Wulingyuan/Zhangjiajie: Hunan Province

For a while I was beginning to wonder if China had lost its breathtaking appeal for me. After living here for a year, I thought I knew what to expect. I felt like I couldn't be really surprised by all that much. I was wrong.

There are really no words to describe the immense wonder at seeing layers upon layers upon layers of karst peaks rising out of the morning mist. It was lovely. None of my photos do it justice.

Unfortunately--Katera and I both had a difficult time--our parasitic disease that I mentioned in an earlier post is mostly over--but the meds that we have to take to clear it up cause a bad case of nausea--so we had to cut our first day short and rest in the hotel. Both of us ended up taking turns vomiting--so that was a treat. Oh well--even a sloshy stomach couldn't ruin the trip. I'm really glad we went. 

Wulingyuan

I'm holding a postcard showing the scene behind me: one of those peaks on the left is called "fairy presenting flowers."

Five Fingers Peaks

One of many Chenglish signs--if only exploitation always cohered with protection!

The Tujia People, a Chinese minority, are a majority in Zhangjiajie (the city we stayed in). They carry their babies on their backs in these carriers made of bamboo.

A glimpse of October holiday crowds--the whole country travels during the same week. We are waiting in line to take the cable cars up one of the mountains.

A traditional Tujia folk story acted out at one of the performances.

Who can resist a cheesy Chinese photo op! Not me!

A Tujia saleswoman in traditional dress. She refused to have her photo taken (for free--they don't have a problem with photos) directly after trying to sell us keychains that contained our OWN images--made with photos taken secretly without our consent! I really like this pic!

The age of cell phones really makes for wonderfully ironic photos.

The keychains: We were having a rest right after we climbed down 3000 steps of a mountain when we noticed that a man was walking past us taking our photos. Now, I don't mind stopping and letting tourists take pics of us with their kids or stuff like that--but it's a little rude to just blatantly take our pic without even asking! So we all gave him the unamused, annoyed stare. He took his photos and left. 

Within 5 minutes, we were approached with these, our pics in a keychain for 5 yuan. The opposite side has a pic of the park. They are now for sale somewhere in Hunan. What a racket.

To see more of my pics, click here for the whole album.