며칠 동안 자리를 비워놓겠습니다.

이웃 블로거님 여러분, 제가 오랫동안 가고 싶었던 실크로드 문화탐방을 내일 떠납니다. 한 열흘 정도 걸립니다. 개인적으로 4WD SUV를 몰고 마음 내키는대로 가는 꿈을 꾸었지만 그것 쉽지 않은 일.. 그래서 문화탐방 여행사에서 모집한 팀에 합류해서 가기로 했습니다.

 

인천으로 5월 27일에 돌아올 예정입니다.

2월 자동차 판매 24.2% 신장

중국의 2월 자동차 판매는 전년 동기비 24.2%나 증가했다고 상해발 로이터 통신이 전했다. 이는 지난 5개월에 4개월 하락한 이후 증가한 것으로 중국 베이징 정부의 자동차 판매 촉진 인센티브가 소비자들을 쇼룸에 끌어들인 결과이다.

지난 달 승용차 판매는 607,300대라고 중국 자동차공업 협동조합 (CAAM)이 발표했다. 승용차와 버스, 트럭을 포함한 자동차 총판매는 24.72%가 증가하여 827,600대였으며, 2008년 6월 이후 처음으로 월판매 800,000대 수준을 돌파한 것이다.

세계 제일 자동차 시장의 위치를 미국으로 부터 넘겨받은 중국은 작년에 자동차 수요를 침식하기 전까지 지난 3년간 연속 자동차 판매가 20%이상 신장하였다. 자동차 판매신장은  최소한 지난 10년만에 처음으로 2008년 신장율이 한 자리수에 머물었다.
 
참고로 지난 2월의 미국의 전체 자동차 판매디수는 689,444대였다.

 

Tianmen Cave - Heaven Gate 天門洞

Tianmen Cave is the natural water-eroded cave with the highest elevation in the world. In year 263, the thousand meter high cliff of Songliang mountain suddenly broke up into a door-like cave which became a rare wonder of the world. Hence the name of Songliang mountain changed to Tianmen(heaven gate) mountain.

Tianmen cave runs south-northward with a height of 131.5 meters, a width of 57 meters and a depth of 60 meters. It rises above the ground and nears the sky with a lofty and towering  posture. The shadow of it reaches the north of the vast sea, the clouds over it near the south of the handle of the Dipper. It is much like a gate towards the heaven. The wonder attracted the visits and appreciations by emperors, officials, sages, hermits, dignitaries and men of letters of different dynasties.

 

After the accumulation over the dynasties, the unique profound Culture of Heaven is buit up. In 1999, the masters of International stunt flying piloted the planes to fly through Tianmen Cave. The activity gave rising to sensational reactions in the world. There were 800 millions audiences watching the live broadcasting. (quoted from a tourist guide book)

The number of stairs is nine hundreds and ninety nine.  The figure 9 means many to them. Then 999 means many many stairs?  The construction of the 999 stairs seemed well engineered in terms of shape and safety.                        

On December 11, 1999 the first class aerobatics pilots flew through the Tianmen Cave for the first time in human histroy. The cave is 131.5 meter high and 57 meters in width.

At the Tianmen Cave - Heaven Gate(天門洞)

a Gate top at high above over my head.

When I returned to the cablecar station, the sun already set and it was dark.... and my China trip ended with satisfaction at having finally wonderful sunny day.

The Most Scary Roadway

I have seen this scary roadway through internet several times before and I had thought I myself would never have an opportunity to take this road but it happened to me during this trip to Zhang Jia Jie, China. It is literally thrilling to look down at the mountain roadway from the sky. I was wondering all the way up and down how this road was built. Anybody can give me an idea? :)

Heaven-linking Avenue has 99 turns symbolizing that the Heaven has nine palaces. The avenue runs upward with the posture of the mountain like the soaring of great dragon and also hangs like a jade belt with zigzag turns circling the hills. It is worth the title wonder of highway in the world. Through heaven-linking avenue, one reaches directly the Tianti-celestial ladder. The grand celestial like scene came into view.(quoted from a tourist guide book)

Tianmendong(天門洞) or Tianment Cave( Heaven Gate) is up there.

Tianwang Temple

Tianmen Mountain Temple was built in the Tang Dynasty as a center of Buddhism in the area of western Hunman. The present Tianmen Mountain Temple was rebuilt on the basis of the original site with a plot area of more than 10,000 sqm. It adopts an official style of the Qing Dynasty and the building in the temple compare well with the famous classical houses at home. The temple is located in the mountain hollow with a broad vision. If one gazes into the southeast, all the hills seem t be so small that the temple is really like an overlord.(quoted from a tourist guidebook)

I see the color painting on the pillars, roof edges and wall of temple is more flamboyant than that of Korean buddhist temples.

Tianmenshan Ghost Valley Plank Road 鬼谷棧道

The Ghost-Valley plank road is located at the scenic and panoramic area and with a whole length of 800 meters and suspended from the cliff more than 1,400 meter above sea level on the upper side of the Ghost-valley cave. All walking the plank were overwhelmed by the extreme shock and stimulation.

Who built this walkway?  How is it possible to build a walkway on a cliff that dose not have a base to support an infrastructure of construction? Do you think it is possible to build this walkway on a vertical rock cliff?

Click the photos below and above to have a close look at the walkway built to the vertical cliff. It was really amazing and thrilling to walk on the way.

My tiptoe and deep valley down below..

Tianmenshan & Cableway- the world longest cableway

In ancient time, Tianmenshan was called Yunmen mount., Yuping mount., but in 6th of Yongan in Three-Kingdom Dynasty, there happened an earthquake, then a giant gap opened. Therefore, it got this name since then. With the altitude of 1,517.9m Tianmen mountain has pretty unique natural prospects. Among its 16 peaks and 16 caverns, the Tianmen Cavern is the most special one. Near the top of Tianmenshan there is a temple. With its reputaion throughout the provinces of southern Yangtze river, it makes the visitors coming and oil lights shining for centuries. (quoted from a tourist guide book)

Hallelujah, it's shiny today! Are we lucky? The guide said that out of 365 days a year 260 days are raining and a half of the rest 100 days are cloudy, foggy and .... we are in the sun shine.

The miniature of Tinamenshan cableway dispalyed at the lounge to provide a birdseye view to tourists. The cableway of 7.45km(4.67miles) long connects between the city center and the mountain top and it takes 35 minutes one way. It is the longest cableway in the world. the guide said.
There is a stop station in the middle where buses run along the zigzag roadway, the world most scary road, to the Tianmen Cave moving tourists back and forth.

Two cablecars are dangling on a cable crossing over the city.

Looked at back down the city where we had started twenty minutes ago. The car is about to pass the middle point where we are going to get off when we come down from the top for a bus tour to the Tianmen Cave (Heaven Gate 天門洞) taking the most scary  roadway in the world.

The zigzagging road is seen on the mountain cliff in the picture below and way down the city center where cableway started.

Tianmen mountain cabelway, the longest passenger cabelway of high mountain in the world, has 98 cars and 57 brackets altogether (including 3 recruiting brackets), all of which are original imported facilities from POMA, the French corporation. The cableway has a total length of 7,455 meters and a height gap of 1,279 meters. It is one of the few cable cars within China with a height gap 1,000 meters. The local gradient from the middle station to the upper station is as high as 37 degree, which is rare in the world. It is the cableway with the largest local gradient as well as one with most brackets in Chinal.(quoted from a tourist guidebook)

Looking up at the destination, the top of Tianmenshan(天門山). Looks like we have come a long way but still have a long way to go yet.

One Hundred Dragons Sky Stairs

In Chinese fables, dragon appears quite often, and there are many monuments and symbols of dragon in China. Below is the entrance of a man-made tunnel that leads to the double-deck-elevator that carries one hundred people at a time between the foot and the top of the hill. The rail of the elevator is built on the face of vertical rock cliff as high as over three hundreds meters as you see the left picture below.

I think ninety percent of the tourists in Zhang jia jie (張家界) area are Koreans. Most of the shop keepers and road vendors can speak a little Korean. They lure foreign tourits with offering "Every thing One dollar, One dollar (chon won, chon won)" Almost every thing they sell is priced only one dollar. (actually Korean Won 1,000won) So cheap but don't think about quality.

Tianzishan, Zhang Jia Jie

It was again raining when we hop on a Tianzishan (天子山)Cableway. Under the cable car a deep valley and high rock cliffs were  unclearly visible through window due to fog, clouds and rain.

The highest natural bridge on earth

Tianzi mount(天子산) is named after the Tujia people(native) rebellion chief Xiangwng Tianzi. The platform, rising above the surrounding countryside, is the most conspicuous feature of Tianzi mountain. The sightseeing line circles the mountain 45 kilometers. The total area covers 67 square kilometers. Looking from Tianzi mountain, you will get the broad sight of peaks in peaks, peaks beyond peaks. Cloudy mist, moon light, sun rising from the morning clouds and the snow in the winter are the four spectaculars of Tianzi mountain.(Quoted from a tourist guide book)

When I got on the Tianzishan, photographing was almost impossible due to low casted clouds and fog swirling over and around the peaks and valleys, and with sometimes rain.

If it were fine we could have enjoyed the panoramic view of Chinese Grand Canyon from this terrace. Nothing is visible. Maybe next time?

A Mile-long Gallery 十里畵廊

Our guide explained to us about the  weather in Zhang Jia Jie area. It rains 260 days in a year on average.The rest one hundred days?  it is cloudy or foggy and only less than a month of a year is shine.

There was a huge crowd of sightseers. This is the entrance of the One Mile-long Gallery (十里畵廊) where a mono-rail tour starts. Mono rail runs every 15 minutes back and forth. The scenery seen from running mono rail was like beautiful oriental paintings.

The photos below show you how they look like. The reason why they named this valley is that the scenery is so picturesque like all oriental paintings displayed in a gallery. That's why. Take a look.

Clouds swirling around peaks

Clouds and clouds and clouds....swirling around peaks

A little mono-rail and a romantic young couple take a walk under an umbreller.

Zhang Jia Jie - World Natural Heritage, World Geological Park

Our flight from Tianjin (天津) was delayed about one hour due to bad weather in Zhang Jia Jie(張家界) area and our 26 member-team finnally arrived late in the evening at Zhang Jia Jie airport. This airport was built three years ago, our guide said.

Zhang Jia Jie area is a World Natural Heritage and also a World Geological Park. Every year millions of tourists are visiting here for sightseeing from all over the world.

Even the next day, it was rainy and foggy so the sight seeing was not pretty much enjoyable.

The entrance of Baofeng lake (寶峰湖) which is a man-made lake where people enjoy boat tour. Baofeng lake is a rare gorges lake and regarded as the elite scenic spot. The limpid lake embraced by the green mountians, mirrors its silhouettes and makes it a scenic masterpiece.

As it was raining, photographing was not as good as expected.