Pandora is far, but Zhangjiajie is near!

7 free days & VOILA - HUNAN province "done"! ;)

We managed to see: 

• a bit of Changsha (not that we wanted even that much)
• Zhangjiajie National Forest park  
• Fenghuang river town

We (me & Jenny) were the first "foreign friends" staying in this very nice & new hostel in Changsha! 

10:50 in the morning we caught a 4 h bus to Zhangjiajie (120 RMB)!

Spring was in the air!

Arriving to Zhangjiajie town we immediately got on a minibus (10 RMB) to Zhangjiajie village - one of the entrance points to Zhangjiajie forest park... 

...and 40 minutes later we were amidst the beautiful peaks!

Market in Zhangjiajie village

We skipped this one ;)

...instead we opted for Tujia minority speciality - Tujia chicken (we tried hard to identify the missing pieces of a whole chicken that was promised...we identified head, feet...but meaty parts of chicken had gone missing) 

Early next morning after emptying our instant noodle breakfast packages we started our hike! 

Start time: 7:55 a.m. 

Finish time: 7 p.m. 

Distance covered: more than 20 km

Ticket price: 248 RMB (valid for 2 days)

Chinese claim that mountains of Zhangjiajie national forest park were the inspiration for the floating "Hallelujah mountains" of planet Pandora in Avatar movie! Hollywood photographers have reportedly spent several days taking photos in that area in 2008.

And now the local government is tempting tourists by slogans like: 

"Pandora is far, but Zhangjiajie is near!"

One of the park`s peaks has even been renamed Avatar mountain :)

Huangshi village area (~3 km around, ~2 km down-climb)

Straight to the top! Incredible beauty!

Lots of monkeys included ;)

Golden Whip Stream path 5,7 km

Bailong sky lift

...quite an amazing glass-wall lift ride!!!

views from above!

Yuanjiajie scenic area 

Avatarish, isn`t it?

Going down...~ 1,5 km steep path down

back on the Golden Whip Stream path... 

3,7 km deja-vu trip ;)

We got out from the park at around 7 pm...twilight time...everyone else had already left....so it was a truly  magical feeling having all that majestic natural beauty to ourselves!!! 

Never mind the next day we`d have hard time walking because of pain in our muscles...

...and after all that walking & practically no food for the whole day...well deserved night BBQ with our trip special: wine + coke :)

The next day we continued to Fenghuang - THE river town! 

Stay tuned ;)