After a few whirlwind cities and feeling like we were barely ahead on planning hotels and things to do, we decided to slow down. Going into this trip we knew we would need to slow down at times and even stop for a little while. Zhangjiajie became our little resting spot.
We spent nearly two weeks there and got to know our little neighborhood. We knew the bus system, where to get the best milktea and had a little family restaurant that was our go-to. Their 9 year old daughter would greet us and take our order, shouting out to her mom what we wanted. I guess the rules are different in China- when you have a restaurant in your front yard what else is your kid going to do when she isn't in school? She was adorable and I'm sure that I heard her humming "Let it Go" on several occasions.
Zhangjiajie is situated between two national parks. One is Tianmen Mountain that overlooks the city. On our second night there we went to an outdoor musical based on a legend of the love between a woodsman and a fairy fox (or as the translation called her, "foxy lady"- loved that). It was amazing. Dancing, singing, bridges being rebuilt by love- it really doesn't get any better than that.
The next morning we took the cable car up Tianmen Mountain. After three hours of a jostling, crowded line I lost enthusiasm for looking for the foxy lady on the mountain, but I'm sure she's there.
While we were in Zhangjiajie, we took two different side trips for a couple nights each, then we would return "home." Our first trip was to Fenghuang an ancient city that translates to Phoenix Town. It's just an old city, walled in, that is now mostly filled with tourist shops. It was a little rainy, but we still really enjoyed walking around the alleyways and trying different snacks. The food is what I remember best:
- Walnut Cakes: tiny cookie/cakes made in a walnut mold with a little bit of chocolate in the middle. Served hot and amazing.
- A dessert cafe- we tried four desserts in one sitting! It's hard to find truly sweet desserts in China, which means we have to experiment a lot.
- Street food: dumplings, noodles, etc.
- French fries!!! They sort of tasted like China.
- Rose milktea: maybe more than one of these were consumed in a day.
So, successful side trip.
The other short trip we took was to another nearby national park. For some reason, I never really got the name of this one, and google is blocked, so why bother figuring it out? #lazytraveler
I do know it's what inspired the look for Avatar. You could even get your picture on one of the flying creatures with the mountains in the background. Tempting.
It really was a beautiful place. The mountains were these incredible pillars of rock shooting straight up. It was unbelievable- they looked like they could just be pushed over. There were monkeys living here as well, along with many signs warning that they could bite.
We stayed two nights at a hotel on top of the mountains. We had a Chinese toilet. The hiking, like Mt. Huangshan, was staircases up and down, sometimes they were ladders. However, there are snacks all along the way- potatoes, bread, fish, eggs. All fried. So, perfect snack for hiking. There were also women sitting along the path selling cucumbers. They would peel it for you and you would carry it along your way, a really long cucumber. Those were good.
One fun story was taking the park's bus from one hiking spot back to our hotel. Many Chinese get very excited to see westerners in China. They like to say hello and take our pictures (sometimes secretly, sometimes they ask). Anyways, this little girl sat next to me on the bus and as soon as she saw me announced something to the whole bus, not sure what it was, but it caused the whole bus to turn and look at us. Then they continued to pretty obviously, have a loud conversation about us that we couldn't understand. So, I just continued to eat my ice cream. As the bus got going another woman began to sing out her window. She sounded good, and it was pretty quiet, so whatever. But, as the bus began to whip around corners faster and faster and the little girl kept looking at me this woman started to sing louder and more passionately, then the four year old boy in front of us joined in- he knew the song and was really passionate about singing it as well.
It was out of control. It was a relief to get off that bus. (In fact, relief is usually the feeling I have when we get off buses.)
The last few days we spent in Zhangjiajie just exploring the downtown. We went to a Tujia Cultural Park that had old buildings and relics from the local and ancient culture.
We found some bakeries, that seemed to have a European influence- so there was more sugar. We tried some treats to celebrate Matt's birthday before bidding farewell to Zhangjiajie and boarding our second overnight train for our next destination.
So, that turned into a post about food. We are starting to look forward to chai, naan and samosas....
