Snapshot: Escape to the Tianmen Mountain

If you visit here, you have to make it to the top; the breath-taking view is as though you’ve ascended to the clouds. Or so I hear.

The Tianmen Mountain is located inside the Tianmen Mountain National Park in Zhangjiajie, lying northwest in the Hunan Province in China.  At its foot, trying to peer at the peak may be hard. The mountaintop spikes at over 4983 feet (1,519 m metres) and disappears into the fluffy skies.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to walk the entire way. There are options to get to the top. You can take the cablecar; the Tianmen Mountain Cableway is known as the “longest passenger cableway of high mountains in the world”. It has 98 cars and covers over 24,000 feet (7455 metres). There’s also a meandering footpath built on the sides of the cliff, including sections with glass floors, called the Skywalk for those who never say no to a challenge. You can do a combination of some walking and hopping onto the cablecar midway through.

Tip: The Skywalk would cost you 10RMB, and you’ll get a pack of socks to put over your shoes to protect the glass. If you go for the Skywalk, do ask for 5RMB back after the walk. They won’t tell you this upfront, but your fee includes a 5RMB deposit.

You can also drive up, a 6.8 mile (11kilimeters) road with 99 bends, taking you right to the Tianmen Cave, a natural cave in the mountain. Known as the Gateway to Heaven, the cave is really more of a natural bridge or arch now. It used to be a cave until an enormous collapse of the cliff surface, transforming it into an arch. At a sizeable 131 metres high and 57 metres wide, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site at the Wulingyuan Scenic Area.

Reach the summit and you can visit the Tianmenshan temple left standing from the Tang Dynasty. Age has worn the temple out, but a recent facelift saw architectural enhancements to the structure and an addition of a vegetarian restaurant. Perfect if you were famished from the climb up.

If you ever in Zhangjiajie, never give this a miss I hear. Have you been to the Tianmen Mountain?

Did you know: renowned professional skydiver and BASE jumper Jeb Corliss glided through the 100 feet archway at the Gateway to Heaven using a wing suit on 25 September 2011. His flight started from a helicopter at 6,000 feet high and he landed on the bridge.