Zhangjiajie is a slightly ambiguous term. There's Zhangjiajie, the city. There's Zhangjiajie, the national park. Adding to the confusion, Zhangjiajie, the city, is home to Tainan Mountain...a strikingly similar mountain to those found in Zhangjiajie, the national park. If you Google "Zhangjiajie" you will get a mix of both photos from Zhangjiajie National Park and Tianan Mountain. And with everyone stealing photos on Instagram many people accidentally reverse the location tagging on the two. Both are worth visiting but knowing the difference will prevent surprises upon arrival - and fortunately they are both near one another so there's no reason to not visit both.
ZHANGJIAJIE NATIONAL PARK
Zhangjiajie is distinguished by the limestone spires that rise dramatically from the ground below. These spires were the inspiration for landscape of Pandora in the movie Avatar. You can immediately see the connection in the photos. There are three major "sections" to the park - a lower valley, Yuanjiajie Mountain Zone (west plateau), and Tianzi Mountain Zone (east plateau).
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You can either hike, take a cable car, or elevator to the top of a mountain plateau. From here you can walk around and see the spires. Buses also connect different parts of the park - the distance between the Yuanjiajie and Tianzi mountain zones is too far to hike so you'll need to take a bus. While the cable car and elevator transportation has a separate fee, the bus rides are included in the park's entry ticket. That's the Bailong Elevator on the bottom left. Nobody tries to conquer nature like the Chinese.
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The national park has all the Chinese tourist site trappings - photo opportunities with various Avatar creatures, food on sticks, and local kitsch objects. Stall owners were yelling into megaphones to attract passersby.
The Western side of the park was fabulous and I had high expectations for the Eastern side. It was a thirty minute bus ride to the other side of the park but the haze and tour groups were a little thicker in this section. The scenery was still good but there weren’t as many standout features as the Eastern side of the park. I considered taking a cable car back down but instead opted for a two hour hike down through some of the sandstone spires. Along the trail you could get up close to the spires and strain your neck looking straight up.
The Western side of the park was fabulous and I had high expectations for the Eastern side. It was a thirty minute bus ride to the other side of the park but the haze and tour groups were a little thicker in this section. The scenery was still good but there weren’t as many standout features as the Eastern side of the park. I considered taking a cable car back down but instead opted for a two hour hike down through some of the sandstone spires. Along the trail you could get up close to the spires and strain your neck looking straight up.
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Visiting Zhangjiajie is possible as a day trip but hostels/hotels are in the park as well. If it's nice weather it may be worth spending the night to explore some of the further reaches in the park. I found the Bucketlisly Blog Entry useful but the park is easily doable as a long day trip from Zhangjiajie. If you decide to make this a multi-day trip you can stay at a hostel in Zhangjiajie, leave your big bags and just take a day pack.
TIANAN MOUNTAIN
Tianan Mountain felt more like an amusement park then a national park and you seemed to move from ride to ride instead of natural attraction. The first “ride” was a a five mile, thirty minute cable ride (the longest in the world) from Zhangjiajie city proper to the top of the mountain. The cable passed over homes and the bus and train stations, before starting the steep climb to the mountain top.
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At the top it was a five minute walk to the next “ride” - a glass floor walkway that overhands the side of the mountain. The mountain rises straight up from the ground so its an unobstructed view to the ground a couple thousand feet below. I thought the glass portion of the walkway was the only part that hugged the mountain but it turned out the walkway continued for about another mile. At any point you could look over the side and see nothing to stop your fall all the way to the bottom.
A recurring thought the passed few days was that you really need to put a lot of trust in Chinese engineers. The country seems to have completed several bold engineering projects. I hoped the safety inspections of the walkway were recent and not held up in some sort of communist bureaucracy. It wasn’t just the height and low railings that caused concern but also that the railings had large enough gaps for a child to slip through.
A recurring thought the passed few days was that you really need to put a lot of trust in Chinese engineers. The country seems to have completed several bold engineering projects. I hoped the safety inspections of the walkway were recent and not held up in some sort of communist bureaucracy. It wasn’t just the height and low railings that caused concern but also that the railings had large enough gaps for a child to slip through.
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There was also a temple complex at the top with rooms full of Chinese folk religion statues.
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On the way down the cable car stops midway where you catch a bus - the fourth ride - to a natural bridge / hole in Tianmen Mountain. There’s about 1,000 steps leading up to the natural bridge. The steps start off fairly slow incline but then become much higher and the last 250 steps is a intense push to the top. Chinese of all ages were making the climb and stopping to catch their breath when needed. My calves were burning when I reached the top. I took a few photos then started the walk back down, took the bus to the cable car stop, then took the cable car the rest of the way down. Range Rover Commercial.
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I'm not sure that there's much more the Zhangjiajie City than as a place to rest your head after long days at Zhangjiajie National Park and Tianan Mountain. There was not a ton of dining options, stuff to do, etc. once you returned to the city at night. The hostel I stayed in was in a cool, castle like area - the view on the bottom left is looking out the hostels entrance.
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I did have this guy, who was super exited, cook me a meal. I have no idea what's in that plate. I remember it being not very good. But man the guy was so thrilled to make the dish that I wound up eating it all so I didn't disapoint him.
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For additional Zhangjiajie photos see FLICKR ALBUM.