Pictured: our ride on the gondola at Zhangjiajie UNESCO World Heritage Park, in Hunan Province. This is the park that inspired the islands floating in space in the movie “Avatar”. It's the longest gondola ride in the world, 7.5km long. It's absolutely spectacular. It's difficult to comprehend the scale of everything. Up on top is called Tianmen Mountain, not Tiananmen (Square), the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing. This is just Tianmen, which means Heavenly Gate.
Towards the end, you'll see where we pass a pylon, and after that, it goes up on a breathtaking, 30-degree climb, a stunning, unforgettable rush. If you ever go to China, to heck with the Great Wall, go to Zhangjiajie and visit this park! It is stupendous, mind boggling, jaw dropping, amazing. In fact, I stopped filming because I just wanted to soak it all in.
Once you get to the top, you then have to take a ski lift that goes more or less horizontally for 1.5km to get to Tianmen Mountain Buddhist Temple. Evelyne and I were carrying 30 kilos of rice to donate. The day before, we met one of the head monks on our train there and, and he gave us a wonderful tour. Zhangjiajie is a highly recommended, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Jeff on the street and roads with the Chinese people.
Amarynth and Eric go to Russia, Matt to Africa, Cynthia back in time, and Jeff takes you on a Sino-stairway to heaven.