June 3, 2018 - Zhangjiajie and the land of Avatar!

The focus of this week was a trip to Zhangjiajie. Darren and Michelle wanted to experience Chinese mountains. And they did.

We stayed in Wulingyuan, a charming town with a river running though it. It
also had a swinging bridge that people like to get rocking at night.

We took a peaceful boat ride into a reservoir.
(Baofeng Lake)

We ate in a restaurant decorated with zodiac statues - Darren is
a monkey.

Then we took a beautiful walk and saw some more
monkeys along Jinbian Stream.

We saw lots of babies. The security people in this
area take slingshots to the monkeys if they get too
brave with the tourists.

If you prop up a stick along an overhang you are
wishing good things for the world. See the
multitude of sticks Kathy's is now part of.

This is a native wedding dress of one
of the ethnic minorities, the Tujia people. She
was posing in an area with a beautiful waterfall
and a gigantic salamander.

Amazing mountains

With a glass elevator (Bailong Elevator)
up the side so you can have a bird's eye
view all the way up.

A girl took an interest in John's phone case - apparently she works for
Bentoben, a company that makes phone cases. She took a picture of
 him with her phone case (for marketing??). Pretty soon a whole crowd of people
she works with, and people who saw them talking, were gathered around.

It was fun to see iconic Chinese mountains.

This peak was renamed Hallelujah Mountain
after it was an inspiration for the floating
mountain in the Avatar movie.

The longest glass bridge in the world
is suspended over a valley that is so
far away it doesn't even seem real.

We took a cable car ride down, which
was another amazing way to
experience these mountains.

After that we walked on another glass
walkway. (Tianmen Mountain).
This one hugs a cliff.

And overlooks the road down the
mountain. 99 turns!  (9 is a
lucky number.)

We walked down 999 steps from the "cave"
at Tianmen mountain. Our tour guide
seemed surprised that we would want to
exert ourselves like that. We're glad we did.

The person riding in the front with the bus driver worked his beads
all the way down the 99 switchbacks. These beads are usually carved
 from olive stones. We appreciated all petitions for divine help.

Hanging out with the parents
is exhausting!