Second Day, 9th December 2009
Early in the morning, we have to check out from our hotel. After having breakfast in hotel, we started to visit famous places in Zhang Jia Jie. 小李 was our tour guide.

Experiencing the ride of world's longest cable car to 天门山, just like the cable car in Genting Highlands. However, we could not see much as the mist covered all over the beautiful scenery. It took us for forty five minutes to reach the top. Once you stepped out, you could feel the air was very cooling and fresh. The trees and plants were covered with a layer of ice. It's spectacular.

(Tian Men Shan)

天 门洞was our next destination. For those who have a good stamina, this is the best place. Why do I say so? This is because you have to walk 999 steps to reach the top and 999 steps in return. Besides, the weather is freezing. Reaching to the top was not easy at all. All of us made it to the top except my two seniors, Ms Chiew and Aunty.

(Tian Zi Dong - 999 Steps)

By the time we arrived the town, it was lunch time. I noticed that there were restaurants serving dogs’ meat. 小李 told us that this was their specialty and was not cheap. All of us were relieved when we heard that they won't serve dogs' meat. Phew...

The fame of Zhang Jia Jie was through an artist who used the natural resources in Zhang Jia Jie such as stone, sand, wood, etc to paint an art. His name is 李军声. He setup军声画院to display his arts. By looking at his masterpiece, you could tell how talented and creative this person is.

(Jun Sheng's Masterpiece)

宝峰湖was another attractive place. The scenery was breathtaking. The lake was surrounded with steep mountains.

(宝峰湖)

For your information, the culture of 苗土家 is quite interesting. A pretty lady would sing a song to find a mate. The guy who is interested with this pretty lady needs to sing songs in return by giving 3 chances. All the songs must be ending with “yuo wei”. If the lady interested in you, you could bring her home immediately. What if the lady doesn’t like you? Haha.. There is a punishment which is the person needs to do tough job for 9 YEARS! This is the same procedures for a guy looking for a mate but without punishment imposed on the lady. For 苗土家, woman is the bread-winner of the family so they are powerful. While riding the boat in 宝峰湖, we heard a lady and a guy sang with a powerful and beautiful voice.

(Lady find a mate by singing)

They sang in their own languages but I only knew the word – you wei. Another interesting story about their culture is the girls have to cry for their marriage. How long does she have to cry? I thought it just took a few hours but it was not. In order to know the girl’s sincerity in this marriage, she need to cry as long period as possible, perhaps a month. Wow… It sounded a tough task. As you see, they must have been trained at the very young age. This reminded me the Korean drama series where the girls always good the role of crying. Haha… For those guy wearing spectacles, you've an advantage as the girls believe that you're an educated person.

小 李 brought us to 茶叶店. The girls called themselves as “阿妹”. Addressing them as 小姐 would not respond to your request as they believe小姐 is for those who don’t want to get married. They provided some drinks for us to try. After the demonstration, all 阿妹 kept promoting their products even though you showed no interest. I told myself, “Better ran away from them”. So I followed Angela went toilet. After coming out from toilet, 阿妹 mentioned that they need to hit the target of RMB900 but currently is RMB870. As everyone was watching and waiting for answers from WN, Angela and I so we bought the tea biscuits for 7 packets at RMB100.

We reached 京溪国际 hotel and have dinner. During dinner, we discussed about the show-魅力湘西歌舞秀 at 8pm tonight as this is an optional for our package. Charine, WN and I decline not joining the show as I was tired for the whole day's event. Thus, I have muscle cramp on my legs. 小李 kept on persuading us to go but was like a force. Ms Chiew also recommended us to watch the show. In the end, Mr Lim agreed and made payment for the whole group.

At 8pm, we entered the hall. The performance began with auction for the paintings. There was a man singer, Mr Yong who could sing a very high pitch. Another lady singer, Ah Duo has the sweet voice and she sang her countryside song. Both singers have powerful voice without using microphone. This is fantastic. Besides this, their acrobat shows were superb too.

The show finished at 10.30pm. All of us were exhausted and check-in 京溪国际 hotel. The room was big which has bathroom with bath tub and shower stand and queen size single beds. It's rating with 5 stars. There was a LCD tv with a lot of channels. However, all the shows were dubbed into Mandarin. Not a single channel is for English. I wonder how China government attracts foreigners. For your information, Chinese don't know English at all. When you wanted to by pass them, mentioned the word, “excuse me” won't help. So, you've to speak in Mandarin, ie 请让开or 接过. Besides, their manner is very rude. They don't have any courtesy. For instance, they just push you away to pass the route and they would glare at you for not buying things.