CHINA TODAY: WHERE ANCIENT MEETS FUTURISTIC

On the fourth day of our China adventure, we boarded a bullet train in Jiuzhaigou to Chengdu and then a second one to Huaihuan in Hunan province. An hour-and-a-half bus ride took us to Feng Huang Gu Cheng or "Phoenix Ancient Village."

- VICKY VELOSO-BARRERA

Built along the Tuojiang river, this beautiful, sprawling heritage village of original wooden houses is like a dream in the daytime. This is because many local Chinese visitors proudly wear the traditional ethnic Miao costume with stunning silver headdresses. They pose at the best vantage points, gliding past picturesque bridges, clear river and the Wanming pagoda.

You are stepping into ancient history even while the original structures now house trendy shops offering coffee, traditional blue tie-dyed clothing, silver of the finest craftsmanship, herbal medicines and lovely Chinese contemporary fashion.

We retired to the Union International Hotel for the night. Early next morning, we took a three-hour bus ride to Zhangjiajie, another place I was highly anticipating because of its many famous sites. There is Tianmen Mountain or Heaven's Gate, a towering mountain with a large hole through which the sun shines at the right time of day. There's the Grand Canyon C Line, the world's longest glass suspension bridge where you must conquer your fears. Then there are famous Hallelujah mountains where the backdrop of the movie Avatar was filmed.

All these sites surpassed expectations and I marveled at how China made this topography accessible to people of any age or physical capability. At Tianmen Mountain, they had cable cars and escalators 12 rides long. You could, if you wished, take the 999 steps up or down Heaven's Gate itself, looking up from the base to gaze at the heavens through the mountain's natural hole.