If you imagine that China is only a conglomeration of busy cities, you absolutely must take a trip to the Far East to realize that it is not like this.
China hosts incredible national parks, ideal destinations for trekking that offer breathtaking and unique landscapes.
The most famous green lung is the wonderful Zhangjiajie National Park, made famous by the Hollywood film Avatar and stormed by tourists: here, giant rock towers stand out in the sky. It seems to be on another planet!
Moving independently in the Zhangjiajie National Park is not so simple, but nothing is easy in China! Keep in mind that nobody speaks English, that most of the signs and routes indicated on the maps are reported exclusively in Chinese and that, if you decide to visit the park during high season, you will have to try to earn a place in the crowd people.
Here you are some tips that could be useful for visiting the park.
Where to sleep
The national park is a tourist destination and is full of hotels and accommodations for all tastes and prices. You can choose between 3 different sleeping options
1) Zhangjiajiè City
The town of Zhangjiajiè is a good solution if you want to save some money and if you are looking for fun: here, you can find several cheap hostels and bars open all night. The city i salso close to the airport and so the taxi ride is less expensive. The disadvantage is the distance from the national park, about 32 km. This means that, if you plan to visit the park for at least two days, you will need to take the bus every morning, which will take 1 hour to get to the park’s main entrance.
2) Sleep inside the park
In the middle of the luxuriant forest of the national park there are many lodges, some of luxury, otherwise definitely not. If, on the one hand, this type of accommodation gives glimpses of the breathtaking park, on the other hand makes the visit particularly inconvenient and expensive: you will be forced to use a taxi to reach the trails that all leave from the main entrances; without considering that you will necessarily have to eat in the hotel restaurant: in fact, there are no local places to eat or shops to stock up on provisions for the trek.
3) Wulingyan (our choice 
)
Wulingyan is the village with access to the nearest park. Here, the prices of hotels during the high season rise dramatically compared to those of Zhangjiajiè City; even the taxi ride from the airport is higher. It is also true that this solution is the most convenient to reach the park without being forced to resort to local transport. It is also possible to save money on food, finding many local street food at a good price.
We would like to suggest you this solution of accommodation over the others.
How much to pay
The entrance ticket to the park costs 248 yuan in the high season, equal to about 30 euros, and has a validity of three days. Keep in mind that if you do not have a Chinese credit card, the ticket offices will only accept cash. Then withdraw enough money from one of the ATMs in the city before reaching the park entrance.
Bus tickets that allow you to move from one stage to another are included in the park ticket. A separate payment is required for the cableways and the famous lift that takes you to the mountains in less than a minute as well as access to the Tianmen Mountain for which the ticket is an additional 258 yuan (another 30 euros).
So, access to the Zhangjiajié National Park is not cheap: if you want to visit the park and the famous Tianmen Mountain, without resorting to the gondola lifts, you must pay at least 60 euros per person.
3 days itinerary in the Zhangjiajié National Park and sorroundings
For a unique and real experience to discover the wonders of the Zhangjiajié National Park, take our 3 days itinerary to discover the Zhangjiajié National Park and its surroundings
- Day 1: trekking to the Tianzi Mountain
Enter from the Wulingyan access: you can not go wrong, there is a gigantic spire where you will find the ticket office.
Wulingyan main entrance
Once you have paid the entrance ticket and passed the turnstiles, get on one of the numerous buses that continuously leave from the entrance and follow the winding asphalt roads. You have two ways to get to the Tianzi Mountain: take the cableway , get off at the marked bus stop and pay an additional fee, or drive into the beautiful trek through the mountains. The second option is that which allows you to grasp the true beauty that gives this park and to move away from the deafening noise of the tourist crowd, finding itself in an atmosphere of total peace.
If you choose for the second solution, after about 20 minutes of bus ride get off at the Intersection of Ten Mile Natural Gallery stop. Continue for approximately 1 mile on foot to the Three Sisters Peak viewpoint. Alternatively, you can take this short ride with a train: the cost is additional and is not included in the (already expensive) ticket.
The sighseeing mini-train and the foot path
Continue the path turning right towards Moon Pass: a myriad of steps await you, which seem to never end. The path is interspersed with truly unique scenic spots, which are hardly matched once you get to the top of the mountain: here, in fact, at 1260 m height you will find an unlikely Mac Donald waiting for you!
From the Mac Donand park get on one of the buses and after about 15 minutes get off at the stop for the Yanghjiajie cableway. Continue on foot towards the uphill path marked with the Natural Great Wall direction. After about 10 minutes will be a bifurcation: turning left, you will arrive at the “One step to the heaven” stage; turning right will take you to Wulong Village and Tianbo Maison. We had to opt for the second option as we were told that the first route had collapsed sections and was still undergoing maintenance. T
o get to the stage, you need a little sense of adventure: the iron stairs allow you to climb the vertical walls and get to the top of the summit.
The way to go to Tianbo Mansion
The view from here is amazing
Tianbo Mansion view point
- 2nd day: Tianmen Mountain and Allelujia Mountains
Get up early in the morning to discover another wonder of Zhangjiajié National Park: Tianmen Muontain, known as the Paradise Gate.
The place is close to Zhangjiajiè city and takes about an hour from Wulingyuan. To save money on the taxi ride, it’s better to share the ride with other tourists: we did so and we organized with three other guys met the day before during the trek to Tianzi Mountain. Get off at Tianmen cable car bus stop where the ticket office for access to the mountain is located (an additional 258 yuan, or 30 euros).
There are three ways to reach this panoramic point which is about 7 km from the ticket office
Line a): take the cableway and go down by bus – Line b): take the bus and go down by the cableway – Line c): go and turn back by bus.
During the high season (as in August) it’s necessary to book the cableway in advance (at least, 4 months), without considering that if you wanna travel indipendent without a tourist agency the reservation by yourself is impossible. We therefore had to opt for the bus ride that in any case gave us beautiful views.
The way to go to Tianmen Mountain
In about 20 minutes, along 99 tortuous bends, you arrive at the enchanting Tianmen Mountain: an impressive natural arch carved into the living rock of about 130 meters, a destination for pilgrimages and home to a beautiful temple.
Tianmen Mountain
To get to touch the Door of Paradise you have to face a very long and steep staircase, which seems to never end. On the top continue along an endless series of indoor escalators (if we were not wrong to count, there should be 7!), which lead to the path of about 2/3 hours wrapped in the clouds and with balconies overlooking the vertical walls of the mountains.
The path around the Tianmen Mountain
It’s worth taking another climb up the stairs to reach the striking Tianmenshan Temple: the smoke of incense, the soft music, the peace that reigns supreme, the slow steps of the monks … it seems to be in another place well away from the crowds of people noisy.
Tianmenshan Temple
Around 2 pm go down to the bus station. It’s time to explore another enchanting place in the national park: the Hallelujah Mountains.
Stop a taxi and in about 45 minutes you will arrive at the park’s main entrance. It’s time to try the cableway! The price is excluded from the general one and costs 118 yuan (about 15 euros). If you are lucky, you will have the cableway all for you and you will be able to explode with joy in front of the beauties of the landscape without feeling like you are idiots. We had this luck, arriving at the entrance to the park about two hours after the closure: the tourists were very few and we had the park completely for us!
The cableway to go the Hallelujiah Muontains
Take the ring route suggested by the map. Words are not needed here: let yourself be guided by the magic that nature is able to create.
Hallelujah Mountains
- 3rd day: trip to Fenghuang
About 5 hours away from the national park is the picturesque town of Fenghuang, which with its winding canals and alleyways has earned the nickname of Eastern Venice. It is really worth stopping by: the ancient city, enclosed within the walls, is reflected on the river and offers sunsets with unique colors. In the evening, Fenghuang changes dramatically: a thousand lights come on, as if it were decorated in a Christmas tree, and high-volume karaoke music comes from the many places with a western flavor.
Fenghuang ancient city
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