A Fantastic Trip
This past weekend, May 8 – May 12, the foreign teachers of University of South China took a trip to Zhang Jia Jie National Park. Including children, it was a group of 10 Americans, with their Chinese friend and colleague leading the way to visit the popular tourist site. Following a Thursday night sleeper-train, we made it to the city of Zhang Jia Jie and met our local guide. That morning, we took the cable car up to the top of the National Park and started looking around. With fog limiting our visibility, we quickly went back down the mountain to start the 7.5km trek through the park. It was wonderful walking through nature and getting glimpses of the parts of the mountains that peaked through the fog. The monkeys were by far the most entertaining part of the first day. We saw baby monkeys hanging on to their mothers, old grumpy ones sitting up in the trees staring at all the intruders to their home, and young ones playing in the trees or hustling tourists for their food.
The second day we visited one of the largest caves in Asia. We took a boat ride on the river that flows through the cave and climbed up and around the inside, trying to take in all the interesting features. That afternoon we went back into the National Park to see the 10-mile gallery. It was much clearer than our first day, so we were finally able to grasp the magnitude and beauty of this place.
Our last day, we rode one of the fastest elevators in the world to the top of another mountain in the park. We saw some of the amazing scenes that were made famous in the movie, Avatar. That afternoon we made our way to the train station for the trip home. All in all, it was a fantastic trip
