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IN an article entitled “Chinas Ancient Skyline” published on July 15, 2007 in The New York Times, American journalist Simon Winchester wrote about his tour of Zhangjiajie, describing scores of mighty towers climbing endlessly into the foggy sky, like some surreal and unexpected ruined city. “It is a sight utterly to astonish the unprepared, akin only perhaps to the moment when a Midwestern soybean farmer is flushed out of the Lincoln Tunnel into the canyons of Midtown Manhattan.” He added, “In terms of astonishment I found myself saying time and again, as I gaped from cliff-edge and bridge and viewing tower: This is as great as the Great Wall.”

Zhangjiajie, in northwestern Hunan Province, consists of more than 3,000 peaks, described as “beautiful girls.”

About 1.5 billion years ago, strong movements in the Earths crust in northwestern Hunan turned the land into a sea trough and a volcano on the seabed erupted.

Unique Landforms

Some say that the terrain of Zhangjiajie is similar to karst terrain of Slovenia, but a geologist pointed out that Zhangjiajies topography is unique in that its special rock strata have undergone millennia of movements and gravity collapses caused by water erosion in the subtropical climate.

About 1.5 billion years ago, strong movements in the Earths crust in northwestern Hunan turned the land into a sea trough and a volcano on the seabed erupted. Quartz in the lava formed the “eggs” of Zhangjiajies sandstone peak forest.

Sea erosion then occurred in northwestern Hunan 380 million years ago. Zhangjiajies Wulingyuan, a shallow sea at that time, received large amounts of soil and loose clastic rocks. Later, these became a sandstone peak forest consisting of more than 3,000 knife-edged pillars. Certain geologists have even proposed naming this type of formation a “Zhangjiajie” Landform.

The standard karst landform is in Slovenia, well known for its karst caves. But its peak forest is not as beautiful as Zhangjiajie. The Stone Forest in Yunnan, representative of karst landforms in China, is beautiful, but its vegetation coverage is inferior to that of Zhangjiajie, where pines grow on towering cliffs.

Highlights of a Scenic Landscape

Zhangjiajies beauty was not known far and wide until the 1980s, although it holds all sorts of scenic sights: peaks, forests, caves, springs, lakes and waterfalls. Over the past 30 years, it has become the countrys first national forest park, a national 5A scenic area, a world natural heritage site and a world geology park.

Shen Congwen, a famous writer, described Zhangjiajie thus: “Entering western Hunan Province, all the sights are quietly beautiful with a bit of melancholy. Depicting any section would require a good painting from the Song Dynasty. Everything is pure poetry.” Water gushes from mountain crevices and converges into streams to form lakes. The most unforgettable bodies of water are Jinbian Stream, Baofeng Lake and the Maoyan River. Jinbian Stream is like a Tujia ethnic song flowing between peaks. Along it are towering cliffs forming a corridor. Green vegetation decorates the steep cliff faces, making the mountains look gentle and pretty. Baofeng Lake looks like jade inlaid on the mountain, and the water is clear and green.

River drifting is a fashionable tourist activity here. The Maoyan River is on the upper reaches of the Lishui River, known as the “100-mile gallery.” Drifting on the Maoyan River is not only a thrilling experience, but also poetic, since the route is replete with picturesque sights.

Zhangjiajie is a natural museum full of spectacles. Huanglong Cave is known as the “best cave in China, a world wonder.” Its scenic spots include “the mansion beyond the mansion,” the “cave beyond the cave,” the “mountain beyond the mountain,” and the “heaven beyond heaven.”

Tianmen (Heavenly Gate) Mountain is another spectacle of Zhangjiajie. The same movement that created the Himalayas created this karst platform landform, famous for its natural north-south limestone cavity, which is 131.5 meters high, 57 meters wide and 60 meters in length. There are many legends about the formation of this hollow. About 70 to 80 years ago, people could see it from Nanmen Dock in downtown Zhangjiajie, but now one has to go two kilometers farther to see the cavity from Dayong Bridge.

There is a myth about the mysterious “turning” of Tianmen Cave. It seems that the cave always faces a prosperous place. Seventy or 80 years ago, Nanmen Dock was the most prosperous district of Zhangjiajie. Now the cave has turned to face Dayong Bridge, which has replaced Nanmen Dock as the areas most prosperous district. No one can offer a more scientific explanation for this mystery.

To open up Tianmen, Zhang Tongsheng from Tianjin invested RMB 300 million in the construction of a highway up the mountain. Seen from a cable car, the winding mountain highway looks like a huge dragon. It is said that this spiral mountain highway has created a world record.