WONDERLUST

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