Zhangjiajie China

Zhangjiajie: The Sandstone Pillars of Hunan

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is the reason most people make it to this corner of Hunan province. The park protects over 3,000 quartzite sandstone columns, many of them more than 200 metres tall, covered in vegetation and often in cloud. The Avatar comparison is inescapable at this point - the film team visited in 2008 and one pillar was officially renamed “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain” - but the landscape was extraordinary before the film and will remain so after everyone has stopped mentioning it.

The main sites

Yuanjiajie Scenic Area has the densest concentration of tall columns and the most-photographed viewpoints. The First Bridge Under Heaven, a natural rock arch spanning two columns about 300 metres above the valley floor, is visible from a paved walkway. Crowds here are substantial; Chinese domestic tourism is enormous and Zhangjiajie is a major domestic destination. Go early (the park opens at 07:30) and plan to be at Yuanjiajie by 08:00.

Tianmen Mountain (Tianmen Shan) is technically a separate attraction from the national forest park. The cable car from Zhangjiajie city to the summit is 7.5km long, one of the longest in the world, and rises roughly 1,300 metres. The summit has the “Heavenly Gate” - a natural arch 131 metres tall and 57 metres wide that you can walk through via a staircase cut into the rock (999 steps). The glass-bottomed walkway clamped to the cliff face at 1,430 metres is genuinely unsettling, in a good way.

The Bailong Elevator (Hundred Dragons Elevator) lifts visitors 330 metres up the face of a quartzite column in about two minutes. It is the world’s tallest outdoor elevator and the queues in high season can exceed 90 minutes. Worth doing once, but if time is short, skip it.

Getting around

The national forest park has an extensive internal bus system included in the entrance ticket (CNY 238 for two days). Most visitors spend at least two full days. The terrain is steep, the distances are longer than maps suggest, and trails that look like 3km detours often take 90 minutes each way. Comfortable walking shoes with grip are essential; the stone steps are polished smooth in wet weather.

Where to eat

Xiangxi cuisine (Western Hunan) is the local food: spicy, heavy on smoked meats, and worth exploring. The Tujia folk village restaurants near Wulingyuan town serve smoked pork and pickled vegetables at lunch for CNY 30-50 per person. The town of Wulingyuan itself, which most visitors use as a base, has a main street of restaurants near the park entrance that serves decent food at reasonable prices. Avoid the overpriced restaurants inside the park itself.

Staying overnight

Wulingyuan has dozens of small hotels and guesthouses clustered around the north entrance to the park. Rates range from CNY 200 for a basic room to CNY 600-900 for a business hotel with views. The Piles Inn near the scenic area entrance has good reviews for cleanliness and the staff sometimes speak workable English. Zhangjiajie city is 45km away and has better infrastructure but longer daily commutes into the park.

When to go

October is the best month: cooler temperatures, the park’s flora turning yellow and red, and noticeably fewer visitors than summer. Spring (April-May) is second choice. July and August are hot, humid, and extremely crowded. The park in low cloud and light rain is actually atmospheric, but full fog days produce nothing worth photographing.