#1 Zhangjiajie National Park tips:
The whole place is well mapped out – it’s a bit like a theme park, so it’s just a case of having a look at the map and planning for which routes and key spots you want to see. The four things that I would super recommend are:
- Hiking to the top of some of the mini mountains around Yangjiajie – its quite hard hiking with a lot of steps, including a vertical iron ladder with cage, but the views from the top are truly magnificent. Plus, because the climb is hard, there are very few others there.
- Taking the cable car down from Tianzi Shan at around 6pm when the tour groups have left, the pleasant piano music is on, and it feels like drifting through islands in the clouds . . . magical. Be sure to watch the video above expanded to get an idea.
- Checking out the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain for some of the best views. It will likely be busy, but wander down some of the harder tracks for only 5mins or so to lose fellow tourists.
- The walk along the monorail – get the monorail up the valley, walk up the nearby hill and then walk back.
The park is huge and, although they have buses linking up the key spots throughout the day, you don’t want to miss that last bus as that’s a lot of walking back to the hotel (there are no taxis in the park)
Avoiding the crowds tips – what you’re looking for is the magical, calm, natural feeling of the park. What you ain’t looking for is trying to enjoy it with half of China all competing in the Megaphone version of the Olympics – I wanted to stab and maim all of them by the end. To avoid, a few tips:
- Aim for lunch at a time before or after 12-2, when the tour groups will descend like clockwork locusts on all food spots. A perfect time as well to enjoy the park when it is a bit quieter
- Hike some of the slightly tougher hikes that tour groups will avoid
- Stay later in the day – we had the Tianzi Shan cable car largely to ourselves at 6pm, which was actually the highlight of the trip
- You’ll buy a two day ticket that must be used on 2 consecutive days
The walk back along the monorail was flat, easy and full of beautiful views
#2 Tianmen Mountain tips:
The main attraction is the hole in the mountain, which although you can see it from afar – you can even see it from the airport – really is quite cool up close.
There are some other fun things to check out, in particular the glass-walkway around the mountain; wandering around the top of the mountain looking across at the views from the various hidden viewpoints; and the ride to get there which includes the world’s longest cable car and the 99 bends road.
You only really need half a day. We got to the top at 10am and were all ready to go at 1pm.
99 bends road on the way up to Tianmen Mountain
#3 The Glass Bottomed Bridge
Around a 45min drive from Wulingyuan and ok. If pressed for time, I’d skip simply because the park is far more spectacular. If still keen, make sure you buy a ticket beforehand as, whilst they technically sell them at the entrance, the tour guides buy them up super quick. We fell into this trap and had to return the next day.
Where to stay
You want to stay in Wulingyaun rather than the town of Zhangjiajie, which is about an hour drive from the park and a small Chinese city, whereas Wulingyuan is at the entrance and has a bit more charm to it. We stayed at the Pullman which was nice, although a tad expensive. We also saw a series of backpackers nearby which I’m sure would be ok for those on a budget and, considering you’ll be out all day, the accommodation isn’t critical.
Getting there
You want to fly into Zhangjiajie Hehua airport. You have the option to fly to Changsha – the capital of Hunan province and main city in the area – and drive, but it’s still a 5 hour drive to Zhangjiajie and surprisingly expensive to arrange. We didn’t find any flights on SkyScanner, but were able to organise through the hotel . . . with the safety-assured “OK Air”.
