Wulingyuan Tianzi Mountain Day 2

Hello My Dear Great Ones,

On the second day of our great Avatar forest adventure we hiked up  Tianzi mountain and got a close gander at the rock formations that bring thousands of visitors every day to admire them.  The hike was basically going up endless steps with occasional astounding views.

The first part of the hike was riding a little train for about 15 minutes  from one tourist trap to another tourist trap.  The ride offered some great views though.

At the end of the little train trip there was this incredible natural scene.

There were also several food kiosks at the end of the train line.  Snacks, Chinese style is always interesting.  This plastic thing is an ad for a hotdog.  Why they cut the dog like that is still a mystery to me.

Other samples of Chinese snacks.

There were also some old people, peddling some wares.  Despite having the world's second biggest economy, poverty, especially among the old, is prevalent.  

Once we got past the plastic hotdog and the old peddlers we started climbing stairs up to Tianzi Mountain.  These "sedans' were available, for a cost of course, if you did not feel like climbing.  However the stairs were really step so to be carried by two nimble, but obviously very strong men was kind of scary.  One slip would be a disaster.  Two of these intrepid carriers followed Celia, who was lagging behind me a little during our climb like wolves would follow a wounded deer.  They kept asking, but we politely said no. 

After this day of endless climbing we had buns of steel!

A well deserved rest to have some tea and time to enjoy the view.

After our rest we kept trekking on and were treated to many great vistas.

It was cool to be so close to the rock formations.

After spending several hours climbing through an amazing natural landscape we finally got to the top of Tianzi mountain.  And lo and behold there was a Mcdonld's, a city block long, offering big macs to replenish the calories that we had so laboriously burned off.

The trip down from the mountain was a spectacular 10 minute ride.

A very good day.

Have a great week.  Love adios and ping on!

Dirk