Zhangjiajie!! My Crazy Adventures in the Avatar Mountains

Hey everyone! I finished my first vacation and what a vacation it was! We went to the Zhangjiajie Mountains, which are also called the Avatar Mountains. This place is absolutely gorgeous, but more about that later. Let's talk about how we got there.

So we had to take a train for 14 hours to get to Zhangjiajie, which was a bit miserable, but an interesting experience. We left Saturday night around 8:30 and got there at around 11am the next day. Let me tell you something about Chinese people: they can fall asleep in any position. The seats we sat in were these straight-backed uncomfortable seats. People could just sit up and fall asleep. As for me, I had to at least lean my head on one of my roommate's shoulders.

Me on Tiamen Mountain. You can see the huge hole behind me. 

So when we got to Zhangjiajie and stopped at our hostel, we went over to Tiamen Mountain, which is this large mountain range with an enormous hole in it. It's where you can go to this attraction called the Stairway to Heaven, and walk up a bunch of stairs towards this hole. We actually didn't do that and instead rode a cable lift up to the top and hiked around Tiamen Mountain. Well, hiked in that we walked up and down a bunch of stairs. The Chinese people seem to prefer to put stairs in their trails. Anyway, the mountain was so cool. We walked this patch that skirted around the mountain and saw fun rock formations and sights. The cable lift ride was incredible as well since it takes you really high and over some smaller mountain ranges which are absolutely beautiful. Definitely worth the 155 kwai that I spent.

Me just chilling in the Avatar Mountains

Now on to the Zhangjiajie Mountains. I have one word to say: Incredible! I got to hike through these mountains that are famous and absolutely beautiful. I mean it all still felt pretty normal; I was just hiking a mountain. But every now and then, it would hit me that I was hiking some famous mountains in China! It really hit me when I got to the top. We could see all the different mountain peaks. Not to sound cliché, but I felt like I was in another world. That was easily the best moment so far in China.

There were also a bunch of monkeys at the Zhangjiajie Mountains. Apparently they're wild and they just live there. I found out from a sign that they're called Makaks. You can feed them but be careful, because they'll jump you if they see you with a package of food. I kept my distance since I'm not that fond of monkeys, but they were fun to watch and there were a couple of adorable baby ones.

The ride back to Zhongshan wasn't as bad, even though it was still fourteen hours. I guess I was actually tired enough to fall asleep. We had fun playing cards with this ten-year-old Chinese boy. He kicked our butts at Scum. Overall, the vacation was completely awesome and worth all of train hours and tired muscles (I was pretty sore the next day from all that hiking). I'm so glad I got to go there even for a few days. If you get the chance to go to Zhangjiajie, I highly recommend it. The mountains are incredible and it's so cool to be sitting at the top, looking over all these crazy formations and thinking, "Yeah, I'm really here. I really just did that."

Well that's it for me. Here are some more pictures from the vacation:

Tiamen Mountain! 

Do you see that railing hugging the mountain? Yeah I walked that. 

Gorgeous sunset I caught while on the cable lift. 

Zhangjiajie Mountains! 

The view from the top

Another view from the top. 

Me hopping on these pillars in the fountain by our hostel 

Monkeys! They were pretty cute, actually. 

Spas, Dancing, Hiking and More Teaching

Me with one of my students, Billy! 

Hey everyone, sorry the post is a little late, things have been fun and crazy over here! Teaching is actually going a lot better for me. This week, I'm doing arts and crafts for the kids, which has been so much; we've done paper dinosaurs, pom-pom mice, and paper jack-o-lanterns. I like being with the kids and they're so fun when they're actually paying attention.

We went to a spa where I got this awesome massage. It felt good, and at the same time it was kind of painful. It felt good because massages always feel good, but getting the knots and tense muscles worked out was painful. Overall, though it was a nice experience. I'll have to go to spas more often when I get back to the U.S. It's a little hard to do it here since I can't really communicate with the attendants.

I discovered the coolest thing last week. So every night, a large group of people gather in this park area and basically do Zumba. The music is more Chinese and Indian, as are the dances, so the dances are way fun and remind me of Bollywood. It's so cool and there are all types of people there: men and women, older and younger.  I plan on going there often.

Big Pagoda! 

So today all the teachers went hiking around these mountains by Zhongshan. We did it to celebrate the holiday Women's Day. So the teachers, including us foreign teachers, got to go hiking then out to eat at a restaurant. I got some gorgeous pictures of the mountains and of this really cool pagoda that's at the top. It was a great day filled with beautiful scenery, fun people, and good food. It's moments like these that make me really happy I came to China.

Anyway, tomorrow the ILP teachers in Zhongshan are gathering together for lunch and we're performing for each other. My group is singing and dancing to a mash-up of songs, which should be fun. Then we're leaving for our first vacation!! We're going to Zhangjiajie, the mountains that were used in the movie Avatar. I'm super excited, even though we're taking a fifteen-hour bus ride. Well, that's all I've got. Until later!