Hunan (Day 4) : Furong Town / Zhangjiajie (1520 Sky Eye, 72 Qilou Building)

As expected, Aniad hotel's setting for their buffet breakfast was most impressive. Very modern and trendy for a small town. 

When googled on the Internet, I could only find this hotel listed under the name Annai costing close to MYR 500/ night on average. 

Our breakfast spread... I was especially loving its crispy you tiao!

I also managed to put in an order through our local tour guide for this genuine pink buffalo horn comb, beneficial for healthy hair due to its anti static. anti frizz quality and improves blood circulation on the scalp. Among other benefits, the other side of the comb can also be used for 'gua sha' of the face and body (a traditional method to stimulate lymphatic drainage, relieves tension and improves blood flow). So far so good for me as combing with this after my hair wash had greatly reduced the number of falling hair. My only concern though - will it break into pieces if i accidentally dropped it!

After a fulfilling breakfast, it was off to Qixing (Seven Stars) Mountain, situated in western Tianmen Mountain with the highest peak of 1528 m above sea level. 

Cable car ride all the way up to the mountains, cutting across natural landscapes and scenic views that stand majestically all around us. 

This place is utterly clean and organised with clear signboards everywhere, as an independent guide to travelers to freely roam around the area. Not to mention, recycling bins can be found almost at every corner, resulting in a litter-free environment.

Only pollution around here was probably the occasional yelling and shouting by some tourists in which may be a norm to them.  

A must-stop is to view the "1520 Sky Eye" in Sky City and to get here, one can either pay to ride the Alpine Coaster or walk the scenic 'Love Plank Path' which is actually about a 20-minute easy walk up. The coaster ride was 30 yuan up but 60 yuan down (buy both together at 80 yuan). I'm guessing it's a heftier price coming down due to a higher thrill-level? LOL. 

Our slow and steady walk begins amidst a cool breezy weather and it felt so good that there was hardly a crowd there with us.  

Corny pics ahead thanks to our tour buddies who kept coaxing us to model under this heart-shaped bench. Lol. 

From where we stood, I literally started cursing "Wtf view is this!" Such awe and beauty.  

Having arrived at the top, here we were putting on shoe covers to protect the flooring of what's about to come. 

This place is known as 1520 Sky Eye, a circular glass observation deck located 1520 m above sea level. 

Took guts to lie down for a photo like this. The facial expressions tell it all. Haha. 

Super windy and sunny up here too! 

Kiddos were totally fine walking all over the glass. Phew!

There is also a nearby glass walkway sitting slightly lower than the observatory deck, in which the infamous Sky Piano proudly sits. Unfortunately it was a non-working piano. 

Another lovely group shot for the album. 

Paid 60 yuan each for the kids to ride down the Sky Eye. 

And boy. did they love it!

Lepak-ing on the glass steps.

Wall of Echoes are 3 towering peak cliffs that stood like celestial warriors. 

Another walkway around the mountains

The Great Cliff gorge

The photos may seem like every other mountain but when in person, there is indeed some significance in terms of the landscaping and shapes of the mountains.  

It was such an edutainment reading the description of different sections of the mountains and trying to figure out the actual landscape it was referring to. 

Very fun thrilling ride up on the mountains in their mini shuttle buses zooming up the winding narrow roads driven by some really experienced drivers. 

After a couple of hours up in the sky, it was time to get back down for lunch. 

Highlights of lunch was this very tasty and tender pork rib dish which we all initially thought were lamb chops until we saw the menu stuck outside our dining room. Anyway, still good peppery stuff with a touch of mala.

There were always at least one soup dish in our meals. 

Steamed fish was good too, but a tad too small for 10 of us diners. 

Herby duck dish

Right after dinner, we were driven to Junsheng Painting Institute (est. in 2001), well known for its exhibition of unique art form of sand and stone painting.  

I thought this to be an amazing introduction of this gallery

Founders of this place

A designated local English-speaking guide taking us through some notable paintings made by their team of painters. Simple form of using colored sand and stones to assemble parts of the painting, but very time consuming indeed. 

The result is a 3D-effect painting 

Simple yet captivating

A display of some of the different textured and colored materials in the form of sand and crushed stones used. 

While paintings shown to us on the ground level were merely for display purposes, paintings on the upper floors were for sale to public, ranging in different sizes and prices. 

We checked into our 5th hotel in this tour - Ramada by Wyndham. This turned out to be a pretty old hotel which i reckon was bought over and renamed to Ramada as I saw its previous Chinese name in their toilets. The interior was pretty run down too and I saw few black marks in our bath tub with a stained shower curtain. Nevertheless, Hayley is a sucker for bath tubs and so still happily soaked in the tub for almost an hour.  

Unfortunately, staying here left quite a bad taste in my mouth, as the choking hallways were filled with cigarette smoke, I swore some may have even seeped through the rooms. The thought of having to sleep through the night breathing in second-hand smoke was a daunting experience. Our driver had unintentionally brought us to the wrong hotel earlier (also named Ramada) which i'm convinced looked newer! Aww shucks. 

For dinner we were ushered to this restaurant for what's called a 'Wild Mushroom Cuisine'

Which turned out to be a hot pot of noodles and variety of wild mushrooms in a plain broth. It was quite bland in taste, which could be a good thing - no MSG!  

We were served prawns too!

Careful, even their fried fish fillets contained tiny bones. 

Mushroom soup for the soul

Final stop for the night was this remarkably stunning 72 Qilou Building, a cultural masterpiece of the Tujia minority. This 109.9m Tujia stilted building was awarded as the world's tallest Tujia stilted building by Guinness records. 

It's hollow centre is known as the 'Dragon Eye Gate' which aligns visually with the distant Tianmen caves at the mountains. 

I just thought this was a funny picture to take - Horn Company though not sure what is referring to. 

Tour guide Alexis introduced us to this famous shop there, calling it 'Sexy Tea'. With a name like that, how can i not try it? 

Without an English menu in sight, I just informed the friendly staff that my yearn was for something citrusy with tea. Following some rapid exchange of lightning-speed Chinese words and head nodding in between, i was super satisfied with the drink in my hand. I still do not know the name of it, but it felt like a real smooth lightly infused milk tea with dried cranberries, topped with a really delicious unsinful light whipped cream.  

Can someone please bring 'Sexy Tea' over to Malaysia?  

The view of this building was truly a sight to behold from where the tour buses parked to drop off tourists. Though not much to do inside this place except watching their ongoing cultural and folk shows and scour through some of their shops/ stalls, it was still a spectacular place that one must visit, even with a steep entrance fee of 88 yuan in the nighttime. 

They have shows all over the place, one just needs to squeeze their way into the crowds for the best view of the shows. Trait to learn when in China, BE and ACT like a local when it comes to tackling boisterous crowds. Only then will one survive to live another day. LOL.