Hunan and Jiangxi Self-Driving Tour (9)

"The Sacred Mountain of Western Hunan" - Tianmen Mountain 2024.3.28 Weather: Sunny, 11-28 degrees. A belated thunderstorm finally came in the evening. After checking the future weather trends again, I found that there would be only two days without rain, and the next few days would be cloudy and rainy. I decided to change my itinerary and go to Zhangjiajie, one of the main destinations first. Get up early, the weather is great. We set off immediately after the meal, driving on the highway all the way. We drove along the Hangzhou-Ruili Expressway for a while. The familiar road name inevitably reminded me of the main road I took when I was returning from a self-driving tour in Yunnan and Guizhou two years ago and preparing to "sneak into" Shanghai. I felt a sigh and emotion again. The road is still the same road, but the direction it carries is very different. After driving more than 380 kilometers, we arrived at the famous tourist city of Zhangjiajie at 1:00 p.m. Visit Tianmen Mountain in the afternoon. Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area (5A, World Heritage Site) is named after the natural wonder "Tianmen Cave" (Figure 1). There are three routes to choose from for visiting Tianmen Mountain. We chose Route A, which is chosen by most tourists. Taking the cable car up the mountain from the City Garden Cableway Station in the city center is the most convenient and special way to visit Tianmen Mountain. Today is an ordinary day, with quite a few tourists. It took half an hour just to queue up for the A-line cable car. You can imagine the situation during holidays. After the cable car arrives at the upper station, there are three hiking routes to choose from: east, middle, and west. Each has its own characteristics. We chose the east route. After the tour, I felt that the main attractions of Tianmen Mountain (Figure 2) are: "The gate of heaven is open." The Hanging Cave is located on a cliff with 999 stone steps at an altitude of more than 1,300 meters, which is the best in the world (Figures 3 and 4); "Sky-suspended plank road". It is built around the top of the mountain, suspended high in the air on the side of a cliff, with glass plank roads in between. When you climb up here, you can see various interesting "performances" (Figure 5). There is also an elevated plank road (Figure 6); "A divine journey through the sky". The nearly 7,500-meter-long cableway stretches across the sky, a rare sight in the world (Figure 7); "Nine Bends of the Heavenly Road". The total length is less than 10 kilometers, with an altitude rise of more than 1,000 meters, and it contains 99 thrilling sharp turns, a "sharp bend road wonder" (Figure 8); "Buddhist Kingdom in Heaven". Tianmenshan Temple, lying quietly on the top of the mountain, is ancient, elegant, quiet and majestic (Figure 9). After taking the cable car, escalator and hiking many times, more than five hours had passed unknowingly, and it was already past six in the evening when we returned to the parking lot. We will stay in Wulingyuan tonight and continue to visit Zhangjiajie tomorrow. I hope the weather will be good again.