See that little path up there, teetering along the sheer rock face? That’s the running path.
Well, it’s almost exclusively a walking path, but I had to run it. And then again. And once more for good measure. It may be the best path I’ve ever run.
But why?
Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, China
As you may surmise, it’s not for the faint of heart. Yet, I am very faint of heart with heights. It took a lot to get me up on that edge, one soon it was hard to pull me away from. This was nearly two years ago in the summer of 2022 and I’m still compelled to tell the tale.
Truth be told, I wasn’t even excited about coming here on this day. I was happy to have spent time running in the Avatar mountains on the other side of town the previous two days. I was immersed within stunning mountain formations—a place captured on film and inspiration for the floating mountains of Pandora.
The running was in relatively tight spaces, though. In the spots with the most dramatically scenic spots, I was shooting up and down long wooden boardwalks—love ‘em—but within what folks here call the people mountain, people sea (ren shan ren hai 人山人海). As Bostonians may say, it was “wicked crowded.”
Once I got up to Heaven’s Gate, there were some crowded walkways, but so many other places were wide open for exploring.
The Approach
From down below, even on the main road a mile away while running through a tiny village, I already knew I could not leave Zhangjiajie until I’d gone up this mountain. I had to check out that miraculously created Gate. That’s the actual pic taken at sunset the evening before I took the trip upwards.
The Route Up
Once you’ve taken the short drive—as in the case of virtually everyone else—or run—as in my case—up from the main road below, you’ll very soon meet these steps.
According to travelandleisure.com, To reach the fantastic landmark, visitors must walk up 999 steps on the '“stairway to heaven." Nine is a lucky number in Chinese numerology, representing good fortune and eternity. Those who wish to avoid the long cable car can opt to take a bus up a narrow roadway that bends back on itself 99 times.
(Note: When I was there that snaking roadway—see it in pic below—was closed. Not sure if it’s now reopened or not.)
Believe you-me, it’s not the number of steps here that’s the issue. It’s how darned steep they get—more steep as you reach the older steps further up. You can’t tell in this pic looking up, but perhaps it’s slightly more evident in this one I took looking backward:
You gotta’ be there to really believe it.
And this being China, there is some video and photographic imagery on the way up showing extreme athletes who’ve done some outright insane things on these very steps. In particular, BMX cyclists who absolutely charged down these steps on their racing-trick setting bicycles before hitting a ramp on the landing far below (See that tall orange & white canvas? Just in front of that), flying upside down and then sticking a landing before they’d otherwise be shooting over a sizable drop on the other side of where that canvas is. An unfortunate fellow from Canada lost control entroute and it was terrifying seeing video of him wipe out going down these steps, which can make one dizzy if you don’t keep your wits about you. Most people are holding the handrails as they ascend and descend these 999.
Once you’re up, you are within the Gate and it is AMAZING.
This is a natural geological formation, carved out of the karst over millions of years. Later, in the evening, bats shot around above my head here—in and out of the arch, a playground for them. Probably a giant restaurant, too, eating all the mosquitoes at sunset.
Next, and disappointedly so for me, just ahead and off to the right we were forced up a long series of escalators. At least six different ones. It was like taking a trip from a subway platform deep down beneath the streets, several times over.
I’d been hoping to run all the way up—like I did at Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou province a couple weeks before (9,000 steps from the base to the summit)—but there was no way up here but via the escalators (and possibly an elevator, which was an alternative to climbing the 999).
I decided to run up the escalators best I could, weaving in and out of tourists, flummoxed by this crazed American in their midst.
Over the Gate
It was busy up there. And it was extremely hot in Zhangjiajie, but far cooler up here than in the city below, which was hitting around 100F. The view above is taken pretty soon after exiting the escalators, pretty much directly over the Gate.
This being China, there are always some concession areas available—even atop a mountain—and I would be very pleased with this later. I wore my running pack and had some fluids and small snacks, but the more the merrier when it came to fluids and green pea ice cream after the run.
Taking the Road Less Traveled
I took some stone walkways and the crowds began thinning out pretty quickly. One fact I’ve learned about human nature worldwide: the vast majority of folks take the road most traveled. And most people do not want to travel very far, whilst opting for the most convenient (read: shortest) ways to get from point A to point B.
It is what it is. I’d rather take the road less traveled, which sometimes makes me a masochist (those 9,000 steps vs. a cable car to skip the first 6,000 or so), but in all honesty, it makes life and travel far more fulfilling.
Check out the trail—actual dirt trail—I found just a kilometer or so away from the last person I’d passed on the main walkway.
It led me to an edge of the mountain where I found some abandoned huts and an old stone staircase, encased in vines and plants, descending the mountainside. Not many tourists seem to have found this part of the National Park…
Soon, I made my way back and found the greatest of all pathways. Its awe-inspiring views only surpassed by the absurdly steep drops just beneath a thin railing. I could only hope—and hope and pray I did—that the courageous workers who built the walkway used some quality control to test it out when it was finished.
I was not quite relishing the possibility of becoming splattered across the boulders hundreds of meters below.
This thought would cross my mind repeatedly as I traversed this fantastically stunning course…
Course of Courses
That would be one heck of a drop, I thought, peering over the edge into a rocky gorge as I made my way around a new pathway.
Sense of dread soon gave way to transcendence as I rounded each new curve of this incredible place. Place of miracles, geological, spiritual.
Call me crazy. Maybe I was. Maybe I am. But no matter. Insane or sane, just take a look
Next Time: Heaven’s Gate天门, Transcending
Great story Kyle fantastic photos
What an amazing adventure through these beautiful mountains.