Some years ago I saw a picture of an ancient building in the Chinese mountains and since then I wanted to visit this place. So we planned one stop in Wulong to go there and I have to say it was the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever seen!
There are four major attractions in Wulong Karst National Park: Three Natural Bridges, Furong Cave, Fairy Mountain and the magnificent Longshuixia Gap. Unfortunately we only had time for the Three Natural Bridges and the Longshuixia Gap but I would have loved to stay longer to explore more! So 2 nights / 1 day are definitely not enough and I would highly recommend to stay at least 3 nights / 2 days! Especially also because Wulong itself is a really cute city and worth it to discover.
There are many different ways how to get there, either by day trip / train from Chongqing or if you want to visit Zhangjiajie prior you can take a train for around 4,5h from Zhangjiajie to Wulong with one short stop in between. Of course you can also take a train from any other destination in China.
The name of our hotel was „Qixiannv B&B Resort“ (七仙女民宿(仙女山店) - available on https://hotels.ctrip.com/) and for around 100€/night for a double bed room it was absolutely amazing! They organised a driver for us to pick us up and drop us off at the railway station for around 25€ both ways and the transfer to the tourist service center was free of charge and only around 5 minutes drive away.
The park opens officially at 9am but we arrived at the tourist center at around 8:45am and the first busses were already departing, so better be there at around 8:30am to buy your tickets. Make sure to bring your passport with you as the passport is automatically also your ticket. You won’t get a printed ticket, instead you’ll have to scan your passport at every entrance point. There are two entrances of Three Natural Bridges. Through No.1 entrance, you can take the sightseeing elevator. If you take the No.2 entrance, you will need to walk a long distance and you will also miss a lot of sceneries on the road as you will arrive at the bottom of the three bridges directly and miss the panoramic view of the bridges.
So we bought tickets for the sightseeing elevator and entrance No.1. A bus will bring you from the tourist service center to the main starting point of Three Natural Bridges and there are signs guiding you to the elevator. We only had to wait around 5 minutes to get in and then the fun began - we were like „WOW WOW WOOOOW“ nonstop and I took 847 photos this day :D
What we loved the most is that it’s really natural, no food trucks, no screaming tour guides, no crowds of people, etc. - just nature and a bit of easy hiking.
Following some more detailed information about the two spots we’ve visited.
Three Natural Bridges
Three Natural Bridges are the largest natural bridge groups in Asia. It’s composed of Tianlong Bridge, Qinglong Bridge and Heilong Bridge, which are all natural bridges, crossing over the Yangshuihe Gorge and connecting the mountains at the two sides. Opening hours are from 9-16 o’clock and entry fee is ¥125/person (around 16€) from March 1st to October 31st and ¥95/person from November 1st ~ February 28th (including travel bus, running among the Tourist Center, Longshuixia Gap entrance and Three Natural Bridges entrance).
You can’t get lost on the hike as there is only one way to the exit. Once you almost reached the exit you can decide whether you want to walk the way upstairs or whether you want to take a short bus ride for only 15¥. Due to the time and hot weather we took the bus (you won’t miss any sightseeings on the way, so I would also recommend anyone else to take the bus). After a few minutes you will reach the exit of Three Natural Bridges where you can take either the bus back to the Tourist Center or buy a ticket for the Longshuixia Gap (be careful to hop on the right bus!). We booked a ticket for Longshuixia Gap and a few minutes bus ride later we arrived at the 2nd spot.
Longshuixia Gap
The whole gorge is 5km long and the tour part is about 2km. The gorge is magnificent and the depth of it is from 200m to 500m. Forests, waterfalls, springs and gorges, here you can actually feel the Earth is older than a city and more powerful than a rocket. Opening hours are from 9-17 o’clock (it will stop selling ticket after 16 o’clock) and entry fee is ¥105/person (around 14€) from March 1st to October 31st and ¥85/person from November 1st ~ February 28th (including travel bus, running among the Tourist Center, Longshuixia Gap entrance and Three Natural Bridges entrance).
When it was rainy prior it might be bit slippery, so walk carefully. It will be a bit up and down but in general a very easy going hike everyone can manage. There is one restroom along the way and of course also another one at the exit.
After we finished the gorge we took the bus back to the tourist center and got picked up by our hotel. Absolutely fantastic trip although I was a bit sad to not have more time to also take a boat ride on the river, to go rafting, or visiting the cave and fairy mountains. So when you visit China definitely put Wulong Karst on your plan for at least 3 nights!
