Hunan (Day 5) : Zhangjiajie (Tianmen Mountain)

Today is another day of mountain sighting, but we first made a stop at the Tujia Folk Village, a small park to best learn about the Tujia minority, the most heavily populated of the 33 ethnic minority groups in Zhangjiajie, at 1.02 mil. The Tujia people have been in existence since 2000 years ago and boy, do they have their own unique set of customs and beliefs.   

 

A local guide from this place was assigned to our group and she gave a very clear explanation as we walked around the exterior park and interior of the buildings. 

Pop Quiz : Which one of these girls belong to the Tujia minority? 

Answer : The one on the far right is a Tujia girl, symbolised by the 'phoenix' on her silver hat. The one on the far left is a Yao minority girl (symbolised by the 'flower basket' on her head) and the centre one is a Miao minority girl (indicated by an 'Ox Horn ' hat)

We were told that this red building is the resting place for the king and queen in ancient times. The doors on both sides are only to be utilised by the servants, and if the wrong door is being entered into, the person will be punished by death.  

This 9-storey Hereditary Hall is beside the red palace and is 48m tall, built without a single nail and 295 years old. It garnered the Guinness Record for the largest, tallest and most perfect wooden structure stilted building back in 2002. This hall is home to a museum of Tujia folk customs.

Famous wishing tree.

For those who were shy to write down their wishes on the red paper, they could recite their wishes to the tree like how one of our tour mates did. 

Buddha is always happy to bless those tossing him coins. 

In ancient times, water used to flow from this dragon's mouth for good fengshui.

These toad statues were used for storing water back then.

This place houses a number of original relics in which photography wasn't allowed. According to the guide, these relics may contain certain spirits in which a flash of the camera may disturb 'them'. 

We eventually ended up in a room which depicted the wedding customs of the Tujia minority. Learning about their ancient culture definitely made us females wish we were born during that era. Here's why - in a boy girl relationship, if a boy is interested in a girl, he has to stay and work for the girl's family for a duration of 3 years, like a probationary period. If during that time, the family feels he is not a suitable match for the girl, he would be banished from the family and suffer somewhat branded as a 'useless' person.  

If he survives the 3 years, a marriage can then be arranged. Now comes the hard part for the girl - she has to go through something called a 'crying marriage' ie to cry (on this bed) as she will be leaving her parents, to cry for her dowry and again to cry when she is being carried on the sedan chair on her wedding day. The longer she cries, the more blessed she will be. The more she cries, the more valuable her dowry would be, eg since silver things matter a lot to Tujia folk, a bride would cry a minimum of 6 hours a day for 7 days straight if she wants a silver basin as her dowry. Funnily enough, amidst crying she may also sing a song with lyrics made up of the things she want as dowry!  

A silversmith at work. 

Silver nuggets on display.

A beautiful silver head piece usually used for weddings or royalty.

Also found this ice cream made to look like the palace that we had visited. 

Next, it was time for lunch, and this was actually my top 2 best meals during this entire trip. Perhaps because the flavour of the dishes were very close to Chinese cuisine style in Malaysia. 

Check out the length of this plate of steamed fish!

Brinjal with 3 kinds of topping. 

There's even sweet sour pork. 

Soup was good too and packed with seaweed. 

Look at my economy rice with 11 types of dishes on my plate!

Managed to capture the English name of this place and when googled, turns out to be a pretty well rated restaurant. 

Found this notice inside the ladies toilet...

It was then time to hit the mountains again! Sitting the longest cable car way in the world (approx. 7.5km) was an awesome experience. The 40-minute ride took us from Tianmen Cableway Lower Station situated right smack in the middle of Zhangjiajie city downtown.........

....right up to the panoramic mountains. It is seriously jaw-droppingly beautiful!

Upon reaching the top, we were embraced with a nice chilly weather and Mother Nature at its best. 

My saving grace from all the walking - motivation to collect steps to earn rewards from my office challenge!

Dove trees can be found in this park, but too bad their flowers (white in color looking like dove wings) only bloom for about a week in the month of April. 

As the group continues on a leisure stroll through the park....

... a brother and his sister were spotted leaning lovingly on each other for support!

It was a little bit crowded as the queue anxiously waited for their turn to walk one of the few glass skywalks here. 

The kids had not even the slightest fear walking on transparent glass as compared to some of the other squealing tourists.

Traffic gets held up if someone stops to take a photo.  

Such a magnificient view no doubt!

Definitely lots of walking inside the park, but enjoyable for all the members as we always get rewarded with the best scenic and breathtaking views at the end of each journey.

We were certainly counting our lucky stars as the weather was superb and clear for the most part of our time up at the mountains.

We then arrived at the Tianmen Cave Floor 

With what is known as the Heavenly Gate Cave

999 steps of Ladder to Heaven. We had the option of walking down the steps, but i love my knees more hence decided to opt for the escalator instead. 

This place is also famous for TongTian Avenue (Avenue towards Heaven), where there are 99 sharp bends along the vertical cliffs, symbolising the 9 palaces in Heaven. We were informed by our guide that these roads are not opened for public nor Tokyo Drift enthusiasts! 

By the time we got back to ground level, we were thrilled to know we will be back here after dinner to watch the 'Fairy Fox Romance' open-air show. 

This here is just a teaser where this beautiful fox statue would open its eyes at the sound of people calling out to him. Cute. 

 The scale of tonight's show was definitely going to be a highlight of this tour as it is set against the backdrop of the spectacular Tianmen mountain.  

Dinner was impressive tonight as it was upon a particular tour member's special request who had hoped for something other than Chinese cuisine. Guess what we got instead?

A Korean BBQ buffet dinner!

Not bad, not bad! 

Meat was very tasty and everything else too! I think i ate the fullest at this meal. LOL. Everyone was pleased our tour guides were so accommodating to our request. 

Pork belly that tasted sooo good, I seriously had no idea a Korean restaurant of such quality even existed in Zhangjiajie. 

We were transported back to Tianmen Mountain for showtime!

Right before the show, a group of their dancers in their stage costumes would hang around the entrance to take photos with the audience. 

The 90-minute show begins, with a massive troop of about 400 dancers overall. 

I can't even begin to describe the size of this production with excellent choreography, singing, lighting, effects and on-stage performers. 

It's a non verbal play between the actors, just a narrator and a lot of singing which tells the love story of a fox fairy with a human. 

The cohesiveness of the performers from beginning till end left every audience member at awe with all the oohs and aahs frequently echoing throughout the show. 

The lead male and female dancers acknowledging the crowd at the end of the show.

Simply lovely. 

Retiring back to our final hotel stay in Renjoy Hotel, which I guess is pretty new as the setting was quite modern and clean. Another good recommendation from yours truly.  :)