BY Prapti
#TIANZI MOUNTAIN , from
where the best vistas of the giant rock columns can be had, is merely part of
the larger Zhangjiajie national Park, which in turn is within Hunan’s sprawling
Wulingyuan Scenic Zone, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992 for its
topography, found nowhere else in the world, of some 3,000 freestanding sandstone
pillar that soar into the sky, their peaks capped with green foliage defiantly
clinging to the sheer cliff walls.
THE NATURAL SCENERY,
wild and rugged and pretty much untouched, is as far as possible from the sights
travelers now normally associate with modern China-the headlong bustle of
Beijing or the glitter of Shanghai and Macau, for instance. Once visitors to
Tianzi have gone up to the view decks via the Bailong Lift, a glass elevator that
park officials claim is the tallest and fastest of its kind in the world (a
plausible claim-the rise shoots to the top of the mountain range within a couple
of minutes), they can be forgiven for thinking they have tepped indeed into
another planet.
The itinerary includes, other than Tianzi Montain,
attractions such as the Yellow Dragon
Cave, the Baofeng Lake River Cruise,
a climb to Heaven Gate Cave and the Glass
Trail Path on Tianmen Mountain, a ride on the Heaven Gate Cable Car (the longest such ride in the world, dubbed
by CNN as among the “world’s five most thrilling cable car rides”) and a visit
to Phoenix Town, one of the most
well-preserved ancient Chinese Villages, set against sublime river and mountain
scenery
