Zhangjiajie
张家界 · Zhāngjiājiè
Three thousand quartz-sandstone pillars rising out of the cloud — the mountains Avatar borrowed and never gave back.
Photo: chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0 · resized
The Wulingyuan scenic area covers 690 km² of a landform that barely exists anywhere else: quartz-sandstone pillar karst. A thick bed of quartzite sandstone was uplifted and then attacked along vertical joints by water and ice, leaving more than 3,000 free-standing columns, some over 300 metres tall and only a few dozen metres across, packed close together and covered in pines that grow directly out of the rock.
When cloud sits between them — which is often, because this is a wet subtropical climate — the pillars appear to float, and that image is why James Cameron's location team came here in 2008. The Southern Sky Column was officially renamed 'Avatar Hallelujah Mountain' in 2010, which is either good marketing or a mild embarrassment depending on your view.
It is a large, complex park with four main sections, three cable cars, a lift built into a cliff, and a bus network. That means it needs three days to do properly: one for Yuanjiajie and the Avatar pillars, one for Tianzi Mountain and the Ten-Mile Gallery, and one for the separate Tianmen Mountain across the valley, with its 99-bend road, the world's longest cableway and a glass skywalk. Grand Canyon glass bridge, if you have a fourth day, is 40 minutes away.
Why go
- A landscape that genuinely does not look like it should be possible
- The Bailong lift — 326 m of glass elevator bolted to a vertical cliff
- Tianmen Mountain's cable car, road and cliff walkways, an entirely separate spectacle
- Fenghuang ancient town is four hours south and pairs into a great Hunan week
Highlights
Yuanjiajie & Avatar Hallelujah Mountain
The signature viewpoints, reached by the Bailong glass lift. Also the First Bridge Under Heaven, a natural stone arch spanning two pillars 350 m up.
Tianzi Mountain
The widest panorama in the park — a sea of pillars from a ridge at 1,262 m. Best in early morning when mist fills the gaps.
Golden Whip Stream
A flat 7.5 km valley walk along a clear stream at the base of the pillars, with macaques. The best walking in the park and it costs nothing extra.
Tianmen Mountain
Outside the main park: a 7.5 km cableway from Zhangjiajie city, the 99-bend Tongtian Road, 999 steps to the Heaven's Gate arch, and glass walkways pinned to the cliff face.
Grand Canyon Glass Bridge
430 m long, 300 m above the canyon floor, and entirely transparent. Timed tickets; the canyon walk below it is good too.
Yellow Dragon Cave
A large karst cave system with an underground river, in the same ticket area. A decent rainy-day option.
Photographs
Getting there & practicalities
Getting there
Zhangjiajie West station is on the high-speed line: 3h from Changsha, 5h from Guangzhou, 4h from Chongqing. Zhangjiajie Hehua airport has domestic flights. Wulingyuan town, at the park's main gate, is 40 km from the city.
Tickets
Wulingyuan park ¥228 valid four days, including the internal buses. Bailong lift ¥76 one way; Tianzi cable car ¥76. Tianmen Mountain is separate at ¥275 including the cableway. Glass bridge ¥138.
Opening hours
Park 07:00–18:00; cable cars and the lift from 07:30 with long queues by 09:30.
Best time of day
April–May and September–November. Mist is best in the early morning and after rain — which here is frequently.
What everyone gets wrong
- Stay in Wulingyuan town, not Zhangjiajie city. It is at the park gate and saves you 90 minutes a day.
- The four-day ticket is compulsory in effect — you cannot see the park in one day and re-entry needs a fingerprint scan taken on first entry.
- Queues for the Bailong lift can hit two hours in season. Go up by cable car at Tianzi and come down by lift, against the flow.
- Golden Whip Stream is the best-value part of the park, flat, shaded and free within the ticket. Do not skip it for more viewpoints.
- Tianmen Mountain is a separate full day and a separate ticket. Do not try to combine it with the main park.
What to eat
- Hunan food: dry-fried chillies with everything, and Tujia minority sour-and-spicy dishes
- Tujia bacon (larou) smoked over a wood fire, and glutinous rice cakes (ciba)
→Combine it with
Nearby and next
Fenghuang Ancient Town 凤凰古城
Stilt houses on wooden legs over the Tuo River, lit red at night, in a Miao and Tujia town the writer Shen Congwen made famous.
Chongqing 重庆
A city built vertically on cliffs between two rivers, where the metro drives through an apartment block and the ground floor might be the twenty-second.
Guizhou: Miao & Dong Country 贵州苗侗村寨
Hillside villages of a thousand stilt houses, silver headdresses weighing ten kilos, and drum towers built without a single nail.