Tuesday, July 14

My morning started out well because I had a decent breakfast. I got to eat bacon, fried eggs, and drink coffee. After that the group walked to the entrance of Zhangjiajie National Park, which was really close to our hotel. After waiting in line for a ticket we had to wait in line to get onto a bus which would take us higher up the mountain where we would wait in line to get onto an elevator. I think you can tell what the theme of trip to Zhangjiajie was...I have come to realize that no matter where you go, if you're in a country of 1.3 billion people there will be lots of long lines and big crowds. Although Zhangjiajie was indeed beautiful, I think the Chinese commercialization of it detracts from the beauty. I was expecting dirt trails to remote areas of the park where one could just relax and take in the scenery. Instead there is seemingly nowhere you can go that isn't paved. Instead of hiking places there are buses, elevators, and cable cars that take you everywhere. It is definitely less satisfactory when you just take a bus somewhere, as opposed to spending long hours hiking somewhere to finally get a great view. The buses were crazy. The roads up the mountain were all narrow and very windy, but the drivers just whipped around them like they were drag racing. I would look out the window to see steep hundred foot drops and just prayed that the driver knew what he was doing. I was also disappointed because we had to travel in a big group throughout the park (I wanted to go off on my own and explore the less populated places).

Anyways, Zhangjiajie is famous for its enormous stone pillars that seemingly come straight from the ground up. There are thousands of these pillars each supporting small amounts of vegetation. It was amazing to look out and see pillars almost as far as the eye could see, each of them hundreds of feet high. We were high up on the mountain so we were eye-level with these limestone formations. Like all great sights, the pictures I took couldn't do the views justice. Managing to get the chance to take a picture was a whole different story. There were people literally everywhere, all attempting to take pictures as well. I think we came at a bad time, in the middle of summer, and think people-wise it would have been better to visit in the winter. Also, since we were there in summer, it was super hot and humid. I brought a small towel with me to wipe away sweat and by the end of the day the towel was soaked. In order to get down from the mountain we had to take a cable car. There was an enormous line that was about 10 feet wide and wound around the building. The two hours of waiting in this line was a full-contact battle. Having a line with no order mixed with the Chinese lack of manners means that it's pretty much every man for themselves. There was a constant pushing and jostling for a better position, I felt like I was about to get into a lot of fights with old, rude Chinese ladies. I was relieved the day was over after the frustrating and exhausting nightmare in line. On the way back to the hotel I saw that there was white-water rafting available at the national park. I really wanted to do this because I wouldn't have to deal with constant crowds and it would be a relief from the heat. Once again, the tight schedule prevented me from doing it. After a long day of walking I went back to the hotel and just laid in bed watching movies the rest of the night.