湖南张家界国家森林公园
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park
The beginning of the “Golden Whips Stream”
The Hunan Province truly does have a national treasure in their region.
Hallelujah mountain – the mountain where James Cameron got his inspiration for his movie, Avatar
A forest on top of a karst mountain
It really looks like this karst mountain is floating, doesn’t it?
From the cliff side of “Warrior taming wild horses”
Amazing how green and fertile these karst mountains and valleys are
These mountain silhouettes never got tiring to see
Abandoned pagoda on top of a mountain top
Talk about no shame.
Locks and charms were plastered all over the mountain section called “Love lockhart”
Onion scallion pancake vendor
One of the many local vendors selling their assortment of street food in the park
Even though there were signs everywhere for visitors not to feed the monkeys, that clearly didn’t stop the visitors from doing so
Pagoda in front of the Wulingyuan entrance
Sun breaking through the karst mountain tops
For 300-500 RMB, you can pay 2 gentlemen to carry you up from thousands of steps on this “Royal” chair
Charms hung on a ceiling on top of a temple in Tianzi Mountain
Men taking a break and playing a friendly card game
Tianzi Monastery
Statue of Helong
During the winter, this park does get its fair share of rain and cold temperature. Luckily, that also wards off the massive Chinese/Korean tour groups that barrage the park during the summer.
Baby monkey peering out for food.
Wild monkeys roamed throughout the National Park
One section of the Tianmen Mountain had these charms all over the trees and posts. With the fog, it created such a dramatic picture
Charms written with their wishes and prayers
Bridge to nowhere
The Tianmen monastery on top of Tianmen mountain
Tianmen monastery
The fog was really dense at this time of year in Zhangjiajie
In the spring and summer, these branches bear fruit different types of edible berries.
Going through a cave to unveil Tianmen Mountain
Zhangjiajie is still a developing town and you can see that when a lot of their restaurants still cure their meat as a means of preservation
Braised pork belly with Hunanese dried chili peppers
Spicy beef with multicolor Hunanese dried chili peppers
They are VERY generous with their helping of rice
All the waitresses gathered around a firepit during their free time to keep themselves warm
Beef stir fry with dried mushrooms and chili peppers
A Hunan specialty that uses multiple parts of the pig – Belly, intestine, tripe, and the ear with a mixture of dried chili peppers and szechuan peppercorns
I tried to figure this out but apparently it’s ground up potherb that’s turned into gelatinous paste then fried. Tasted like sticky rice cakes!
I love it!! Thank you for sharing and letting us all join your journey. I will continue to follow religiously and try not to be jealous too much. Safe travels Matty! xoxo
Thanks Kathy for all the love and support! I’ll try to update religiously so you can be with me on this journey!
Hi Matt,
Your pictures are awesome. Do you like China?
Hey Gina! China is good in its own way 😉 You definitely want to come here with a friend that speaks Chinese or at least know some rudimentary Chinese to make your trip easier here. Other than that, the food is amazing and it’s pretty amazing how each city is so different from each other.