Things to do
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Bailong Elevator
Glass cars run up the outside of a sandstone cliff in Wulingyuan, lifting passengers 326 metres to the Yuanjiajie plateau in under two minutes. Built into the rock face and opened in the early 2000s, it replaces a climb that takes a couple of hours on foot. Queues at midday often last far longer than the ride itself.
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Baofeng Lake
Dams built in the 1970s for a small power scheme flooded a valley in Wulingyuan, leaving a narrow green lake between sandstone walls. Boats make a slow circuit of it, the usual way to see the water, and the ride fills roughly an hour. The setting served as a location for a television version of Journey to the West.
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Tianmen Mountain
A cableway climbs from the edge of Zhangjiajie city to a summit at 1,518 metres, a ride of several kilometres over rooftops and then forest. At the top are cliff walkways with glass floors and a temple in Tang style. Below sits Tianmen Cave, a natural arch reached by a long stone stairway or by escalator.
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Tianzi Mountain
Northern Wulingyuan rises to a summit of 1,262 metres, named for a Tujia rebel leader who styled himself son of heaven. A cable car saves the climb from the village below, and ridge paths connect a sequence of overlooks across the pillar field. Clear mornings after overnight rain bring the cloud seas that draw photographers here.
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Yuanjiajie
The plateau above the Bailong Elevator holds the viewpoints that made Wulingyuan famous abroad, including the pillar renamed Avatar Hallelujah Mountain in 2010. A natural stone arch, the First Bridge Under Heaven, links two summits nearby. Paths are short and paved, the platforms narrow, and mist can hide the view for hours at a time.
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Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge
Spanning the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon at roughly 300 metres above the floor, this glass deck opened in 2016 and runs about 430 metres between the cliffs. Authorities closed it thirteen days after opening because visitor numbers far exceeded the design capacity, and entry has been timed and capped since. Tickets carry a time slot, and shoe covers are handed out at the gate.
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Zhangjiajie National Forest Park
Quartz sandstone pillars, several thousand of them, stand in forest across the core of Wulingyuan, which UNESCO listed in 1992. China designated it a national forest park in 1982, the first in the country. Shuttle buses link the scenic areas and a ticket runs for several days, which is the sensible way to treat a site this size.
