Zhang Jia Jie, China 張家界 (Mar/Apr 2002)

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The first time I heard of Zhang Jia Jie was in 1986. My friend who liked photography talked about the natural scenery and beauty.

In Mar/Apr 2002 I finally had a chance to visit. We had a great time with our friends, had lots of good food and a very nice host.

The only disappointment was the weather. It was hazy almost everyday. Not the best to take pictures.

If you can read simplified Chinese, you can click here for other people's pictures.

(Pictures scan from colour slides in 2002. It was one of my first scans. The quality is not very stable.)

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The cable car to the top of Tian Zi Shan (天子山) - one of the most popular sites in the ZJJ area.

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The area is famous for the scenery of strange formation of rocks like this. Some of them looks ready to fall any minute.

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Another rock formation in Tian Zi Shan (天子山).

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This rock formation in Tian Zi Shan (天子山) looks like a dagger coming out from the earth.

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The man on the right (out of focus) is our guide for the day. He is also one of the two photographers who make living solely out of photography of the area. He sells his photos and as well as photo supplies near the cable car station in Tien Tsz Shan. Our host arranged to have him show us spots for photography.

He came to the Zhang Jia Jie area in about 1995 as part of the engineering team to build the cable car. He met a local girl, married her, and stayed on.

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The bridge on the way to Bao Hu (宝湖).

The entire Bao Hu was man-made by blocking a range of valley between mountains. We can see the dam about 100 meters high but only maybe 10 meters wide.

The boat pictured here is for garbage collection.

The lake seems to be solely for tourism. There are houses along the lake that look like hotel rooms. Since everything is planned and purpose build for tourist, they look nice, if not a bit too artificial.

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The waterfall, also purpose-built, at the exit of Bao Hu.

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Around the city of Zhang Jia Jie, we see many dried animals hanging in store front.

The ones pictured here were in fact part of the deco in a hotel restaurant.

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Around mid-night, workers still busy working on the road expansion project in preparation for the coming May Day golden week.

The May Day holidays, along with Chinese New Year holidays and the National Day holidays, are the three major travel seasons in mainland China. Zhang Jia Jie is a popular destination for holiday travels.

(In our subsequent travel in China, we can see new infrastructure project everywhere we go, from Xinjiang to Tibet. This contrast sharply to our experience in Peru and India.)