Climbing 999-step to see a big hole

There are always memorable moments during vacations and sometimes there can be satisfaction beyond our own expectation. My wife and I were in Zhang-jiajie of Hunan Province, in China two weeks ago and we were amazed by the beauty of mountain ranges in Wuliyuan Scenic Area where the hills are so unique with pillar-like formations with their shape resembling human, animal and other things. The hills are named after their shapes. There most notable ones being 3-sister peak (三姐妹峰), Herb-collecting Old Man (采药老人) etc.

But there are simply too many attractions in Wuliyuan Scenic Area which covers 690 square kilometers and even after spending one and a half days over there, I felt that it was a bit too rush as there were times wasted on queuing for cable cars, climbing steps after steps and so forth. Instead of enjoying the beautiful sceneries, most of the tourists were busy taking photos and the major tourist spots were so crammed that if you walk a bit slow, probably you will end up being pushed by people at the back. You must be very quick in taking photos or else it will end up strangers blocking you.

After visiting China for 6 times I’ve learned one thing is for sure; people-mountain-people-sea (人山人海), every where you go, it will be crowded. So you have to walk fast, eat fast, ease yourself fast. I’ve never climbed so many stairs in my life during the 8-day spent at Hunan. All the mountainous scenic areas are testing your knee and the queuing is just killing.

But I find that both my wife and I had achieved something so special during the tour to Hunan. We’ve successfully climbed a steep flight of 999 steps to reach the summit of Tianmen Mountain where there is a big natural cave which is the so-called “door to heaven”. The local tour guide told us that it would take 20 minutes to climb up but we probably took much longer than that, 40 minutes perhaps. The steps even though not too high but the whole flight was too steep and could be dangerous if the wind is strong. Fortunately for us, after resting a few times to catch our breaths, we reached there despite the knee pain.

Coming down took us a shorter time as we didn’t stop at all; certainly it was more difficult to go against the gravity. Come to think about it, It was a sheer satisfaction and even though it was not the Mont Everest that we climbed, it will still be a unique achievement in my reckoning; climbing 999 steps to see a big hole, worth it. Just imaging, our own Batu Caves is only 272 steps.