From Baofeng Lake, we headed to the Zixia Taoist Temple. Zixia is a 500 year old temple complex which had recently been restored by the local government to attract visitors. The sprawling complex is built on a hill side and has over 30 buildings - halls, temples, minor shrines etc.
It turned out the temple closes at 5 PM. We reached at about 5.15 PM and missed getting in.
Despite the disappointment, we spent a few moments appreciating the sculptures.
A layout of the Zixia Temple complex!
An interesting chair.... And a poster promoting health and wellness in Hunan...
Next we proceeded to a teahouse, called Dr. Tea!
Sadly photography wasn't permitted.
Two pretty girls attired in traditional dresses very deftly and prepared small quantities of tea for us to sample.... We liked the oolong tea and the rose petal tea....
The green we tasted here was awesomely fresh....
We picked up a pack of oolong tea. And then we sampled black tea, which had been aged for 20 years.... We were told that was as expensive as RMB 2000 for a few hundred grams.
As the tea ages, a fungus grows on it that gives it unique health benefits - lowering cholesterol, controlling blood pressure, keeping blood sugar in check and aiding digestion.
A block of black that was aged for 13 years was available for RMB 800, which was quite pricey.
But drove a hard bargain and managed to get two packs of oolong teas, a 13 year black tea and a pack of green tea for barely RMB 200......
That's what you would call driving a stiff bargain.... Thanks to Neeti for that!
Our next stop was Hehua Airport. We had 3 hours to kill.... Our flight to Shanghai Pudong was on China Eastern Airlines MU 5372, an Airbus A320, scheduled for 9.40 PM.
And we were in no mood to eat or drink.... Sam's lousy meal was still rumbling around in our tummies. We had planned to relax a bit at the airport before catching a meal on the flight.
Despite Zhangjiajie being a small city, the airport was fairly busy - there were quite a few flights to Beijing, Xian, Shenzen, Tianjin, Chengdu and Shanghai....
The airport was bustling with people - there were no other foreigners besides us.
Flights were running late that day - you could blame it on the weather, but in China, the military controls most of the airspace leaving commercial flights with smaller slots for operations....
The reverse of the boarding pass showed an impression of the swanky new terminal being planned at Hehua Airport. Hehua is in the process of being upgraded to handle flights from abroad - Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong....
That's where China scores over India - if you create capacity, demand will follow. On the other hand if you wait for demand to pick up to justify creation of capacity, you'll be condemned to being a mediocre economy....
We took off from Zhangjiajie's Hehua Airport after 10.30PM - a delay of nearly an hour.
Boarding was chaotic - Indian carriers, no matter how vilified are much better.
The aircraft was clean, but airconditioning was poor and they had no blankets on board....
And you won't believe what we got for dinner on board - a paperbox with two dinner rolls with a small glass of water - nothing else! There was no option to buy anything onboard....
I was thoroughly disappointed.... Even our desi SpiceJet is better - at least you can buy a cold but delicious sandwich!
We finally landed at Shanghai's massive and swanky Pudong Airport. It was well past 1 AM then...
After collecting our bags, we were met by our guide Shaun who had come to receive us....
And began the 40 minute, 60 kilometer drive to the Bund in the Puxi area of Shanghai... And yes we were drooling thinking of a much awaited meal of our MTR packets, which would have otherwise been quite unappetizing....
Despite the horrible journey into Shanghai, we felt blessed we had visited Zhangjiajie, a wondrous and unique experience in the heart of China. That experience left us richer with memories, experiences, and sights that will forever be etched in our hearts.
I suppose Neeti would agree with me when I say Xie Xie Zhangjiajie 谢谢张家界! That simply means Thank You Zhangjiajie!
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