Avatar Mountains

 I have realised that visiting mountains in China is done very differently to the way it is done in most of the rest of the world. I am not saying that as a criticism, and it is very interesting to see it in action.

Today we visited the Zhanjaijie Mountains, which are now, thanks to the film, also known as the Avatar Mountains.

Firstly we took a cablecar up to the first level.

The views were spectacular and the cablecar extremely speedy. It needed to be because it had to move a huge number of people. Our guide had bought VIP tickets so we strolled past the queues.

At the top we caught a shuttle bus for about half an hour and arrived at plaza that even had a McDonald's.

From then on the day turned into a blur of huge crowds, amazing views and shuttle buses speeding along narrow roads.

The picture above is of a viewpoint titled 'The number one bridge in the world', and it had a 350 metre drop to the forest floor.

We also stopped to look at a giant statue of a local General who was a contemporary of Chairman Mao.

I am not sure, but I think that the little girl must be horsing, and I didn't dare try it myself.

Part way around we saw the peak that inspired the film Avatar. It might look small in the photo but it is actually very big with full grown mature trees on the top.

Getting back down the mountain was also entertaining as we caught a 100 storey lift that took only 88 seconds.

At the base a tribe of monkeys had realised that there was rich pickings to be taken from the tourists. They were okay at the moment, but give them a few years and they will be terrifying.

In the evening we went on an outing to the Tujia 72 Wonder Tower.

The Tujia people are a minority group inside China with their own traditions, clothes and food. The Wonder Building is a vast entertainment area that highlights all of their traditions in a totally crazy modern way.