Tianmen Mountain

On the top of a sacred mountain you are closer to the Gods and on New Year's Day it is time to hang your wishes and aspirations where they are most likely to be read.
I went up Tianmen Mountain on the Cable car which is the longest alpine cableway in the world. The cable starts from City Garden, just opposite where I was staying,  and passes by Zhangjiajie Railway Station, Zhangjiajie Bus Station, the Road with 99 bends, Tianmen Cave and finally arrives at the mountaintop. The entire trip takes about 28 minutes.
The cableway has the length of 7,455 meters and runs at the speed of 6 meters per second. It has 98 cars with each of them carrying 8 people, making the passenger capacity of 1,000 persons an hour in one way direction. This meant that 4000 people had already ascended by midday when I started queuing with the next thousand. It was quite slow but a model of efficiency and it was a beautiful day with everyone so happy to be with their families on vacation.
At the top the paths were very crowded but because of the snow no one went up the side paths so I had my lunch in sunny solitude amongst big mossy rocks that legend says an ancient General used to demonstrate tactics to his fellow soldiers. A good tactic!
After glorious views and hair-raising cliff suspended walks in slippery conditions I was booked to go down on the 12 escalators, so long and steep it took 20 minutes before we got to see the Tianmen cave - or rather an enormous rock archway that is called the Gate to Heaven. A fabulous sight to end a special day.