How To See The Best Of Zhangjiajie Forest Park In 2 Days

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If you’re planning a trip to China, one of the things that’s probably at the top of your bucket list is the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.

This is one of the most unique places in the world in my opinion, and it inspired the floating mountains in James Cameron’s Avatar movie.

I visited Zhangjiajie recently and it was amazing. It’s a big park and it’s pretty spread out, so I recommend at least 2 full days to do it justice.

This travel guide will explain how to see the best of Zhangjiajie Forest Park in 1 or 2 days, based on my own itinerary and experience!

Where To Stay

Before we get into the itinerary, the first decision you need to make is where to base yourself.

Here are the options:

• Zhangjiajie Town — This is the main town with the airport and train station. Even though it has the same name as the park, it’s located 30 kilometers south of it. I decided to stay here because I also wanted to visit Tianmen Mountain, and the cable car for that is located in the middle of town. I can recommend Hotel California as a great place to stay. The owner is super helpful.
• Wulingyuan Town — This is a small town right outside the east entrance of the forest park. It has plenty of hotels and restaurants, so you can stay here if you want to be right outside the park for easy access.
• Zhangjiajie National Forest Park — There’s one hotel directly inside the park and it’s called Zhangjiajie YOLO Resort. Staying here can be advantageous if you want to beat the crowds and watch the sunrise and sunset. Next time, I think I’ll do that.

 

How To Get To Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

The park is located 30 kilometers north of Zhangjiajie town, so you’ll need transportation to get there.

You can go to the park by bus, taxi, or tour, and the drive takes 40 minutes with a car, or about 1 hour with a bus.
 

• By Bus

The bus is cheap and easy. The station is located right in the middle of Zhangjiajie town, or there are even buses from the airport.

There are departures every 15 minutes, from 6:30 AM to 6:30 PM (winter) or 7 PM (summer).
 

• By Taxi

A taxi is another good option and it’s not very expensive compared to western prices. Taxis are widely available in town, but you might want to make a booking the night before.

If you’re staying in Wulingyuan town, you can book a transfer from the airport here. Otherwise, if you’re staying in Zhangjiajie town, you can book a taxi to the park through your hotel like I did.

You can also use a combination of bus and taxi. In other words, you can take a taxi to the park in the morning, and then go back with a bus in the evening.

That’s what I did, because I wanted to get an early start and didn’t want to risk missing the first bus of the morning.
 

• By Tour

Last, but not least, you can go to Zhangjiajie with a tour package.

Here’s a high-rated 2-day tour of the Zhangjiajie area from GetYourGuide that includes transport and an English-speaking guide.

We’ve used this company for lots of tours and activities around the world, and they’re great. Highly recommended!

 

About This 2-Day Itinerary

Here’s a summary of this itinerary:

• Day 1 — Yuanjiajie + Tianzi Mountain
• Day 2 — Golden Whip Stream + Huangshi + Old House Area

 

Areas Of The Park

There are 5 main areas of the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.

In this itinerary, we’ll visit all of these areas at least briefly:

• Yuanjiajie (袁家界) — Extremely popular area, but it has a lot of great sights, including the world’s tallest outdoor elevator and the ‘Hallelujah Mountain’ from Avatar.
• Tianzi Mountain (Tianzishan / 天子山) — Another very popular area of the park with some great sights, including a scenic cable car that you can ride up and down the mountain.
• Yellow Stone Village (Huangshi / 黄是) — A less crowded area with some more nice viewpoints. Usually doesn’t get busy until later in the morning and into the afternoon.
• Yangjiajie (杨家界) — Rugged area with hiking. It’s spectacular, but takes more time to visit because it’s not as accessible as the other parts of the park.
• Old House Area (Laowuchang / 老屋场) — Very underrated and undeveloped. This place is a hidden gem off the beaten path, and it has some of my favorite views in the whole park.

There are also 5 different entrances to the park, but for this itinerary, we’ll only use the east gate and south gate.

 

Day 1: Yuanjiajie + Tianzi Mountain

• Yuanjiajie (袁家界)

For your first day in the park, I recommend starting at the Yuanjiajie area. This is the most popular area of the park for Chinese tour groups, so it’s best to do it early in the morning before the biggest crowds arrive.

Enter the park from the east gate and then take a 30 minute bus ride to the Bailong Elevator. Lines at this elevator can take up to 2 hours during the middle of the day, so that’s why it’s important to start early.

Bailong is the world’s tallest outdoor elevator and it has a glass wall, so you can enjoy the scenery while it takes you to the top of the mountains. It’s spectacular, even though the ride up only takes 2 minutes.

At the top, you hop on another short bus ride that brings you to a paved loop trail.

       
 
The trail at Yuanjiajie takes 1 or 2 hours to walk, and it’s well marked with English signs, so you won’t get lost.

It has a bunch of nice viewpoints, including the Enchanting Terrace, Hallelujah Mountain, and First Bridge Under Heaven.

The most famous photo spot is the ‘Hallelujah Mountain,’ which was part of the inspiration for the floating mountains of Pandora in James Cameron’s movie Avatar.

It’s one of the first viewpoints on the main trail at Yuanjiajie, so if you want to get there quickly you can walk past the first few photo spots and then backtrack afterwards.

Honestly though, despite the hype around Avatar, I think all of the other viewpoints here are just as amazing.

 

• Tianzi Mountain (Tianzishan / 天子山)

Next, take the bus from Yuanjiajie to Tianzi Mountain.

This ride is a long one and takes about 1.5 hours because you’re going all the way to the other side of the National Forest Park.

When you get to Tianzi, there are a bunch of viewpoints within walking distance, plus a 6-story pavilion with panoramic views of the area.

The most famous viewpoint is called ‘Imperial Writing Brush Peaks’ because it looks kind of like a set of calligraphy pens. You’ll see this one in lots of photos from the park.

When you’re done sightseeing at Tianzi, you can hike down from the mountain or take the cable car. Both are good options.

I took the cable car because I heard the views are amazing. It didn’t disappoint. It’s really breathtaking.

The cable car takes you directly through the middle of the limestone mountains, and you feel like you’re flying on a drone or something. Epic!

At the bottom of the valley, you can take a bus back to the East Gate and then catch a bus or taxi back to Zhangjiajie town.

 

Day 2: Golden Whip Stream + Huangshi + Laowuchang

For the second day, enter the park from the South Gate.

This entrance is much less busy and more relaxed than the East Gate, so it’s a nice change of pace.
 

• Golden Whip Stream (Jinbian Xi / 金鞭溪)

This is a stream at the foot of the mountains, and you can reach it in just 5 minutes walking from the park entrance. If you have kids it would be a fun place for them to play in the water.

There’s a walking path that follows this stream into the mountains for about 7 kilometers, but the views aren’t the greatest. There are better uses of time, so I’d recommend walking for just a couple kilometers and then turning back.

After all, the main reason we’re here is to see the mountaintops, not the inside of a forest!

       

 

• Yellow Stone Village (Huangshi Zhai / 黄石寨)

The next stop is Huangshi village. Actually, it’s a mountain, but for some reason they call it a village.

You can get there by hiking up from the Golden Whip area, or taking a cable car. Hiking is free, but I’d recommend using the cable car because it’s easier and saves time.

I didn’t see much on the hike except monkeys, and the path is pretty strenuous if you’re going uphill.

The top of Huangshi mountain is big and it has a walkway that basically circles the whole mountain, with lots of great viewpoints along the edge of the cliff.

I recommend walking it in a clockwise direction using Baidu Maps. That means when you arrive at the top of the mountain, you’ll take the path on the left.

Huangshi is quieter and less crowded than the places you saw on the first day, and some of the viewpoints are truly amazing. It’s underrated and I really enjoyed it.

       

When you’re done at Huangshi, you’ll need to retrace your steps by either hiking down the mountain or taking the cable car back down. Again, I’d recommend taking the cable car to save time.

Back at the bottom road, you can take a series of buses and then a different cable car to get up to the Yangjiajie area. Even though the name is really similar to Yuanjiajie, which you saw on the first day, this area is totally separate and a lot less busy.

It’s a nice section of the park, but it takes plenty of time to visit because it’s mostly hiking.

At this point, you can spend the rest of the day exploring Yangjiajie, or you can go to Laowuchang (the ‘Old House Area’).

I’d recommend Laowuchang because it has the best scenery, even though it’s farther away. I’ll explain how to get there next.

However, before you go, it’s worth seeing at least one easy viewpoint at Yangjiajie: the ‘Natural Great Wall.’

This viewpoint is just a 10 minute walk from the top of the cable car station, and you get to see a karst rock wall that looks kind of like a natural version of China’s most iconic landmark.

Here’s a picture of it below. It’s a nice little detour.

 

• Old House Area (Laowu Chang / 老屋场)

The last place on this Zhangjiajie itinerary is called the ‘Old House Area’ (Laowu Chang / 老屋场), also known as the ‘Fields in the Sky’ (Kongzhong Tianyuan / 空中田园).

It’s a hidden gem, and getting there can be a bit confusing, but the views are absolutely worth it. In fact, this place had some of my favorite views in the whole park.

I saw some pictures of it online and knew I had to go there, but I wasn’t able to find any clear directions on the internet in either English or Chinese.

Ultimately, I was able to find it by showing the Chinese name to the bus attendants, who recognized it and pointed me in the right direction.

To get to Laowuchang, you take the bus that travels between the Yuanjiajie and Tianzi Mountain areas, but hop off when you reach a junction in the main road, near the North Gate of the park.

The junction is approximately halfway between Yuanjiajie and Tianzi. There, you switch to a little shuttle cart that looks kind of like a 12-seater electric golf cart.

The shuttle goes directly to the ‘Old House’ area, and it’s a short and scenic 15 minute ride with views of rice paddies on the cliffs.

When you arrive at the Old House area, there are two main viewpoints that can be reached with 10 minutes of hiking. Both of them are epic.

The first viewpoint is called ‘Military Parade Platform’ (Yuebing Tai / 阅兵台) and it has lots of stone towers. You can even see Bailong Elevator across the valley. I think this has to be one of the best spots in the park.

The second viewpoint is 5 minutes away, and it’s called ‘Divine Soldiers Gathering’ (Shenbing Juhui / 神兵聚会). It has a different angle of the scenery, with even more rock towers.

Both of these spots are amazing, and I only saw a handful of tourists at each of them. This area of the park is truly a hidden gem!

To go back, just take the shuttle cart to the same junction and then hop on a bus to either Yuanjiajie or Tianzi Mountain. You can exit the park from either of those areas when you’re done sightseeing.

 

If You Only Have 1 Day At Zhangjiajie Forest Park

If possible, I’d recommend spending at least 2 days at the park because it’s a big area and there’s a lot of amazing scenery.

However, if you only have one day because of weather or other reasons, you can still see a bunch of great things in multiple sections of the park.

Here’s how I would set up a 1 day itinerary:

• Start early at the east gate in Wulingyuan and take the Bailong Elevator to Yuanjiajie. See the Enchanting Terrace, Hallelujah Mountain, First Bridge, and other viewpoints.
• Take the bus and shuttle to Laowuchang and see the two spectacular viewpoints there: Shenbing Gathering and Parade Platform.
• Take the bus to Tianzi Mountain and see the main viewpoints like the Imperial Writing Brush Peaks. Finish the day by going down the Tianzi cable car and exiting at the east gate back in Wulingyuan.

If you can’t start very early in the day, I would skip Laowuchang and shorten the itinerary to just Yuanjiajie and Tianzi. You probably won’t have time for Laowuchang unless you enter the park as soon as it opens in the morning.

Keep in mind, you can do this itinerary in either direction. In other words, you can start at Tianzi and end at Yuanjiajie if you want.

However, since Yuanjiajie has the worst crowds, I think it’s wise to start there and catch the elevator into the park before the lines get too long.

 

Other Tips For Zhangjiajie Forest Park

• Tickets: The entrance tickets for the park are sold as a 4-day pass that includes free buses within the park, but it doesn’t include elevator or cable car rides. However, Klook sells a combo ticket that also includes one elevator ride and three cableways. That’s the perfect ticket if you want to do my 2-day Zhangjiajie itinerary that I’ve described here. I highly recommend booking it in advance so you don’t have to waste time in the ticket queues at the park like I did.
• Passport: Remember to bring your passport to the park, because they won’t let you in without it. After you show it at the entrance and verify it the first time, there are facial recognition scanners throughout the park for boarding buses, cable cars, and elevators, so you won’t need to keep whipping out your passport for the rest of the day.
• Opening Hours: The park is open daily from 7 AM to 6 PM from March to November, and 8 AM to 5 PM from December to February.
• Getting Around: Be prepared to do lots of walking. You can take buses between the main areas of the park, but much of the exploring is done on foot. It’s more of a workout than I expected.
• Food: There are restaurants, food stalls, and ice cream vendors scattered everywhere throughout the park, so you’ll never have to worry about finding something to eat. I entered the park early in the morning, but I was still able to buy some hot Jiaozi dumplings and other snacks for breakfast. That’s one of the things I loved about Zhangjiajie. There’s even a McDonald’s and KFC in the park if you’re craving western food.

• Payments: Like other places in China, the park uses cashless payments for everything. Even the food stalls use Alipay or WeChat.
• Cell Service: Phone data works throughout most of the park. I rarely lost reception.
• Bathrooms: There are plenty of toilets throughout the park. The ones I used seemed clean enough to me, but bring your own tissues.
• Monkeys: The macaques in the park are wild, so give them plenty of space. They might try to steal your food, or attack you if you get too close to one of their babies.
• Crowds: This is a popular park in China, so you need to have some tolerance for crowds. Otherwise, you can mostly escape it at the less touristy areas like Old House and Yangjiajie.

• Budget: The cable cars and elevator rides add to the cost. If you’re on a tight budget and want to save money, you can hike instead. I still wouldn’t recommend it though, because you’ll lose time and you’ll miss out on some great views.
• When To Visit: Any month is good, but spring (March to May) or fall (September to November) would be perfect if you want mild weather. Just be sure to avoid the first weeks of May and October because Chinese tourists will be very busy traveling for Labor Day and Golden Week. The pictures on this page were taken in June.
• Photography: If you want to catch the famous foggy views of the mountains, that’s usually best seen after a rain. It makes the mountains look mysterious and beautiful. Sadly when I went, it never rained and there was never any trace of fog.

 

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