Day 3 : Avatar Mountain

On our third day we woke up to a dry day. Yay ! It's our first day waking up without rain. That is definitely something.

That day we were scheduled to go back to East Gate entrance and go up on Bailong Elevator to reach Yuanjiajie where we can find Avatar Mountain. Just like the day before, our time slot to enter has already been arranged by Xiao Tu at front desk. That saved us time trying to navigate the mini app of WeChat.

We walked to East Gate entrance and for the first time I noticed that different line at the gate actually goes to different part. On our first day we took Line A which brought us to Tianzi Mountain. But today we should take Line B. I forgot what description was written, maybe Bailong Elevator or Yuanjiajie ?

Line B got us into a line to board a bus that will bring us to the bottom of the mountain. We got into the line which was pretty empty and soon we were at the front line waiting to get into Bailong Elevator. This elevator will bring us to the height of 326 m (1070 ft) within one minute and 32 seconds. Without the elevator we would have to hike up that height for two hours. The elevator was built on the side of the mountain so when we were in the elevator for the most part we only saw darkness until we reached almost the top of the mountain. 

From the elevator we just followed sign to Avatar Mountain. That day was most likely the most people we ever met up the mountain. I believe all those people must have heard of the good weather. Indeed we did not see any fog up the mountain that day.

We managed to see Avatar Mountain and World's First Natural Bridge. Then we took a bus to Yangjiajie. Circled a bit at Yangjiajie but realized that it would take us a few hours to walk some of the trail. We turned around and took another bus to Tianzi Mountain which we didn't see properly the first day due to the fog.

When I looked at the map of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park I realized we did not see half of it yet. But I think we saw enough and did not get lost in it which was good. Honestly even with dry weather, even three days would not be enough to explore every trails.