China is pretty low on the hotel breakfast buffet rankings. It seems that a typical Chinese breakfast plate is corn on the cob, a hard boiled egg, and a whole boiled yam. It’s not for me. Turkey remains #1 so far, with all its fresh fruits and veggies, good bread, eggs, and at least 12 various dips and spreads.

From our hotel we walked 15 minutes up the road to enter Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Our hotel gave us a map and did their best to explain the route we should take through the park. But they didn’t speak any English and we didn’t speak and Chinese so we got probably 70% of it.

After entering we got in a line to get on a bus to the elevator. Then we waited in a line to take the world’s largest outdoor elevator up to the top.

From the top we are shepherded onto a trail and towards the various viewpoints.

China excels at crowd control. You barely have to think about where to go, you just follow the crowd and barriers and everything is sensical and orderly. Each of the ticket checkpoints are facial recognition which gets everyone through fast and really feels like the future.

The downside is that we often feel like we are on a conveyer belt of sightseeing all day long. Go to point a, take a picture, go to point b, wait in a line, take a picture, travel to point c etc. It gets the job done but leaves no room for exploration or discovery. The scenery was beautiful but mostly left me craving a “real” hike along a trail, without so many people.

The weather was perfect today. Not too hot, not too cool. After so much heat and humidity in the last week I really appreciated it.

We walked a ton and looked at all the views, and then continued to wait in lines for busses to other viewing areas. Millie did not love them (neither did I) but she did a good job being patient.

She got a lot of attention today, especially from older ladies. They talk to her in Chinese, say “beautifulllll!”, touch her face, and take photos. She is sweet when they talk to her and smiles and waves, but hates when they touch her or take photos. I got annoyed a couple of times today when people stuck phones in her face without asking. Luckily she is excellent at standing up for herself and gets visibly and audibly upset about it, so I didn’t need to intervene much.

I saw this poor dog being treated as a purse. Lots of cats in backpacks too.

We took a couple of cable cars up and down the mountains, through the enormous pillars. Millie often asks to use our phones to take a photo, and we are always amazed by how good they are. I thought this one she took was especially great.

I am less good at artsy shots but good at cute ones.

We took a cable car that was so high that we started in the clouds. By this point Millie was bored of cable cars and started live-drawing what we were doing.

We got to the bottom and waited in yet another packed-like-a-sardine line to get our final bus back to the gate.

We finally made it out and walked back to our hotel, stopping for some quick noodles and wontons on the way.

Movie night tonight. Nick and Millie and snuggled up watching Matilda while I write this post. It’s a very cute sight.