The second national forest park in Zhangjiajie, the Tianmenshan forest park, opened to tourists on Tuesday after three-years' preparation.

Compared with the first park, Wulingyuan scenery, the new park is noted for its gorgeous, ever-changing mountain view.

The Tianmenshan park is located in the south of Zhangjiajie and is only eight kilometers away from downtown area.

According to historical accounts, in 263 A.D. (the Three Kingdoms period), a cave in the mountain suddenly opened and was regarded as a lucky sign by the Wu Emperor Sun Xiu. He named the cave as “Tianmen”, which later became the name of the mountain.

In 1999, many world-renowned pilots gathered at Tianmenshan and flew through the cave with their excellent skills, making more people in the world recognize the place.

The average altitude of Tianmenshan is 1,400 meters with the main peak sitting 1,518 meters above sea level. The park covers a total area of 190 square kilometers. The multiple earth movements in history and millions of years’ natural influences by wind and rain have resulted a unique karst physiognomy in the area.

At the peak area of the mountain, there remains a sub-virgin forest and large areas of Chinese dove trees, which are rarely seen. Thick cirrus plants, hundred-year-old tree grow everywhere.

From 2002 to 2005, the Tianmenshan tourist company invested a total of 550 million yuan to exploit the resources in the park. It now has several scenic spots like the Tianmen cave, the scholar house, the heaven ladder and the temple. The tram rail leading to the mountain peak is the longest in Asia.

(Chinanews.cn September 8, 2005)