The Avatar Mountains

The little town of Wulingyuan is a huge change from the sophistication of Nanjing.  Our little riverside hotel has gracious bedrooms with Japanese-style loos. They're not quite as posh as the ones in Shanghai, which you need a degree in computer science to operate - but a welcome change from the simple squat loos in so many places!

Walking along the river in the morning – everyone was heading to school – across the stepping stones or finishing off a breakfast dumpling on Dad’s moped.  This is a minorities region with Tujia and Miao people, recognisably different from the faces of Shanghai.  And there are gatherings doing the weekly wash by the riverside.

The food here was fabulous – delicious fruit (katie calls them cellulite oranges!) and fish and special local tea

The Zhangjiajie national park is on our doorstep and day one focused on the Grand Canyon.  Katie was a true hero here, given the vertigo which stops her going down the escalators at Swiss Cottage 😊   She mastered the glass bridge - the longest and highest in the world - and even looked down to see the world’s longest bungee jump…

Back on dry land, we jumped into balloon baskets with VR headsets to experience the bungee jump ourselves and to swoop around the gorge like the winged lemurs in Avatar.  On the way down, Katie took the glass elevator – but I did the skywire and the most ginormous wild fun slide!   I’ve circled a couple of people on the zip wire so you can imagine me in flight!

All good fun – and nowhere near as scarey as the climbing track being used by the guys below!

Still high in the mountains, we took a trip across the Baofeng Lake – an artificial lake created when Mao built a hydroelectric power plant and dammed the river.  It’s very lush and surreal – if rainy (look at the local fishermen!)

Nearby is the Tianzi mountain, famous for a special victory in the farmers revolt but, also, the astonishing backdrop for the film Avatar.  Here are the Hallelujah mountains from the movie ….

Putting little sticks in the stratas of the mountain sandstone means local people will see their wishes come true ….

Our guide, Derrick, can see all kinds of animals and flowers in the rocks, from salamanders to tomb guard lions and dromedaries.  Katie and I struggled to see most of them – but I was happy to agree that there was a turtle on the top of this rock ….

The weigela japonica grew wild, everywhere and I loved the warning signs about the monkeys!  You can’t really see, but the right hand one below had snatched something from one of the tourists and, although it was plastic – did try to eat it!

I love this shot of the early morning mist and our little village showing in the valley

Don’t you love the rather abstract look and feel of the background in this shot?

Zhangjiajie is a Unesco World Heritage site and somehow retains it’s magic despite 20 million visitors a year.  This is the only place where we have seen groups of Spanish, German and American visitors, along with the Chinese tourists – and there will be a complete Tsunami tomorrow, for the May Day holiday.  But everything works like clockwork and it is really easy to navigate.  Once you have your ticket – all you have to do for access to the different areas is to go through the gates, with photo recognition: quick and easy.   Your passport is your ticket, as in much of the rest of China.