Zhangjiajie: Avatar Mountains

Zhangjiajie was established in 1982 as China's first national forest park. Its towering quartz-sandstone pillars inspired the floating mountains in the 2009 movie Avatar. The strange formations shrouded in mist was one of the most beautiful natural landscapes I've ever seen.

I flew into Zhangjiajie and took a taxi to the small town of Wulingyuan, the launching pad for my mountain exploration. Wulingyuan brought my first experience with staying in a homestay, a smaller more intimate local-run inn type of accommodation popular in China. My particular homestay cost about $30 for three nights and was run by the most helpful and wonderful lady who spoke zero English. Here she is warning me about the park's resident wild monkey population and plotting out my map.

Eager to explore the terrain, I woke up around sunrise and was the first person inside the park.

In fact the place seemed almost abandoned. I was very excited about these low crowds.

I hopped in the first elevator ride going up. Yes that is correct. You cannot hike up to the top of the mountains. You can choose between a bus ride or elevator. Not just any elevator though. I rode the 1,000 foot tall Bailong Elevator - the tallest outdoor elevator in the world. Because it's China.

When I arrived at the summit the low crowds began to make a little more sense. The winter fog was so thick I literally could not see anything. This was the view.

I hiked to a separate viewpoint. Also entirely foggy. I was beginning to get a little worried.

I tried my first cable car to no avail.

After about three hours of wandering around, the views began to clear up. I saw this absurd natural bridge.

There was an almost magical effect as the fog rolled away and slowly revealed the vast landscape of towering rock pillars thousands of feet tall. I had never seen anything like it.

I continued my wandering, soaking in the otherworldly views. As I exited the park at close I ran into Max and Adam, two Singapore natives, and carpooled back with them to town. These guys were awesome.

I decided to explore Wulingyuan a little bit. The town had some classic LED-rich buildings and bridges.

I had a second full day to re enter and further explore the park. I hopped on one of the three cable cars installed throughout the park. This was by far the single most incredible cable car ride of my life. I was amazed by the engineering threading cars and supports through stunning mountain pillars.

The summit was socked in with fog and cold rain. So I decided to put my unlimited cable car pass to use and lap the cable car ride two more times to soak in the views from the comfort of my sheltered car. This was a fantastic decision. I had so much fun in my personal cable car soaring above and past the rock formations rising out of the mist. I actually felt like I was on Pandora (planet from Avatar).

While initially skeptical of China's highly engineered and commercialized "national forest" I soon found myself seeking out the remaining cable cars and stuffing myself with McDonald's. When in Rome I guess.

After many rainy hours sheltering in the McDonald's and various cable cars, the weather finally let up for a beautiful grand finale before the park closed and my time came to an end.

I even saw one of the wild aggressive monkeys I was warned about.

I ended both days with some hand formed dumplings and homemade soup.

I left Zhangjiajie impressed with both the scale of China's tourism infrastructure and natural scenery. This country has so much to offer. Good thing I have ten more days of this madness.

From the vault:

The Zhangjiajie National Forest Park has an outdoor elevator, three cable car systems, and an extensive internal shuttle bus system. However, the icing on the cake is that if you do not want to walk up the paved hill from the shuttle bus stop to the cable car station, you can pay these men to carry you like an Egyptian pharaoh.

This kid.

"Suprene" pants.

I saw a group of friends pay this photographer for a professional photo of them with absolute clouds in the background which I thought was funny. Until I realized the photographer also photoshops in a proper scenic background. China.