First off… yes, I know. It has been over a month since my last Asia adventure post.

I’m alive. I’m doing great now. But shortly after this leg of the trip I got absolutely obliterated by what I can only describe as the Flu Boss Fight DLC. Fever, headaches, dehydration, chills, exhaustion… just an all-around terrible time for about 10 straight days. There were moments where my greatest ambition in life was successfully consuming half a piece of toast without collapsing into another fever dream.

Eventually though, I recovered.

…and then I got wildly sidetracked.

Instead of continuing the adventure immediately, I made the call to head down to Australia for a while to spend time with my brother, sister, and all my wonderful nieces and nephews. Turns out I can actually be somewhat useful here as a chauffeur and part-time “more grown-up kid who stays home and warns everyone against making poor decisions.”

(A.K.A. babysitter.)

Though honestly, I don’t think I’m doing my job properly unless the children live in a constant state of mild uncertainty regarding what exactly Uncle Eric may or may not be capable of doing next.

Keeps them sharp.

But before the fevers, before Australia, before my body temporarily declared bankruptcy…

…there was Zhangjiajie.

And honestly? It felt like a fever dream before the actual fever dreams started.

The Accidental Discovery

The day I was leaving Chongqing, someone at my hostel casually asked me:

“So are you going to see the Stairway to Heaven?”

And I was like:

“…the WHAT now?”

After some emergency Bing-ing (not Googling — remember, Google is basically decorative in China), I discovered I was somehow about to miss one of the most surreal places on Earth: Mount Tianmen.

Cue frantic travel-planning mode.

After a bit of brainstorming, I realized I could squeeze it into my itinerary without rebooking hotels or trains… but it would require going there basically immediately after arriving in Zhangjiajie.

Naturally, this sounded like an excellent idea.

So that’s exactly what I did.

I arrived at the train station, opened Amap on my phone, called a DiDi taxi, and off I went. Honestly, China’s transportation systems continued to amaze me. The taxi was absurdly easy and ridiculously cheap.

Meanwhile in Canada I once paid like $38 to go three city blocks.

Mount Tianmen – The Stairway to Heaven

There are three ticket route options for Mount Tianmen, and initially trying to understand them felt a bit like deciphering a mountain transportation puzzle designed by caffeinated monks.

From what I could gather:

Route A

The slower scenic-style route.

Route C

The more direct “fast-track” version.

Route B

The route I chose — and honestly I think it ended up being the perfect mix of everything.

It started with a quick 10-minute shuttle bus ride from the city center to the express gondola station. From there, I took the fast gondola up into the mountain section near the famous Stairway to Heaven and the 999 stairs.

Honestly, Route B was awesome because the entire experience constantly changed pace:

• quick shuttle buses,

• express gondolas,

• giant staircases,

• mountain escalators,

• death-defying bus corners,

• and finally a scenic descent back into town while your brain attempts to process what just happened.

It never felt repetitive for even a second.

The staircase itself was stunning. Massive. Surreal. One of those places where your brain struggles to process scale properly.

At some point I heard a rumor that if you climb all 999 stairs, you get to choose between either:

• Unlimited good luck for the rest of your life

• Immortality

While climbing the 999 stairs, I actually consulted with my sister’s children via FaceTime regarding the very serious life decision of whether I should choose immortality or unlimited luck.

Side note: China’s cell service is absolutely absurd.

I’m not joking when I say I had full 5G service on the Great Wall of China. Meanwhile back home in Canada there are places where moving three feet to the left causes your phone to enter the Shadow Realm.

Anyway, after a highly scientific committee discussion with the children, I had mostly settled on unlimited luck.

But by the time I actually reached the top, completely drenched in sweat and questioning several life choices, I realized…

…I didn’t really need either.

I already felt pretty lucky.

(Also immortality sounds exhausting. Imagine still having to update passwords in 700 years.)

China Does Everything on Maximum Difficulty

Now here’s the thing about China:

Nothing is ever just “a mountain.”

No no.

China drills giant tunnels THROUGH the mountain, installs entire escalator systems INSIDE the mountain, and then casually moves millions of tourists through it with shocking efficiency.

After climbing the 999 stairs, I then took something like SEVEN separate escalators bored directly through the rock to reach the upper summit area.

It honestly felt less like visiting a mountain and more like exploring a secret underground lair built by a civilization that looked at normal tourism infrastructure and decided:“Not ambitious enough.”

The top of the mountain was extremely misty that day, so the panoramic views weren’t fully visible the way they might have been on a clear day, but honestly the fog almost made it feel more mythical. Like I had accidentally wandered into some ancient hidden realm where kung fu masters disappear for 30 years to contemplate leaves.

Up there you can also do glass skywalks attached to cliff edges, scenic walking trails along the mountain ridges, temples, lookout platforms, and various activities specifically designed to remind you that humans should probably not be standing in these places.

The ride UP the mountain was where the height-induced character building happened.

The express gondola pods are enormous, and I somehow ended up completely alone in one as it swayed through the wind over giant valleys and cliffs.

Now, I should mention:I do not particularly enjoy heights.

So there I was, suspended in the sky over a Chinese mountain range, quietly giving myself motivational speeches about how panicking would statistically improve absolutely nothing.

Heroic stuff.

Then came the trip back down.

And THIS was wild.

The descent uses the famous “99 Bends Road” — an absurd mountain road made up of 99 consecutive hairpin turns carved directly into the mountainside. To make sure you fully appreciate what is happening to your internal organs during the descent, each corner is actually numbered on the guard rails as you go down.

There is something psychologically powerful about seeing:“Turn 17”…while realizing there are still another 82 of these left.

Had I not been buckled in, I genuinely believe I would have been launched laterally out of my seat multiple times. Those drivers were absolute maniacs in the most impressive way possible.

I’m pretty sure at one point our bus cornered at an angle normally associated with fighter jets.

And somehow, despite all of this chaos, nobody on the bus even reacted. Meanwhile I’m over there gripping the seat like we’re re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

China, man.

Wulingyuan & Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

From there, it was about a 25-minute taxi ride to the town where I was staying:

Wulingyuan.

(Which I absolutely spelled wrong at least 14 times before finally checking.)

Wulingyuan is the little tourism town beside the east gate of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park — the famous park filled with the towering stone pillars that inspired the floating mountains in Avatar.

And honestly?

This place was unbelievable.

Not “cool.”

Not “pretty.”

I mean genuinely awe-inspiring.

The kind of scenery where your brain quietly stops functioning for a minute because it cannot process that this is a real place humans are allowed to stand in.

Day 1 – The Upper Section

My first full day in the park was all about the upper scenic areas.

I took the Bailong Elevator — the giant glass elevator literally built into the side of a cliff — up into the mountain sections and spent the day exploring the major viewpoints.

The Avatar mountains (officially the Hallelujah Mountains) were incredible.

I also saw:

• The Number One Bridge Under Heaven

• One Step to Heaven

• Countless cliffside viewing platforms

• Forests growing out of impossible rock pillars

• Mist drifting through the valleys like something out of a fantasy movie

At times it genuinely looked fake.

Like someone had turned the graphics settings up too high on reality itself.

Day 2 – The Lower Section & Redemption Arc Weather

The second day I focused on the lower sections of the park, including the full Golden Whip Stream trail.

This was one of my favorite parts of Zhangjiajie.

Instead of giant lookout points and elevators, it was peaceful rivers, jungle pathways, towering cliffs overhead, and crystal-clear streams winding through the valleys.

Then in the afternoon…

…the weather redeemed itself.

Clear skies all day instead of mist.

So naturally I went BACK up into the mountains to revisit the Hallelujah Mountain viewpoints to see what it looked like with clearer views.

All-in-all the mist shots were better, but the clear views allowed me to get a true sense of scale of this whole place.

Furong Town – Scenic Area Economics 101

With the main park checked off, Day 3 became a side quest to Furong Town — the ancient town built around a massive waterfall running directly through the middle of it.

This was also my first real exposure to China’s “Scenic Area” pricing system.

Allow me to explain:

• Bullet train there: about $6

• Taxi ride from station: about $12

• Entry ticket to the scenic town itself: roughly $30

Which means the waterfall admission cost more than physically transporting myself across an entire province.

Now to be clear:I WOULD still recommend going.

It was beautiful, especially at night with all the lights reflecting off the water and the old buildings hanging over the falls.

But let this be a friendly warning if you ever travel around China:

Sometimes the transportation is hilariously cheap…

…and then nature itself apparently has premium subscription pricing.

Things Not Fully Captured In The Video

A few extra things that didn’t fully make it into the footage:

• While I’ve shortened this trip for now, I haven’t necessarily abandoned it entirely. I eventually have to leave Australia anyway (90-day visitor limits and all), so there’s still a decent chance Adventure Eric returns for another round later on.

  
  

• I also still haven’t edited and uploaded:

  • Hangzhou

  • Shanghai

  • Xiamen

  • Guangzhou

  • And the epic finale: Hong Kong

  So yes — more videos are still coming. I just need to stop getting distracted by life.

  
  

• The scale of Zhangjiajie truly cannot be captured properly on camera. Seriously. It was right up there with the Great Wall in terms of surreal experiences China can offer. If you ever get the chance to go there, absolutely do it.

  
  

• At the top of the “One Step to Heaven” area, there was a random dude casually sitting there watching Chinese soap operas on his phone while offering professional drone footage services to tourists.

  
  

  Somehow this man absolutely sold me on the idea.

  So yes — the epic drone shot in my video came from Cliffside Soap Opera Drone Guy™.

  
  

• And finally:

  
  

  China was not what I expected.

  In the best possible way.

  It is extraordinarily safe for foreign travelers, the infrastructure is insane, and the people were not just friendly — they were curious, generous, welcoming, and constantly willing to help despite language barriers.

  I genuinely grew very fond of the country.

Next stop:

Just a short, casual, completely normal 8-hour bullet train to Hangzhou!