The main reason why visitors come to Zhangjiajie is to visit the amazing Zhangjiajie Forest Park. This is part of the Wulingyuan park system which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was declared China first forest park and it is easy to see why. The park is dotted with deep canyon reminiscent of the Grand Canyon in the United States. This park however has a distinctly Chinese feel, one cannot but help being reminded of a traditional Chinese painting.
We took a bus to the park to the village of Zhangjiajie right next to the park. If this sounds confusing, it is. We came from the city of zhangjiajie and are now in the Zhangjiajie village. This is less than an hour away from the main city, so it is not really that far. However, we took longer than expected because we took the wrong but until someone pointed us in the right direction.
Along the way, people would notice us and taxi drivers will stop by us asking if we want to go to the park. As mentioned before they can be quite persistent and keep offering to help us buy tickets to the park. We politely refused them until we finally got on the right bus to the park. They must be really desperate to keep hounding us like that. I guess tourism really is the lifeblood of this city.
The entrance fee to the park is RMB245, a pretty expensive amount but this ticket is valid for two days which is a good thing since the park is huge. Right at the entrance there were touts hounding us. There was a tout who was offering guided tour of the park. She was so persistent that she followed us all the through the entrance. Maybe she is a resident of the park that is why they allowed her to follow us inside. I wouldn’t want to spend money on a guided tour which would probably be in Chinese anyway. After walking a few hundred meters with her tagging along she finally gave up and starting hounding someone else.
The first stop for us is a wonderful stream famous here in Zhangjiajie. This is the Golden Whip Stream 金鞭溪. This is probably one of the cleanest streams I have seen in my life. It is also quite long, running a length of more than 7 kilometers. The stream is surrounded by plentiful plant life, there is a veritable forest growing along its shores. The scenery of the stream with the surrounding mountains and plant life is certainly like a scene from a fairy tale. The size of the park give the visitor a feeling of wilderness while still being in the comfort of a park.
Along the river, there are markers which point to certain formations by the mountains. Such as monkeys or mother and children. Most of these really need to stretch the imagination because I could hardly see them. I guess one really needs a wild imagination for this walk. Regardless of whether you see the supposed formations, there is no denying the beauty and mysticism of this place.
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