Zhangjiajie is one of the most famous places for sightseeing because of the movie “Avatar”. It is also a renowned attraction for South Korean. You rarely see Korean Language in China but here you found it. (unable to find the reason why)
To enjoy the place to the fullest, you should arrange (total 5 days 4 night)
- One day for Tianmen Mountain
- Two days for Zhangjiajie National Park
- One day for Fenghuang Ancient Town
4D3N if you walk fast enough.
Whether you have a short time or not in Hunan, check out the reference guide below to enjoy the highlights.
From March to April, Zhangjiajie has a rainy season. In Jan to Feb, it may still be snowing.
There is only one high-speed train schedule available from HK to ZhangJiaJie West station. If you can’t grab that ticket, you can get the one from Shen Zhen North station. There are four train schedules available.
Day 1
To those who rented vehicle, the instructions given is no longer updated. The train station car park has changed signs.
I opted out the 72 Wonder Tower as the building is only built for performance. I do not like performance. If you have no arrangement for 1st day, you can go for visiting. The entrance ticket is cheaper in the afternoon.
Mid of March is the period where a sea of rapeseed flowers, sakura, and peach flowers opening in Zhangjiajie. You can view sakura and peach flowers in the city area. However, a sea of rapeseed flowers require visitors to drive (or taxi) to the destinations.
I arrived in early April but these flowers were withered, and the rapeseed flowers were harvested. If you are planning to see the fabulous view of rapeseed flowers, it got to be mid of March.
For hotel recommendation, I got this for your consideration. Click here to find out more about the hotel facility. One of the best thing about this hotel is that it includes breakfast for your stay. It saves you a lot of time going out to get breakfast.
If you are self-driving, it’s advised requesting a car park slot reservation. The hotel car park slots are limited.
Dinner at 老媽下飯
Locate at the back of the hotel. Food is considered okay. Something to try out such as donkey meat, a jar of corn juice.
The convenient store at the back of the hotel is a must-go place for refilling your supplies. Some of the products are even cheaper than normal supermarket.
I will be creating another post about the food & snacks and its price commonly found in China’s supermarket and convenient store for readers’ reference.
Day 2
It’s STRONGLY advised to purchase the ticket at least one day earlier. During peak period, some people advised to purchase at least 3 days earlier. I got mine at least 2 weeks earlier at WeChat ZJJ official channel. The hotel also offers you a discount of RMB20 per ticket if you purchase from them.
The ticket gives you 4 days access to the park. Each time you enter the park, you need to reserve the time online.
**Important note: You need to enter the park at the destinated entrance and timing you had reserved. Otherwise, you need to modify the entrance time in order to enter the park. During peak period, you can’t even choose the next timing to get in.
There are 5 gates you can choose to enter the national park. South gate is the most popular (longer queue time) whereas North and West gate have the least people. The North and West gate require self-driving or car booking to there. It will take at least one hour ride from the hotel. I chose the North gate to avoid crowded people queuing up for cable car and outdoor lift. I will also outline the guide for South Gate to those who wish to tour around the whole place for one whole day.
Entering from the North Gate
I planned to set off at 9am but I got delayed and started the journey at around 10am instead. It wasn’t raining heavily and only arrived to the North Gate at 11.20am. The route is considered easy to drive. If your trip is in mid of March, you probably see a sea of rapeseed flowers along the way. Upon going uphill, there was a little girl sitting in the middle of the road, playing with a dog. Something to be aware of when driving uphill. Not too fast.
Route A: (Hotel staff suggestion)
North Gate -> (waiting time around 30 mins but not fixed) shuttle bus (ride around 15 mins)-> 3 ways intersection
-> shuttle bus (ride around 15 mins) -> Tianzi Mountain (Helong Park)
-> shuttle bus (around 30 mins) -> Yangjiajie -> shuttle bus (around 10 mins) -> Yuenjiajie
Route B: (My suggestion)
North Gate -> shuttle bus -> 3 ways intersection
-> shuttle bus (ride around 15 mins) -> Yangjiajie -> shuttle bus (around 10 mins) -> Yuenjiajie
-> shuttle bus -> Yangjiajie -> shuttle bus -> Tianzi Mountain (Helong Park)
Yuenjiajie (tour time: at least 1.5 hours)
Tianzi Mountain (Helong Park) (tour time: at least 1 hour)
Yangjiajie (skip)
I suggest going for Route B as Yuenjiajie is the main view of the national park. It got a much better view than any other areas. You should spend more time at Yuenjiajie taking pictures and enjoy the scenery.
Food store located at Tianzi Mountain right at the shuttle bus station. Except the chicken meat taste not bad, smelly tofu and tofu dessert (last 2 images) not as good as those in Hong Kong.
If you can arrive at the North Gate by 9am, you probably can finish the upper part of the National Park in just one day.
Entering From the South Gate
If you cant arrive at 7-8 am, you probably cant finish the park for one whole day.
If you are not an outdoor person, u also wont finish the whole park in one whole day.
If you arrive late at 10-11 or even 11-12pm, you probably manage to visit two areas or less only.
Hotel staff advise:
South Gate -> Large Oxygen Square (大氧吧廣場) -> Yangjiajie cable car go up to Yangjiajie -> Tianzi Mountain -> cable car down to South Gate -> Bailong Elevator (outdoor lift go up) to Yuenjiajie -> go down by staircase or get down through elevator.
You can try finish this route in one whole day if you arrive at 8am and it’s sunny weather. You will start hearing announcement to advise getting down the mountain before 2.30pm to avoid long queue.
Dinner at 寨嫂当家
Dishes to try out such as fish soup, rock tripe chicken soup, mugwort rice cake (蒿子粑粑). The rock tripe fugus looks like and even taste like a kind of black fungus. It’s said that it grows around cliff in the wild (cannot be home grown), and its full of nutrients.
Day 3
2 hrs ride -> Aizhai Town(矮寨鎮). Lunch at 幸福村, then continue
1 hr ride -> Fenghuang Ancient Town (鳯凰古城)
Aizhai Town (For those self-driving)
Before arriving at Aizhai Town, you can get a lower cost lunch at “lucky village” (幸福村). A number of self-driving group of people cross this village to have lunch as well.
Around the area you can visit waterfall, a long bridge that looks like the golden gate bridge at San Franisco. Unfortunately the weather ate my breathtaking panorama. I couldn’t capture anything. In addition, there are (more than) 5 consecutive hairpin turns that will throw your passengers left and right.
Fenghuang Ancient Town
Ifyou are planning to stay for one night, I got one here. Apparently a number of Hong Kongers booked this accommodations. Check this out. If you need help to contact with the hotel staff, I still got the hotel contact to assist your stay, including fetching services from the train station.
The historic building is located further away from the river. Around 20 mins walk from hotel.
Miao local costume rental is the most famous activity in Fenghuang Ancient Town. Half of the stores offers costume rental. Price is around the same for all the shops. RMB68 including costume, simple makeup. RMB300 deposit is required for each costume, and return the clothing before 10pm.
This is much cheaper and worth than our last trip in Inner Mongolia.
We recommend the store that’s just below the hotel – 映光点. I still had the shop owners’ contact if you needed it.
Dinner at 宇隆湘菜馆(翡翠城店)
Probably one of the best restaurants. Food isn’t as oily. You can request for no chili for all dishes, but I recommend dishes with a bit of it. After several meals, I still find the local dish with some chili taste better.
Massage opposite of the hotel
RMB98 for leg massage (I cant remember 30 / 45 mins) including shoulder massage.
RMB30 for shoulder massage for 15 mins
RMB20 for feet bath.
I found the leg massage pricing a bit expensive so I chose the shoulder massage.
The aunty strength is quite strong. Her arm is probably bigger than mine. I quite enjoy the rock like fingers that squeeze the lactic acid out of the muscle.
She will do some thai like massage such as turning ur head, and hands etc. Got to be extremely cautions about this.
Day 4
From hotel to the train station car park took us around 35 mins including refilling petrol and return car procedure. You can refill the petrol here before returning the car. It consumes around 3km of the petrol to the train station.
We set off at 6.15am and arrive the car park at around 6.50pm.
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Related article:
Zhangjiajie hotel recommendation
Fenghuang Ancient town recommendation
Other article:
To the north of China -> Inner Mongolia (english version coming soon)
Hiking in China -> The snow view of Wudan Mountain
