Tianmenshan; close but no cigar

Tianmenshan had long been a draw card, on a bucket list of cycling destinations in China. A mythical destination, only enhanced by it’s appearance in such articles as Red Bull’s Eight of the Most Dangerous Roads in the World (http://www.redbull.com/us/en/adventure/stories/1331715077524/most-dangerous-roads)

It’s profile and elevation gain, draws similarity with Alpe d’Huez and with 99 corners, it must have been designed by a Frenchman!

A work trip to Changsha beckoned, so the possibility of tying in a short side trip to Zhangjiajie seemed to align the stars perfectly for a timely visit to Heaven’s Gate.

Although there had been concern on accessing the mountain itself, a quick check on Strava revealed that although the number of attempts was only a fraction of it’s French counterpart, cyclists had been up it as recently as last month.

Fortunately the twin prop plane from suitably named OKAir landed into Zhangjiajie on time on the Friday evening.

Day 1
An early start beckoned for Saturday morning; with the goal of getting on the mountain prior to the massive tour parties of domestic travellers and Koreans, who also seemed to be drawn to this magical place.

Despite managed to initially cycle right past the turn off to the climb, I eventually managed to reach the approach to the ‘mountain’ a little before 7am. Uh-oh, gates and policemen. This definitely wasn’t going to be as straightforward as I had hoped. Through my understanding of their direction, it seemed that they were initially just pointing me to the ticket counter. Not a problem, happy to pay my way.

Not enough cash and no credit card acceptance, necessitated a trip back down the foothills to the hotel to get sufficiently cashed up. Then on purchasing a ticket it became clear, that the bike wasn’t going to get past the checkpoint. Instead visitors were being directed through to 20 seater minibuses that were ferrying the tourists up and down the mountain. Could I take the bike onto the bus? Jump out at first corner and just ride up? No chance. Best explanation, I got was that no foreign vehicles were allowed on the mountain.

A quick plan B was required to make the most of what looked to be a very nice day. I hadn’t really scoped much, as had been expecting to spend most of the first day in and around the mountain and only then look into an itinerary for day 2.

Wulingyuan had been mentioned by work colleagues as another must visit spot, just north of the city, so thought would venture in that direction and see what encountered along the way.

A slow steady climb materialised out of Zhangjiajie and reflecting the significant amount of investment the Chinese government has made in infrastructure in the past decade, the road surface was particularly good.

The stunning quartzite sandstone pillars soon came into view as I approached the UNESCO World Heritage site. Much was also being made of the location having inspired Avatar, with just a small amount of tat on sale embracing that linkage.

There are some seriously long tunnels, for China at least, on the S306 road. Enough to keep a German friend with an almost ferret like appetite for subterranean roads very happy.

Eventually turned at Huanglongdong and despite a further failed attempt at Baofeng Hu to ride up what looked like a very nice ascent in a National Park, opted for the welcome descent back into Zhangjiajie

Day 2
A lot of desk research the previous afternoon had initially indicated that a travel agency may be able to organise a ‘pass’ to Tianmenshan. However, when that didn’t materialise, I opted against trying a second, 5am assault on the mountain and instead opted to look into what might be some very appealing terrain on the back side of the mountain.

And so it proved. After foolishly taking what was described as a ‘country road’ initially, I soon quickly realised that despite the fantastic panoramas, this was without doubt one of the worst roads I had riden on. Akin to 7km of Shanghai’s very own Roubaix section at Minpu Daqiao.

However after joining the S228, a great road surface paved the way for repeated format of climbing and descending into valley after valley. Nothing too crazy in terms of gradient with most climbs not exceeding 5%.

With limited time I had to turn after 45km, but not before getting some great views of Tianmenshan from behind it. A longer ride would definitely be possible, but unfortunately there did not appear to be any c.150km circular routes. Out and backs seemed to be the order of the day.

Will certainly have to make a return trip and with a little more research, would be confident of finding a way up. Tianmenshan. Either taking advantage of alleged ‘non vehicle’ days or getting more insight on how previous riders had got so lucky.

With direct flights from Shanghai, certainly a viable weekend destination, with enough routes to keep anyone busy for a few days, Tianmenshan or not.