Avatar Live in Zhangjiajie

As every Friday morning I came to Junior 1 school to have my class. I went to the office and everyone seemed to be so enthusiastic and excited. “Why is everyone so happy today?-I asked in Chinese. Jordan, my best friend, screamed “We are going to Zhang Jia Jie!” What? Zhang Jia Jie? I couldn’t believe! I was planning to go there in late spring so that was such a great surprise! The results of the last exam were excellent, better than the teachers expected so the leader decided to take us for a trip. Our hard work was finally appreciated :-)!

We set off the same day at 4pm. Firstly, we took a bus to Jishou (2 hours) and then a direct train to ZhangJiaJie City (2 hours). In Jishou we had our dinner, the leader equipped everyone with water, some fruits and sweets. We had a lot of fun on the train. I didn’t mention before that I have made so many friends with Junior 1 teachers. We are all like a big family having fun and working hard together. They always look after me and make sure I feel in China like I was at home. Moreover, we have the same sense of humor so I laugh a lot when I’m with them. I sometimes feel like I want to stay here forever because of those people. We were stading all the way on the train as there were no hard seat tickets available. They asked me “Agness, do you mind standing on the train for 2 hours?” I was like “Are you kidding me? I spent 8 hours stading on my train to Jishou!” and they were like “Wow, really? You are a strong woman” hahaha! When we arrived in Jishou it was 10 pm and the leader took us to a restaurant for a meal. We drank some wine, had some nice food and talked about our plans for winter holiday. We went back to our hotel (a very nice five-star hotel) at 2 am and had to wake up at 6 am to be ready to climb the mountains. This place is subtropical moist mountain climate, thus for tourists it is an ideal place to spend one’s holiday. Despite the fact it was November, the weather was ok, sunny, but windy.

All Saturday we were climbing up the most amazing mountains in China called Hallelujah Mountains. The most interesting is that here the most famous movie “Avatar” was made. Believe me or not but the scenery is more beautiful than the movie shows. These mountains are floating islands that circulate slowly in the magnetic currents like icebergs at sea. They scrape against each other and they look like they were moving towards you. Wow, it was awesome! People were amazed by this view. I tried to take as many pictures as possible but there were so many tourists pushing each other so it was extremely hard to be able to enjoy the landscape. After seeing these mountains I can say it was the most beautiful view I have ever seen in my life. It was like something incredible, like a 3D movie, like it’s not real. So far, Zhanghjiajie is my number one city in China. During this amazing weekend, we have visited Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (known as China’s first national forest park), Suoxiyu Natural Resource Reserve, and Tianzi Mountain Natural Resource Reserve. The scenic area hosted natural features including: mountains, forests, caves, lakes and waterfalls and perhaps there are more than three thousand rock ridges. Fresh air, beautiful scenery and chill out with great people, that’s what I really needed :-)!

There are two galleries available to view named The Hallelujah Mountains and Zhangjiajie. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

A.