Day 20 Tianmen Mountain, train ride to Shanghai

We start early, pack, have breakfast and at 7:30 a.m . we meet Mr. Hu and Alex. At the bakery around the corner, you already recognize us, we get a coffee and a little food for later on the train. The destination Today is Tianmen Mountain, which is located just eight kilometers south of the village of Zhangjiajie. The Tianmen Mountain Nature Reserve has been named the second national forest park in Zhangjiajie. With an altitude of almost 1,520 meters, Tianmen (Heaven’s Gate) is the highest peak in Zhangjiajie and is often referred to as the “soul” of the region. The mountain is adorned with graceful trees, karst hills, and a variety of medicinal herbs and plants. Tianmen also boasts of its “four wonders”, which include the Tianmen Mountain Railway, Tongtian Dadao (the Road to Heaven), Tianmen Cave and Bonsai Garden in the Air. It was not enough for the Bonsai Garden.

After an hour’s drive we already see the hole in the mountain, the Tianmen Cave. Yeeeaaahhhh cable car ride 4 km or 15 minutes. But unfortunately again modest weather. But luckily no fog at our altitude, just some rain. The cable car starts in the middle of the city.

The 99 steep curves with the bus are a bit of a challenge even for experienced Swiss stomachs, but the driver is merciful to us and drives decently.

At the top we already see the 999 steps, it’s a pity that time is so short today, now we have to take the escalators, there are 5 escalators to the big hole. On the way pictures are shown of activities on the mountain, racers, paragliders, tightrope walkers, wingsuits and what else is not romping around on the mountain.

No, it’s not always the same pictures, there are 12 such escalators all the way to the top.

And yes, we weren’t quite the only ones who wanted to enjoy the view. It was only the intermediate station, there are now another 7 escalators in front of us.

We also take a short but exciting walk over the Tianmenshan Glass Skywalk.

Now we have to talk about organizing a lot of people in one place. They can do that here, everything is well organized with waiting rooms, mutton walks, your passport is scanned once together with the ticket, from then on the system knows you. Again and again short distances with the bus to the next station. They are used to it, there are about 6 million visitors a year on site.

Now it’s time to leave, we drive to Zhangjiajie station, here we take the train to Shanghai (14:38-21:57) it is almost 1350 km, which we cover in a little more than 7 hours.

The driver comes running and takes us to the hotel in the city. We get an upgrade to a higher room class with a round bathtub in the middle of the room, well who needs it.