temple – Trouspinet travels

Today I was meant to have a guide to take me to Binglang Valley (which LP made sound amazing). But since that idea sunk, I had to find a plan B.

The most obvious plan B was Tianmen mountain but after having watched youtube compilations of panicking tourists, I was a little relunctant (I’ve always had a fear of heights).

But I couldn’t come up with anything else. When I arrived, the cable cars were fully booked so I took the bus.

(This could be a blessing in disguise as the queue for the cable car was horrendous)

This is the world’s longest aerial cable car. It’s 7km long and takes 30min to climb up the mountain.

The bus is quite a fun alternative. It rides up the Heaven-linking avenue, which has 99 bends (with a lot of ‘wooaaa’ and ‘ohhhh’ from the kids on the bus at each bend). See below.

The bus drivers drove very swiftly (maybe a bit too quickly) up the mountain.

The bus stopped in front of the Heavens gate. Tian = sky/heaven. Men = gate.

This cave, also known as heavenly door, is thought to be the first stopping point of the immortals when they go to earth.

Another day sweating as I climbed up the stairs.

The next step was to take the escalator, which is deep within the mountain and takes you to the top.

At the top, I started by walking down the East line.

First skywalk of the day.

It doesn’t show very well on the picture but you can see all the way down the cliff.

The views were incredible though.

The East line cliffwalk is 3.7km long and 1km high.

Lunch break:

I reached Tianmenshan temple, a large Buddhist temple.

This building had the Sakyamuni Buddha in it but it felt awkward taking pictures inside as monks seemed to be telling people’s fortunes.

Outside are little ponds with a mini gold fish version of Wulingyuan Scenic Area (aka Zhangjiajie).

A dumpling falls prey to the little fish.

I’m sure these 2 people are important.

Blueberry ice cream break !

A Chinese version of a bridge in Paris.

The suspension bridge was terrifying, it kept moving and creeping.

Some people were very brave.

Guigu practiced flying and tree walking at this crack in the mountain.

A poor puppy was dragged up here.

In the forest of wishes:

(I hope that the 5 yuan fee includes not chopping off the branch I placed it on)

The west skyglass walk felt scarier than the East one.

Zhangjiajie:

I climbed up to the top of mountain, which has a catchy name: cloudy and dreamlike fairy mountaintop

On the way down (bus), I booked my hotel. The goal was to find something more affordable and better located than last night.

If you pay cheap…. you get cheap….

(I think the chair has been a dog’s chew toy, the walls are covered in stains, the road outside was quite noisy and the bathroom is .. rudimentary? – but at least there is air con 😅)

I went to the nicest looking cafe I could see and grabbed an iced coffee with my new friend.

Another Chinese food shopping haul: grape fanta, sweet bread and a cheaper version of KitKat. I also grabbed a face mask since my skin has been rebelling since I left Beijing.
Also sanitizing wipes (just in case).

Before taking the bus to Hengshan West station, I visited Nanyue Temple.

Nanyue is a large, and very popular, Taoist and Buddhist temple. It is opposite the entrance to Hengshan scenic route.

In China, tortoises are a symbol of longevity, wisdom and peace. It is also one of the 4 sacred animals, representing the North and winter.

In Taoism, the tortoise supports the weight of Heaven. Its shell represents the Heaven whilst the underside is Earth. It is therefore the animal that has supported the universe since the beginning of the creation.

The children were very excited by the turtles swimming around. (Turtles have shorter lifespans and therefore don’t represent longevity)

All the shops, restaurants and hotels were selling incense in Hengshan.

Hunan region is known for its spicy food.

The hotel lady kindly gave me a red date yoghurt as a parting gift, which I treated myself to on the bus.

Lituo bus station:

A statue of Mao decorates the security check point.

I took a small snack whilst waiting for the bus.

There aren’t any alternatives other than taking the bus if leaving in the afternoon from Changsha. For some reasons the trains only leave in the morning or in the evening, which is a shame as the bus’ A/C wasn’t working great in the 30+°C heat.

After 4 hours of sitting in a bus full of increasingly upset Chinese people (The bus was running 1 hour late), I finally started to see mountains.

Sunset view through the dirty bus window:

I eventually arrived at Zhangjiajie.

Speed walking across the bridge to the hotel.

There was a mishap in the booking (ie. They completely forgot about me) so my plans changed and I ended up in a slightly more spacious (and more expensive) room then planned.

I noticed this ice cream place on the way to the hotel. I wasn’t really sure what I was ordering and instead of ice cream, I ended up with bubble tea. 😅

The smell of this small restaurant attracted me. I pointed at the picture of fried food cuz that was something I thought I could handle easily but then I got served the ramen that was in the picture next to it.

Another chopstick challenge! (Super cheap though, 13 yuan)

There was pretty much everything in there. Slices of tomato, mushrooms, tofu skin (maybe), sausage, cabbage, chilli, egg…

Category: temple

Tianmenshan

On route to Zhangjiajie