Hunan Day 5 - TienMen Mountain 天門山, Furong Ancient Town and Phoenix Town

Goodbye Pullman Zhangjiajie it has been a wonderful stay in Wulingyuan and I hope to be back to see changes in the near future. Our next destination was about 32km away south to a mountain top.

Today we will be braving the coolest day of our entire tour and we were warned to wear thick clothing. expecting a temperature below 0° C. The queue at the station was super relax as we were making our way to Tienmen Mountain 天門山 at the cable station. It is actually located near Zhangjiajie Railway Station.

Tianmen Mountain is found within Tianmen Mountain National Park, Zhangjiajie, northwestern part of Hunan Province, China.  

The cableway was constructed in 2005 by a French company called Poma. This was our ascend to the top. It is about 7km ride and taking 30 minutes to reach to top.

A pictorial map of Tienmen Mountain.

Enjoying the spectacular view, the most beautiful mountains in the world. By the way Tienmen Mountain literally means "Heaven's Door Mountain".

Tianmen Mountain Cableway is the "longest passenger cableway of high mountains in the world", with 98 cars and a total length of 7,455m and ascent of 1,279m. The steepest gradient is 37° which near the to peak. 

The winding road of 11 km with 99 bends as an alternate way to go up to the top of the mountain.

The view at the top with snow and ice covering everywhere. Indeed a lovely time and place for snow photography.

It was cold but we were prepared and ready to explore Heaven's Door.

Little Duck giving us a commentary and more as we moved on with the places.

Everyone of us were happy and enjoying the beauty of its cold atmosphere.

We had to walk slowly and has to be careful certain parts of the walk way is very slippery.

The balustrade walk way really looks dangerous when viewed from a distance.

Laying down at the new glass skywalk known as the "Walk of faith ". Appparently this was built and opened sometime in April 2015.

Another shot of the glass walk way, feeling like floating in mid air with astonishing views. A little bit scary though. 

The end of the cliff adventure at the exit point.

I am glad to be in this place experiencing the winter atmosphere, the snow and icy coating on the surfaces and plants. A wonderland indeed.

The temperature of the day as shown in the cable car building. Wow it went as low as -5°C.

Leo gave an ice spike for me for another fun pose.

It was time to descend and say bye bye to Tienmen Mountain. It was a great experience and worth doing it during winter time. You get to be away from the chaotic and noisy crowd, no queue and relaxing. 

The sign of our lunch place.

Within the proximity of Yong Ding, Zhangjiajie and a short bus ride from the Cable car station we were at this restaurant called Wu Long Shan Zhai for lunch.

Today we were travelling southwards of Hunan and after 90km of bus ride we reached Furongzhen 芙蓉镇 similar to the Chinese name for Seremban, Malaysia but this is of course in China.

Furong 芙蓉 is a town in Yongshun County, Xiangxi Prefecture, Hunan Province, China. This town is also known as Furong Ancient Town is a popular tourist spot somewhere in between Fenghuang County (Phoenix Town) and Zhangjiajie. 

The main attraction of this town is situated on the cliffs above a waterfall.

Furong was originally known as Wangcun, but was renamed after the famous movie, Hibiscus Town.

 The Tujia people were the original inhabitants of Wancun, and today Furong consists of a mix of Tujia and Han Chinese peoples.

Visiting the ancient town with a local guide is provided giving us an in depth commentary of Furongzhen.

Furong Waterfall 芙蓉镇瀑布 is about 40 meter wide with a drop height of 60 meters.

 The entire group at the biggest waterfall in west Hunan province.

Another angle at the waterfalls as we were going behind the falling water.

Walking behind the hanging water screen of the waterfall is like placing oneself in a crystal palace and listening to the sound of falling crystal.

 From the pier you can enjoy a different view of Furong Waterfall and Tusi Palace on your left-hand side. 

The Wuli Slate Street of Furong ancient town with many traditional shops and buildings on its both sides, is winding and leads you to the pier of Youshui River(酉水).

Wuli Slate Street has a history of over 2,300 thousand years, it has witnessed the history of Furong ancient town since the time when it was still a transportation hub both on land and via water.

I bought six of these porcelain cups, initially I thought it was made of enameled metal.

An old lady making and selling Furongzhen cigarettes.

Due to it remote location, village size, inconvenient of transport and lack of promotion, Furong Ancient Town is less popular than Fenghuang Ancient Town. Comparatively it is more peaceful than Fenghuang. Another interesting and worthy visit of this small ancient town.

Finally we reached the last destination of the day Fenghuang after nearly 120km ride or about 2.5 hours on the bus. Everyone was hungry and dinner was pre-booked and ready for us.

Another sumptuous meal at Fenghuang of Xiangxi cuisine 

As the bus could not stop close to the hotel door step and we had to drag our luggage. 

The beautiful night scene of Fenghuang river side in front of the hotel we were staying.

It was Feng Huang Cheng Hotel, nice and cosy.

We will be staying in this room for the next two nights before we move back to Changsha. Goodnight and it was a long tiring day but worth the effort. Cheers!

Hunan Day 4 - Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge, Yellow Dragon Cave & Xiang Xi Show

After travelling more than 20km from Pullman Hotel we were at Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon (within the proximity of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park) to walk the famous glass bridge. We were told that the crowd was considered easy and relax if compared to the peak season.

Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge is a bridge with glass-bottomed and is transparent. It is the longest (430metre long X 6metre wide) and tallest glass bottomed bridge in the world designed by an Israeli Architect. It can carry a maximum of 800 people at one time. This creation has attracted many visitors from every corners of the world to walk on it.

The bridge was opened to the public on 20 August 2016 and ever since the response from the visitors is overwhelming.

Liang laying on the glass bridge for a daring photo shot. We completed walking up and down the glass bridge and were able to complete it quite fast due to the relax crowd.

We stopped by at this restaurant for lunch it was another round of Hunan food before proceeding to the Yellow Dragon Cave 黄龙洞 which was on the same route back to Wulingyuan.

The lunch was good with a little variant of ingredients but the cooking style was about the same. I enjoyed the soup dish.

Here we were we have reached Zhangjiajie famous Yellow Dragon Cave 黄龙洞. I was temporarily taking over the the role of a tourist guide from Little Duck. The distinguished structure of a grass turfed roof is the "Hallelujah Concert Hall" 哈利路亞音樂廳 as the centerpiece to the Ecology Square.

The ladies from our tour group playing monkey business while Little Duck purchasinging tickets for the admission. This place covers a total area of 120 acres, 15 km in length and is divided into dry and wet levels. There are four levels, thirteen chambers, three underground waterfalls, two underground rivers, three pools, ninety-six passages, as well as an underground lake. The largest chamber in the cave is 4,000 m2 and the highest of the three waterfalls is 50 m high. 

 The surrounding before at the entrance point is nicely landscaped with interesting plants and beautiful features.

Huanglong Cave 黃龍洞  (huánglóng dòng) ; literally means "Yellow Dragon Cave" is a karst cave located near the Wulingyuan district. Every year million of visitors will visit this cave.

The guided tour in the cave would take about two hours which includes a boat ride down one of the underground rivers.

The Noisy River is one of the two underground rivers found inside the cave which 2,820 metre long and 6 metre deep averagely. The water stays constantly at 16°C or so throughout the year.

One of the 96 passages in the cave. Indeed there is a fair bit of walking and stair climbing, therefore one has to be fairly fit to endure the 2 hours tour.

The cave is colourfully lit.

The passage running through the many stalagmites and stalactites as we ascended and descended along the route led by a local in-house guide.  

The highest stalagmite measuring 19.2m tall and an icon of Yellow Dragon Cave. This structure is so precious that it has been insured for 100 million RMB and looks like a toothpick.

The tallest stalagmite is also known as the "Sea Suppressing Needle" with a plague stone describing it.

The entrance and exit point of Yellow Dragon Cave.

Having a taste if Xiangxi cuisine for dinner.

Zhangjiajie Cultural Show – Charming Xiangxi 魅力湘西 is located next to Pullman Hotel, hence it was an easy walk to the show.

The “Charming Xiangxi” comprising of actors coming from the local Tujia and Miao families with their fabulous singing and colourfully folk
performances. It truly gave us a chance to see the culture of Zhangjiajie. The entrance fee was RMB268 per head lasting about 3 hours. I enjoyed it very much, there were as well other performances besides the cultural show such as some acrobatic stunt and calligraphy shows.

Lastly an outdoor performance immediately after the indoor show before we called it a night. A short walk back Pullman Hotel to end Day 4 of the tour.