Heaven can wait

Less than a decade ago, few people outside of China had even heard of Wulingyuan, a scenic, magical reserve rich in strange peaks and rocks that lies to the north of Zhangjiajie in Hunan province. Today, thanks to the starring role played by the spectacular Hallelujah Mountain in James Cameron’s 2009 blockbuster “Avatar”, thousands of tourists have put it at the very centre of their Chinese itinerary.

Located in Tienzi Mountain Nature Reserve, the Hallelujah Mountain, or the Southern Sky Column as it was known before “Avatar”, became the inspiration for the magical floating peaks in the Hollywood movie, although only a mere 25 minutes of the blockbuster was actually shot there.

Our 30-strong group arrives at the entrance to the spectacular area early in the morning. Our thumbs are scanned and we each receive a card that for 68 yuan (Bt350) allows us to spend three days in the ethereal forest. 

A cable car takes us in small groups up the mountain and we spend the ride snapping photos of the stone peak clusters. The rest of our journey is on foot and we are pleased to find stone signs with Chinese and English information. One of them announces “Good manners of people are as much appreciated as the beauty of scenery”, which earns several nods of agreement.

The pathway is lined with dense trees, especially pines, which do much to offset the high temperatures of the July day.

Our first stop is the Yu Bi (imperi al brushes) Peaks” and the adjacent Xian Nu San Hua (fairy dispersing flowers). According to legend, the stone peaks are Tu ethnic group leader Xiang Dakun’s brushes. His army was defeated on the Tianzi Mountain. He fought to the finish, but finally jumped off the cliff. A girl in love with him went across the mountain to search for him. She strewed flowers over the cliffs and turned into a stone statue.

Like at most of China’s popular tourist spots, the opportunists have moved in, among them a group of cameramen taking photos of visitors with the stunning scenery in the background. A photo size print, we’re told, sells for 20 yuan.

A little further on, a vendor is busy chopping red peppers for the spicy sauce that goes with much of Hunan’s cuisine, while another offers posters of the scenery.

We continue our walk and reach the West Sea Peak Forest, a geological landscape of quartz sandstone peaks formed some 400 million years ago. While the sandstone peaks are similar to each other, they bear different names and like other tourists, we fan out, each one of us finding a personal corner to take our photographs.

As we make our way to a rocky natural bridge that’s known locally as the “first bridge under the sun”, I can’t resist stopping at a stall and buying a local kha moo hamburger, pork leg stewed in the gravy.

We cross a narrow gorge and arrive at the spot where part of “Avatar” was filmed only to find that a model of the bird-type creature called the Na’vi is obstructing the view. Here again, the photographers are out en masse, pushing visitors to have their photos taken with the strange creature.

We make our way down the mountain in the Bailong glass elevator built on the side of a cliff that stands 326 metres high. It’s a little scary but the wonder of facing the beautiful stone forest, found in many ancient Chinese paintings, overcomes our fears.

In addition to the pillar-like formations throughout the park, Wulingyuan, officially recognised as a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1992, features other tourist attractions including “Gan Xi Gou (Ten-Mile Gallery)”, “Bao Feng Lake” and The Yellow Dragon Cave.

We climb in the train to see the 10-mile gallery with its amazing stone peaks that boast such odd names as “old man collecting medicine”, “parents holding a son”, and “three sisters”. We transfer from the train to a boat for a trip on the man-made lake that has also starred in many films including “Journey to the West”. We pass a boat in which a girl is singing traditional folk songs. Our Thai-speaking guide smiles, telling us “If you can duet with her within three songs, you will marry her. But if you can’t, you have to be her husband for nine years. Being a husband isn’t easy because you must work hard like cutting firewood on the mountain and carrying water for utilisation.”

Our last stop is the Yellow Dragon Cave, which our boat enters before depositing us by the “dry” cave. It’s a truly magical dragon palace with deep and secluded underground rivers and hundreds of thousands of stalagmites, stalactites and columns in different shapes. The highlight is the 19.2-metre stalagmite titled “Sea-Suppressing Needle” that has been insured for 100 million yuan.

“It is still alive,” says the guide. “Every 100 years, it increases one centimetre. Now, it is 6 metres off the ceiling of the cave. So, it will take another 60,000 years before it touches.”

 

 

If you go

_ For more information, check out www.AnSuntravel.com, or call (02) 168 1188 or (02) 168 1388.

_ The writer wishes to express his appreciation to An Sun International Travel Service for the trip.