Tianmen Mountain

If you ever plan on visiting Tianman Mountain, be prepared for a lack of English speakers (there's more English speaking employees at our local McDonalds than at that major tourist attraction!) and for a crazy long wait to get on the cable cars.  I'd consider sleeping in the streets outside the ticketing office if I were you, to get the first tickets of the morning.  Because right when you think you're done waiting, you are in another line inside.  And those stairs that you think lead to the cable cars?  No, they just lead to another line.  It was torturous waiting, but thanks to The Da Vinci Code (I recently started a habit of carrying a book around) I barely made it through.

But oh was it worth the wait!  We embarked on the longest cable car in the world and it was nothing like I've ever seen before.  We started in the city and moved towards the mountains.

There was so much to see and take in!  All around us were gorgeous peaks.  And seeing the 99 bend road from above (which we would later take down the mountain) was very cool.

The higher we got, the more things faded away into the fog.  Eventually we couldn't see anything at all!  It was kind of freaky actually.  But beautiful and powerful.

The 30 minutes went too quick, as we were soon at the top!

Unfortunately we were a little bit low on time, so we kind of had to book it to the place we wanted to hit most.  The glass walkway!

Bailey had been a little bit nervous about a glass walkway (ask him for the story of why he is afraid of heights and you'll understand) but he handled it like a pro!  He was grateful for the fog, because with it you can't tell at all how high you are!

Personally I would have preferred a clear day.  I would have loved to see the mountains around me.  But no complaints - it was beautiful the way it was!  I felt like I was in a cloud!

We hurried over to the long series of escalators that would take us down to Heaven's Gate.  Those escalators never ended, I'm telling you.  But they were better than walking ourselves, I suppose!

After the escalators, we walked through a construction zone that made me curious what sort of thing they are working on.

By the time we got to the Stairway to Heaven, we were well prepared for the fact that we probably wouldn't be able to see anything at all.  And we were right.  So I took a selfie with what we could see.  Then we bought some popcorn and hit the 99 bend road on a bus that was going too fast!

Our Zhangjiajie experience ended with some quality street food in the real streets of China.  I love being here long enough to see what the locals see, not just what the tourists can hit with their limited time.  We ate some killer dumplings and some delicious pineapple (for a fruit that I don't like very much at home, I can't get enough of it here!)

Overall it was a fantastic trip!  Stressful of course.  Traveling is not as glamourous as Instagram makes it look.  But the sights you see and the experiences you get makes all of the stress worth it.