Yaozi Village

    "Do you want to have a good time?" Then, please come up to Yaozi Village! (Yaozi, in Chinese, is a bird of prey) This is a common joke among tourists. Some visitors from the north of China deliberately pronounce the second-tone word "yaozi". A lot of caution should be exercised here, because the "yaozi¡± in the second tone means "house of prostitution". The word "yao" should be pronounced in the fourth tone instead of the second one.

     But, touring Yaozi Village is really a lot of fun: the ecological environment at this summit is outstanding, possessing an abundance of ancient trees, some more than 1000 years old. What's more, scores of birds nest in these trees. Now, if a bird egg just happens to tumble down right on your head, please don't lose your temper, consider it a kind of"natural joy", unavailable in many other tourist spots, right?

     In 1982, notable literary figure, Shen Congwen, wrote a poem, which reads: "Yaozi Village is dangerous; Golden Whip Stream appears deep and serene. When you ascend Yellow Stone Village, all other mountains are inferior." Yaozi Village is famous for its dangerous precipices and cliffs; even the"Yaozi", cannot fly beyond it, hence the name Yaozi Village. Situated in the northeast quadrant of the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, and rising 1098 meters above sea level, Yaozi Village stands prominently alongside Huangshi Village and Yangjiajie. These three lofty platforms are situated in triangular fashion. Because it appears as a huge "kidney", Yaozi Village was formerly named"Kidney Village", and was first opened to tourists in the 1980's. It was closed for nearly a dozen years out of concern for environmental protection, but then reopened to welcome visitors once again on September 26, 2003.

      People often say: "You are bound to be covered with perspiration after climbing up to the village, and then you don't feel like walking down because of your trembling legs." But no cable cars or elevators are there to transport us to the summit; all we have to rely on is "Bus No.11"our feet. It takes more than four hours to tour the village, and whether or not you make the climb, you will have feeling of regret: on one hand, the ascent on foot is rather difficult; on the other hand, not climbing up to the summit will cause us to miss spectacular and primitive scenery. How can we pass up such an opportunity?

     From Laomuwang at the starting point there stands a 5 meters high Love Lock,people begin to walk to Yaozi village, it will take us 6 hours to tour the mountain. In the middle of the mountain there is a 1680-meter long path leading to the middle of the Golden Whip Stream down the valley.