Zhangjiajie

Last weekend, as mentioned we went to visit the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park to free up our minds after all the hard work we did last weeks. The trip lasted from Saturday until Monday, so let's start our story at the first day. This day was basically travelling to our destination. The travelling started at the train station of Wuhan and there we had to take the train around 13:00 for one and a half hours with an average speed of 300 km/h. We arrived way too early at this new and very large station, because we took the taxi at around 11:00 based on advice of Weilin who said that it would take quite some time to get to the station. Though, in the end it was only a 15 minutes drive :) But, we are still very happy with Weilin, because she guided and helped us a lot during the our stay in Wuhan. Probably, without her we would not even manage to get food on the table. Also, she arranged this whole trip to the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park which as you will read was really great and beautiful.  
So, because we arrived a little earlier we had enough time to get pass the security which felt a bit like when you travel by plane, and to buy and eat some lunch. When we arrived in ChangShaNan which was our end station, we still had to travel some time. This was done by using the bus. First, in a mini-bus which took us to a gas station where we got picked up by a tour bus with our tour guide and the rest of the group that would follow this tour. This happened around 17:00, but still we had to travel for like another 4-5 hours to reach our destination. We arrived around 21:30 hours and during this last part of travel, we noticed that elderly Chinese people don't eat as slow as they might look and walk. Our diner lasted precisely 9 minutes and 34 seconds. Before we were able to drink our tea, the other people were already back in the bus and the driver was honking to get us in too. So we shoved everything inside and were off for the final part of the trip.
The next day we finally went to the Park to see the mountains there! We had to went up very early (06:30) to be able to leave at 07:30, but it was totally worth it as you can see on the picture. The only downside of these mountains is that you have to get off it somehow... We think it says enough that we still feel our legs. You might wonder now, how did we get up the mountain, but that was a simple task by using a special elevator. This elevator could not be used to get off the mountains.
The next morning we went again to the Park, but this time to see the valley between the mountains and that was a big relief in comparison with all the going up and down the day before. During this walk we came across many monkeys who were really interested in all the people walking there :)
After the lunch, we did not go back to the Park, but we went to the "House of the local people" and this showed how the local people there lived in the past. During the tour we were called by our driver who took us to the bus that would get us back to ChagShaNan. From there we took the train again that would bring us back to Wuhan. Around 23:00 we finally arrived in our hotel after an exhausting, but very nice weekend.

Now, we are at Hong Kong waiting for our airplane to Amsterdam that will finally bring us back home!