Different people have different definitions of heaven. For some, being at a beach paradise or on a mountaintop could mean heaven. But my recent trip to China's Zhangjiajie allowed me to explore a new meaning of heaven.
Zhangjiajie is the first Chinese national park famous for sandstone formations in the southern mountainous province of Hunan. In addition to being a Unesco World Heritage Site, Zhangjiajie has gained international attention in recent years for inspiring the Hallelujah Mountain in Avatar.
All this fame, however, may appear less exciting than its actual, heaven-like picturesque landscape.
Taking a natural route to the Gate of Heaven, Zhangjiajie's highlight, is said to be an uphill task because most travellers are required to climb to the top of its Tianmen Mountain, which is about 1,500m above sea level.
But those with bad knees or who do not feel like climbing all those steps can take a cable car.
It was the journey from Suvarnabhumi airport to Zhangjiajie that took time. From Suvarnabhumi to the Hunan capital of Changsha took 3 hours by plane, then a 2-hour bus ride to Changde prefecture followed by another 2 1/2-hour bus ride to the destination.
It was cloudy with a shower of rain when I arrived and saw Tianmen Mountain standing in front of me. To get to the mountaintop amid the thick mist of October can be achieved by cable-car technology, which takes 40 minutes along the 7.5km route up the mountain, the longest in Asia.
The view below the cable car was, of course, breathtaking, especially the beauty of the mist that covered parts of the mountain, leaving only some visibility. Such a misty weather condition could make visitors feel as if they were being drifted along the path to heaven.
Upon my arrival at the famous Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge, the world's longest and highest of its kind -- built on the outer part of a cliff -- things were covered with a mist which completely blocked the visibility of nature beneath the bridge. But walking there, visitors could be scared. Some could feel an inner peace.
For me, things seemed to move very slowly. It was perhaps this feeling that made Zhangjiajie a real heaven -- a place where you feel no fear.
Peace lingered in my mind though I was walking in a great crowd of elderly tourists. Everyone had the same goal -- they kept on walking to the Gate of Heaven.
Suddenly someone shouted: "We arrived!" I saw light that sneaked through a mountain passage. The Gate of Heaven kept me standing in awe of its grandeur. I suddenly realised that heaven does not always translate to physical beauty, a joy or even a peaceful feeling. It was at that moment that I began to understand why nature is sometimes personified.
There I was, petrified.
On my way back from this special experience, I had plenty of time to contemplate what I'd been through. On the way down the mountain, instead of walking 999 steps, I took an escalator while my thoughts were still with the Gate of Heaven.
At night I had a chance to watch a play based on an unfulfilled-love tale between a woodsman and a fairy fox that transformed into a beautiful girl. The lovers could not live together and were able to do their best by looking at each other from two cliffs opposite one another.
The heavens, as the story goes, sympathised with their pains and made the cliffs bend toward one another. The cliffs then formed a bridge. The next morning I saw it with my own eyes, the Avatar Mountain which was named after the Hollywood blockbuster. It was full of huge and high sandstone formations used in the film setting. There I could see the lovers' cliffs.
They are now united and have become a curved stone bridge covered with plants. It gave the feeling of a warm touch of mercy.
Like the last scene in the play I watched that night, the sight of this love symbol, and a representation of heaven, brought down the curtain on my journey.
Zhangjiajie added a new chapter of travelling to my life.
THAI Smile has opened four routes, linking Suvarnabhumi airport and Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Chongqing and Changsha. Visit http://thaismileair.com
