Tianmen Cave ,means the Heaven's Gate in Chinese, is on the precipices and is over 1260 meters elevation, the height of the cave is 131.5 meters and the width is about 50 meters, the unusual grotto is grand and magnificent. The cave is like the door to heaven; it looks like the junction of common world and the place where god lives.
Under the Tianmen Cave it is the 999 Steps Stairs. Here, visitors may need to walk up or down the 999 steps to reach or go away the cave, it will be tried but lucky, because '9' is the biggest number in Chinese culture and 999 means an eternal/forever life. The highlight of Tianmen Cave is the mystic views of fog and cloud. Watching the changing of clouds and fogs, the feeling is like traveling in a place with profound questions asked by the god.
The photo taken on 10 June,2023 to show the FAM tour group, organized by Zhangjiajie Travel Service Co.,Ltd , had a visit at Tianmen Mountain,
History of Tianmen Cave
Tianmen Mountain was called Songliang Mountain during the Eastern Han Dynasty. In the sixth year of Yong'an in the Eastern Wu Dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period (264 AD), Songliang Mountain opened in the middle of the cliff wall, with clear caves in the north and south. It looked like a huge door. Emperor Jing of Wu Kingdom believed it to be an auspicious sign and renamed it Tianmen Mountain. Because of this purpose, a special Tianmen County was established at that time.
Events at Tianmen Cave
In 1999, pilots from Russia, the United States, Hungary, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, and Lithuania flew through caves, setting a Guinness World Record.
On April 30, 2023, Chinese winged flying athlete Zhang Shupeng successfully completed the challenge of "flying through Tianmen Cave with wings" in Tianmen Mountain, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, becoming the first Chinese person to fly through Tianmen Cave with wings.
Two fantastic scenes of the Tianmen Cave
The most famous two wonders of Tianmen Cave are the turning water and the moving of Heaven's Gate. The turning water actually means the spraying of waters in sunny day of summer, the water comes from the right side of the cliff but no water resources can be found on the cliff. People said that the spraying water shows has something related to historical events or natural disasters.
Every local people believe that the Tianmen Cave is moving from the north to the north-west because they couldn't see the gate of the mountain in the city anymore but it can be seen before.