Colette's Grand Detour

Not every day of a year-long travelling adventure can be perfect. And this was just one of those times where I had to accept that the weather was not good and I would have to suck it up and enjoy what I could. I had hoped that after a pretty cloudy day in Zhangjiajie National Park, that the skies might clear for my day at the top of Tianmen Mountain. But no such luck.

Tianmen Mountain rises 1500m above Zhangjiajie City. The name of the mountain means ‘Heaven’s Gate’, inspiration taken from its enormous natural arch, created by a collapsed cave and said to open a passage between the earthly and celestial realms. The natural opening is a huge 131m high and 57m wide and whilst I didn’t get the clearest view of it, from what I did see, it really does feel like a portal to another world. The mountain is extremely popular with Chinese tourists, and many come to pray, make wishes or take photos at the natural arch as symbolic gestures of ascending toward success, health or fortune. The 999 steps that go from the viewing deck to the bottom of the arch are particularly meaningful as the number 9 sounds like longevity and represents celestial perfection.

The mountain has also become a kind of natural arena for daredevils and has hosted a series of aerial and extreme sports spectacles that have made the headlines worldwide. In 2011, three pilots from the Russian Air Force flew their fighter jets through the 131m tall Tianmen cave, with a gap only slightly wider than the aircraft themselves. They passed through the hole at 600km/hr and it is one of the most spectacular aviation stunts ever attempted. Tianmen’s vertical cliffs have also made it a venue for wingsuit flying competitions and the 99-bend road leading up to the viewing deck has hosted a series of driving challenges.

There are many different routes and places to visit on Tianmen Mountain, but today we were taking the most scenic and comprehensive – route ‘A’. To reach the summit, visitors take the Tianmen Mountain cable car from the center of Zhangjiajie City. It is one of the longest in the world, running for 7.5km and it takes about 30 minutes to get to the top. It’s a brilliant journey, where you glide over vertical cliffs, deep gorges and the winding roads leading up the mountain. At times the route is exceptionally steep and you feel like you must be exiting the earth’s atmosphere!

At the summit, it was complete white-out conditions and cold and wet. The initial plan was to take the path circling the mountain top, to see the panoramic views of the karst landscape and visit the summit’s mountain temple. Based on the conditions, I explained to my tour guide that I would prefer to sit in a restaurant or cafe (surely there must be one up here!) and wait to see if conditions improved. She was a bit surprised I didn’t want to enjoy the scenery…and I carefully explained without being rude that there was nothing to see in these conditions!

The nearest indoor cafe was 30 minutes walk away through pretty miserable conditions and shuffling along the route behind hoards of other people bundled up in rain gear. I did the glass floor hanging walk way that is only 1.5m wide and clings to the cliff. On a clear day I bet it is terrifying and spectacular at the same time. Today, it was more a matter of making sure you didn’t slip on the wet glass. We eventually reached the cafe spot and unsurprisingly it was crammed full of other people trying to wait out the weather. And there was a Burger King! Which was almost as sad as when I found a McDonalds in Shigatse in Tibet.

After a refuel of coffee, but no Burger King, we decided that the cafe was actually pretty cold even though we were inside and that it was probably time to give up on waiting for the skies to clear. There are cameras set up in all the scenic locations that provide a live feed of current views and my guide had been checking every couple of minutes in the hope the weather would change.

So we headed to what I can only describe as the most bizarre and out of place transport choice I have ever encountered in a scenic spot. The escalators of Tianmen Mountain are burrowed inside the mountain itself linking the summit plateau with the base of the Heaven’s gate archway. Its a remarkable piece of hidden engineering and consists of seven continuous escalators stretching about 900m in total length and descending around 250 vertical meters. It takes about 30 minutes and it’s cold, since there are small viewing windows cut into the rock at the intervals when switching escalators. Although very odd, I suppose it is a rather good idea as it protects the fragile limestone surface from erosion by the millions of climbers that ascend and descend the mountain each year.

At the viewing deck we got a great view of 999 steps to Heaven’s Gate and it was impressive to see that even in the rain folks were climbing up and down. I hid in a warm tea shop whilst my guide continued to check if the clouds would clear even for a brief moment to see the full extent of the archway. The below photo is the best I got to see, before we decided to call it a day and head back down the mountain via another cable car. Thankfully as we descended to a lower elevation in the cable car, things cleared up and I finally got some good views of the scenery. Once at the bottom of the mountain, you need to get one final minibus back to where you started in the city as the place where you start and finish your journey to the mountain is different.

This was the third day of my time in Zhangjiajie and whilst it is busy (as per all tourist sights in China) and the weather wasn’t great, this place is definitely worth a visit and from experience offers some of the best scenery I have seen in China to date. You need 3 days minimum to cover the main sites (the canyon, the park and the mountain) but maybe a few extra if you want to take your time and not be rushed. I would definitely recommend a guide, since the route is not always that obvious and on your own you’ll probably spend more time figuring out how to get from A to B than enjoying the day. You can fly directly into Zhangjiajie airport from other domestic destinations, but its also well-connected on the high-speed train line if you are coming from elsewhere in China. I would recommend staying in either Wulingyuan or Zhangjiajie City, one gives you direct access to the park, the other to the mountain so either way you will have to travel between the 2 at some point.