Just like last year, another school decided to use our school’s sports field for their own practice for two days, which meant that we at PCIS got to have an extra two days off. Yay! A co-worker and I decided this would be the time to head up to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park to see the mountains that inspired the “Hallelujah” mountains in the film “Avatar.” I had read online that April to October is the best time to go and that April is the peak month for photography. I also managed to book us round-trip business class seats (for the first time in my 32 years on this earth) that were actually very affordable! The April weather would later dampen our spirits (and our clothes).

I was torn between staying at a 5-star hotel that also seemed rather affordable or staying at a hostel that was highly recommended by a couple at our school who went last year. Ultimately, I decided to book the hostel to save money. Let’s just say that in China, you absolutely get what you pay for. The place was old, and everything felt cold and damp. The owner of the place spoke English, but he was not onsite; his father was the onsite manager and spoke barely any English at all. Communicating with him in our limited Chinese was, at best, entertaining. Our rooms were on the second floor, and mine was right next to the stairwell, where I could hear everyone going up and down. I could also hear the manager talking (oh, let’s face it, yelling) in the early morning and late evening. I could also hear the clacking of some of the women who decided to wear heals (yes, younger women wearing heals on the mountains in China is definitely a thing). (Not with all women, but it certainly happens.) My toilet was also barely flushed, and there was no toilet paper provided. Luckily, the hot water worked.

The view from my room was of a dark gray brick wall, which did little to keep out the noise from nearby construction and traffic. I could also hear the noise from all the Chinese tour groups and buses. The only perks of being here were the proximity to the mountains and places to eat nearby. Anyway, I’ll go on more about the ups and downs of the trip later.

The weather was awful, rainy, and cold. Normally, rainy weather makes for beautiful nature photography as the colors become more vibrant. This, however, resulted in a sea of fog covering everything after a certain elevation. See for yourself (or not).

Like every mountain trip, it started with a cable car ride up to the top. This actually ended up being one of the few moments where we could see an interesting mix of fog and mountains before the mountains became engulfed.

After we made our way to the top and took a shuttle bus to the first stop, I saw a notice written on a rock. It was specifically addressing Chinese tourists about how to behave in the park.

I found this both funny and entirely appropriate, since some Chinese tourists still aren’t quite sure how to best behave when out in nature, regarding garbage and etiquette.

These were the first photos I snapped. I used both my point-and-shoot as well as my phone camera. You may notice the difference in quality.

Afterwards, we headed to an area that had a sight-seeing tram. These were the views from the tram.

Later on, while hiking up the umpteenth set of stairs, we came across some wild macaque monkeys. I had seen these before while hiking through the mountains near Taipei.

After a while, my right knee really started to hurt. I’m not sure what I did to it. It could have been from all of the steps stepping down onto the stone steps, or maybe it was from some of the steps being at odd angles. It became so painful that I didn’t think I could make it up much further. As we went further up, we passed by a pair of “sedan” men (a “sedan” here means a man-made chair of sorts held by two sticks). I was adamant about not resorting to that. I didn’t want to spend the money, nor did I want to make these poor men have to carry me up all these steps, even if it was their job.

Finally, it got to the point where I knew deep down I just wasn’t going to make it any further without a real break. So, I gave in and agreed to take the sedan. All along the way, my friend could see and hear how miserable I was about doing this. It also didn’t help that as we made our way up, numerous Chinese people stopped to look at me as we passed (slowly, very slowly) up the stairs. Several of them decided to take photographs of me in my misery, looking like the weak, foreign-pampered prince of the mountains on his king carrier. I can’t say that I blame them; I would have done the same thing, but it was still really irritating. It looked even worse with me holding my cup of coffee, which looked like a Starbucks cup. When the men stopped to take a break, I quickly downed the rest of the coffee so that my friend could throw it away, but not before I managed to spill a bit of it on my lap. Throughout this whole ordeal, my friend tried hard to comfort me by singing some songs and telling me about her worst dating stories. Ultimately, it did little to help, but I appreciated the effort.

After getting off the sedan and paying the man in front 100 RMB and the man behind me 200 RMB, I refused to have them take me any further, despite their insistence and despite my sore knee. We hiked some more up and down steps, finally made it back to the base, and headed home. I asked my friend if she could find a nearby pharmacy that sold anything that could help my knee. She found a simple knee sleeve, so I gladly put it on. It didn’t help that much, but it was better than no help at all.

In the lobby of our hostel, we saw a menu, so we asked to order, but we were told that they didn’t have any food, just coffee. Don’t ask me why they would still display a menu for guests if they don’t have any food. It’s China we’re talking about. So we set out to find a place nearby. I wanted to photograph some local Hunan cuisine, so this was my first chance. Dinner was OK, though I could have done without all the incessant horn honking from the tour buses constantly passing by.

The next day, the weather continued to be lousy. After talking to the hostel owner about which sites would be best to see under these conditions, we decided to see the big glass bridge first and then see the area where the “Hallelujah” mountains were, in hopes that we would actually see more today since the fog seemed to be moving more (at least from the ground it did).

Even though it was raining, the glass seemed to have some kind of anti-slip agent on it or something (at least it felt like it did). I walked with my backpack on my front for easier access to my camera and phone while my friend got sucked into getting her picture taken with some Chinese tourists who had to have their token foreigner photo. As we walked from one side to the other, every Chinese person was taking the same photo, either a selfie or pictures of them giving the peace sign while kneeling on the glass.

After getting our bridge time, we headed back toward the main entrance to get some lunch. Luckily, after looking around for an actual restaurant, we found the entrance to a hotel to ask someone. The woman guided us up to the second floor and helped us with ordering, even with her limited English.

We then headed toward the shuttle bus going to the “Heavenly Pillar” (aka the “Hallelujah” mountain area). After getting dropped off and waiting for the next shuttle bus, we stopped for some ground-level photos. My friend also began to eat an apple, and when one of the macaque monkeys noticed, it started to follow her. When she finally noticed, she shrieked and instinctively threw down her half-eaten apple. The monkey was fine with this and took the remainder. I could see it coming up towards her, but it all happened so fast that there wasn’t really time to tell her (or take a hilarious photo).

When we did manage to reach the area, there was once again nothing but a sea of fog. We could barely make out what was closest to the mountain, and there was nothing in the distance. At that point, the phrase “hallelujah” was definitely not how I would describe my frame of mind.

Frustrated by our failed hopes, we let our sense of humor take over. We made silly tour guide comments, jokingly referring to the spectacular yet barely noticeable blobs in the distance.

We decided to just head back down the giant glass elevator built along the side of the mountain and head home to eat.

While looking for a different place to eat, we noticed a woman selling homemade snacks not far from our hostel. We sampled some, and I decided to get the slightly sweet-tasting peanut candy. Across from her was a man who looked to be making one of the treats, which looked like a type of puffed rice candy.

This time we found a place that looked like it had many decent dishes. With the help of several of the female staff who were eager to have us eat, we settled on four dishes (which later ended up being five when they also delivered a plate of hot “pai huang gua,” the cucumber salad). Meghan ordered what she thought was beef, but it ended up being liver. The flavor and texture put me off. The rest tasted fine.

After we checked out of our hostel the next morning, we headed toward our other hotel near Tianmen Mountain, the other tourist attraction in this area. This time, our place was nice and cozy. The owner was friendly and helpful, and she also spoke decent English, having spent time in California. It also had an elevator and a heating/cooling system (finally, the term “Hallelujah” seemed relevant).

We didn’t have much time, though, so we checked in and then headed out to the cable car up the mountain. There was also the option to take the shuttle bus up, going along the “99 Bends” roads, but we didn’t have an extra several hours at this point.

Once again, we thought perhaps the fog looked better today than before. After going up a certain way on the cable car, we soon realized that our last day would again be spent in the cold fog.

In one area, we saw a spot dedicated to people tying red ribbons to the trees and writing a wish on them. I didn’t feel like contributing anymore ribbons to the poor trees, but my friend decided that this kitschy idea was something she should do. One sign at the beginning of a stairway path said that fire engines were not allowed to enter there. I don’t know what kind of fire engines they are talking about; a fire motorbike couldn’t fit up there.

Later on, we also came upon a woman who was taking requests to play songs on the guzheng (I think), which is a famous stringed or harp-like instrument. Sometimes, on my way back to the teacher’s dorm at school, I will pass by the place where they give lessons for this instrument, and I see young kids practicing. It’s one of the few lovely sounds I hear outside there. Anyway, one man requested something, and she invited him to sit next to her while she played. She, too, was shrouded in fog. Sorry folks.

This turned out to be the most disappointing day of all. The fog became thicker and colder as time went on. The stupid forecast was clearly wrong, and I did not pack appropriately for this kind of mountain weather. We were having trouble figuring out how to get down again toward the massive escalator. At one point, we came across a cable car that looked like ski lift seats. I didn’t realize that’s what this cable way was, but I just wanted to get down as fast as I could. My friend said this was the one thing she really didn’t want to do, but she rode on it anyway. While on it, we were even colder, and looking down, we could still make out some of the ground below, as well as going over a suspended bridge. I wish I could have taken a photo, but my hands were just too damn cold. The entire time, my knee was still hurting, despite my friend buying some knee braces and warmers the night before.

After walking around dazed and confused (or should I say “hazed” and confused?) through the walkways, which had water dripping down the sides, we finally made it to the big escalator. This was actually a series of big, long escalators taking tourists down inside the mountain. I was glad to take this and not the 999-step option. Every time we got to the end of one escalator, another one popped up. When we got to the last one, something happened on it, and there were shouts to stop the escalator. I couldn’t see what happened, but they stopped us and made us take the stairs down the rest of the way (great, just as we got to the end, I ended up having to take more stairs!!). We finally got out and made our way to the first round of shuttle buses. My friend got some popcorn, and we took in the scenery before going down the 99 Bends. I don’t know if it actually has 99 bends to it; I didn’t count.

After getting to the bottom for the last shuttle bus portion of the trip, I took one last shot of the mountains. The ground view was deceiving in terms of what could actually be seen up above.

After our final long and weary day, we got back to the hotel and rested for a bit before heading out for dinner. The hotel owner suggested a place to us where one of the managers spoke some English and the food was good. Not wanting to spend lots of time searching, we agreed to eat there. For some reason, the pai huang gua had sugar this time. I wasn’t into the sugar, but I ate it anyway.

Though I managed to eat some good food and get some interesting photos from the ground, I still wish I had waited to go when the weather was better. This is the second trip that I had looked forward to that ended up being a big disappointment. I hope my bad luck streak is over. There are plenty of other mountains still to see in China!