F. The 1st China International Cultural Tourism Festival in Hunan

Note: Lyn Tan, journalist from Out and About with Kids, which is Australia’s premier family holiday and leisure publication and website and partner of CNTO Sydney’s website. She was invited by CNTO Sydney to attend the 1st China International Cultural Tourism Festival in Hunan and do FAM trip in Hunan China.

Official ceremonies done, we set off eagerly to tick off the places of interest on our “to do” list.

First on the list is the Yellow Dragon Cave. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of man-made tourist attractions, especially those with a million different light installations in every corner, or in this case, next to every stalagmite.

However, I would recommend this cave to families, especially those with young children for a leisurely stroll through the massive chambers, making out shapes from the stalagmite formations. I can already see a couple of monster faces and a woman cradling her child… The stalagmites are really quite amazing and one of them, named the ‘Sacred Needle’, at a height of just over 19m, has even been insured for an obscene amount of money! It may well be a marketing stunt, but this Needle is quite an incredible feature in the cave.

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Note: Lyn Tan, journalist from Out and About with Kids, which is Australia’s premier family holiday and leisure publication and website and partner of CNTO Sydney’s website. She was invited by CNTO Sydney to attend the 1st China International Cultural Tourism Festival in Hunan and do FAM trip in Hunan China.

The mystical floating peaks of Hallelujah Mountains will forever be etched in the minds of anyone who’s ever seen the epic blockbuster, Avatar. Mind you, only the 3D version counts as I’m sure no one would dare argue the fact that only such amazing three dimensional graphic effects can provide that ultimate and fulfilling experience we all enjoyed so thoroughly!

“If only Pandora was a real place”, I’m sure we’ve all thought and wished… Unfortunately, it only exists in this one film. Fortunately, however, not all hope is lost!

I, for one, am extremely excited to learn that the inspiration for this amazing graphic creation is not too far away from Australia. In fact, I am less than an hour’s drive away from it now!

Where am I? I’m in Zhangjiajie, in China’s Hunan Province, where the flight time from Beijing is only about two hours, south-bound. I have been lucky enough to be here as a guest, attending the inaugural China International Culture-Tourism Festival.

The Kick-off to China's first International Culture-Tourism Festival

The Wulingyuan National Park in Zhangjiajie, listed as China’s first UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992, is home to the soaring limestone peaks that gave birth to the concept of the Hallelujah Mountains in Avatar.

Am I excited? You bet! Will I get to see the actual peak that inspired Hallelujah? Not quite, but our guide informs us that we will, however, see similar and equally amazing peaks at Tianji and Tianmen mountains. Still excited? Absolutely!

So, why here? Why Hunan, I questioned… and finally, I conclude that Hunan was probably chosen to be the first location for this annual affair for a couple of reasons. One, it’s home to the magical mystic mountains that Avatar has now made so popular worldwide, and two, it is also home to Feng Huang. Better known to tourists as the ‘Ancient City of Phoenix’, Feng Huang has been dubbed the prettiest city in China.

Great! One more place I cannot wait to see over the next couple of days.

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Note: Bai Ying, free-lance writer from Sydney Australia was invited by CNTO Sydney to attend the 1st China International Cultural Tourism Festival in Hunan and do FAM trip in Hunan China.

Yellow Dragon Cave(Huanglongdong) is a typical karst cave. According to the introduction the Huanglongdong Cave is the longest karst cave in Asia. There are about a dozen gigantic chambers which are full of fantastic rock formations and extraordinary features. Four layers contained in the cave, two layers are dry and there are water flowing in the other two. In total, there are one natural reservoir, 2 underground rivers, 3 pools, 4 waterfalls, 13 grand halls, 96 passageways and hundreds of thousands of stalagmites, columns and stalactites.

Yellow Dragon Cave (Huanglongdong)

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Note: Bai Ying, free-lance writer from Sydney Australia was invited by CNTO Sydney to attend the 1st China International Cultural Tourism Festival in Hunan and do FAM trip in Hunan China.

Zhangjiajie is a booming small city of Hunan. Local people told me that in early 1980’s there was only one main street there. Now you can see newly built hotels and restaurants everywhere in this city and the total population in the area has reached 1.5 million. Today, Zhangjiajie has welcomed its another opportunity of further development. The First China International Culture Tourism Festival is held in the city.

The 1st China International Cultural Tourism Festival in Hunan

On the opening ceremony the guests appreciated colorful ethnic dancing and singing performances, obtained a brief impression of local culture.

The 1st China International Cultural Tourism Festival in Hunan

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