light through the crack on this rock. I can imagine that years down the road (in geological time now human years) these cracks will cause more interesting rock formations:
Ava's very tooth grin:
A river bird. Not sure what kind of bird it is. We don't have any bird or plant identification books with us (do these even exist???):
One of the kinda scary moments was watching a Chinese man teasing on the older monkeys with food and then swinging his bag at them. Yikes! The monkey did chase him down but thankfully it didn't escalate further. I can't believe all of these people! They're throwing food at the monkeys which is just encouraging their not-wild behavior. !!!
Eeeeeeeee!!!! Can you stand the absolutely cuddly cuteness of this tiny monkey???
Still walking alongside Golden Whip Stream:
We stopped at one point to eat our lunch items we'd purchased that morning at the bakery. Meh. It was all barely edible. That thing I thought was a crepe? I can't even describe what it was but I can say with certainty that it was NOT a crepe. It was some kind of meat wrapped up in a bread-like thing that from the outside looked like a crepe. This is supposed to be western food? I've yet to see this in any of the western countries I've traveled to (I'll admit, I haven't been to Australia or to South America). The nice looking sandwiches weren't very good either. And the things that looked like cream puffs? Well, those were made of donut dough, filled with lightly sweetened pudding-like substance, and then dusted with CORNSTARCH (usually these sorts of treats are dusted with powdered sugar). These at least were okay to eat. I think the food stalls that we saw while walking on the trail had yummier looking food than what we ate.
It's a jack-in-the-pulpit! We had a variety similar to this growing in our yard in Wisconsin:
I can't figure out the name of this flower! It looks like a flower that is on the tip of my tongue but I just CANNOT remember what! Don't you hate it when that happens? You know something but just can't spit it out???
I just loved the bark on this tree (I think it might be lichen growing on that tree??? If it is lichen then I'd say that's a good sign as lichen only grows in non-polluted areas.):
Using the overhang of the rock as a shelter for weather. One of the items we found commonly sold at all the stalls we passed were these darn bird whistles. Now, I'm not trying to be mean but their shrilling sound is so aggravating to me…it's an instant headache for me when I hear them. To make matters worse, Chinese children were tooting them along their walks … and would toot them as LOUDLY as they could- giving no regard whatsoever to the other people in the area. I was on the verge of a nasty headache during our entire visit to ZJJ due to these nasty shrilly evil whistles. Why oh why do parents let their children toot them so loudly? And on the entire walk? It's certainly not going to attract any birds -more likely you're going to frighten them away!!!
A monkey taking a drink from a puddle. Why doesn't it drink from the flowing river beside this platform?
During our entire walk Chris was in constant contact with other guides. Just after we got to the end of our Golden Whip Stream walk he told us that if we went to the Bailong Elevator NOW we could get up to the top quickly (plus, he'd heard, that the viewing conditions were favorable…apparently a big issue this time of year.)
Let's go!
It was a very short bus ride to the base of the elevator. So short I think we could have *maybe* run there faster…but probably not. Chris quickly bought our tickets while we raced up to get into line.
Bailong Elevator…yes, they really did build an elevator along the side of a mountain. Yep…they sure did! And here it is:
Do you remember me mentioning that the movie "Avatar" using ZJJ's mountain scenery as inspiration for their movie?? Well, if you've forgotten, here's a reminder:
We waited…what?…5 minutes to get on to the elevator (other times it can be up to a three hour wait!!!!)…and then up UP UP we went! We heard that the elevator travels at a speed of either 3 meters/second or 5m/s (I thought I head Chris say it travels at 5m/s but everything I've read mentions 3m/s). Regardless of the actual speed we all agree that it is super freaking FAST! It's a dang fast way to get to the top of 330m mountain! And so smooooooooth too. (German engineering for ya!)
Breath-taking views out….
We're apparently on Yuanjiajie mountain, with excellent visibility of surrounding mountains and pillars.
Sadly, these photos will NEVER do it justice. Getting an accurate photo that really depicts the mist floating and swirling over the mountaintops seems to be next to impossible for us amateur photographers. We tried, but the mountains just look dull in these photos. It was anything BUT dull…it was green, lush, humid, and full of life.
Annika's photo of pretty blossoms:
We learned that Ava is afraid of heights and there were several places along the walk where there was a sheer cliff below us (not sure I'd lean too heavily on that railing behind us!)…..and hence her apprehensive looking face:
I was enchanted with all the blooming trees we walked past. Absolutely amazing how plants can grow in the most unusual places…like a crack in a rock surface. I wish I knew what these lovely trees were:
It was fun observing Annika take photos using the Big Camera. It was her first attempt at using it. She wanted to take photos of the landscape so that she could draw or paint pictures of them later. Great idea!
This small bridge had a sign on it that declared: no stopping for photographs. So, guess what everyone did?
I think this pillar in front of us could be the one they say is in the "Avatar" movie. The Immortal Pine:
And apparently turtles represent long life. I guess it makes sense when you consider how old tortoises can live.
A pond of sorts with live turtles hanging out (along-side the turtle statues):
And over in this particular kiosk you can buy a poor turtle, write something on it, and then it free in the pond. Starting at 28 RMB …what a steal! (I do hope these creatures are cared for properly.)
My iPad takes better photos than my iPhone (I'm so very grateful that I'm able to own one):
At every turn and every look-out, Chris told us where to take photos and he took about a gadzillion family photos for us. While I really appreciate having family photos of us after a while it got a wee bit irritating and even though the scenery was OUTSTANDING we declined more photos.
Check out this natural bridge!!!! I'm not sure if you can tell from this photo but you can walk across it!
We walked across the natural bridge (and no, you really couldn't tell that you were walking on something unusual).
Locks for good luck!
Time to head back down the mountain…however, this time we're hiking down. I think this will wake up my sleepy legs!
Pretty flowers growing on a damp, moist cliff:Monkeys!
I had an orange visible on the outside of my back pack which I'd forgotten about….but the monkeys sure saw it and wanted it! Yikes! Chris grabbed it and I stuck it in my pocket where they couldn't see it.
Big monkey cleaning a baby monkey:
Now here's the LAZY way to get up the mountain. When you're even too lazy to take the elevator up! This really doesn't look like a comfortable way to travel and I really feel for those men hauling those people. I hope they're well compensated! (I think these men got free beer at every stop)
Check out this black and white bird (it's not a magpie): After we finished our hike we ended right back where we'd first caught the bus- but instead of heading to Bailong Elevator we headed towards a park entrance/exit (which was not the one we started today's adventures). Just as soon as we got off the bus the skies open up and it rained and THUNDERED! I'm not sure if we could have timed that any better if we'd tried. Absolutely perfect timing! And I was also very thankful that Mark asked me to pack all of our collapsable umbrellas (which happens to be four…a magic number for our little family of four) AND that we all brought them on our walk today!
This particular park exit was only a few minutes away from our hotel so we quickly ducked back into the hotel to "freshen up" and then made our way to dinner….this time a specialty of the area; a different kind of hot pot called san xia guo (三下锅) which I think means "cooked three times" or something like that. I'll be honest with you, I liked this but really the meal we'd had the previous day was better (and half the price) than this one. This wasn't bad…just not great.
I should go count how many photos I've posted in this post. I know it was waaaaaay too many and I also know that many of them are basically the same photo over and over again (or so they appear that way) but I had trouble choosing.
Although Chris has tried to push us to go to a show (watching dancers, kung fu,wizards, and whatever else not) we're really too tired and Annika isn't feeling the greatest. We're taking a pass on it and heading straight to bed. I think I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow! So appreciative of the comfortable beds in this hotel…really just right which is amazing for hotels here in Asia. Most hotel beds we've encountered, even in the super-duper-ultra-fancy-expensive ones, are rock hard. Not this one!
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