Zhangjiajie became super famous in 2009 with the movie Avatar, as the Hallelujah Mountains / the floating peaks in the movie were inspired by the tall peaks in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Now there are three major areas: Tianmen Mountain in the south close to the city centre, Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon with the famous glass bridge in the northeast and Wulingyuan Scenic Area which is the main area to see the famous peaks.
We stayed at ANNICA Villa which is directly next to one of the entries to the park (Zimugang Ticket Station 梓木岗门票站). Opening time for the park at this entry is 7:30am. Important: You need your passport to get in and to buy tickets for the Bailong Elevator or Tianzi Mountain Cableway inside the park!
Entry price is 220 Yuan (28,14€) per person + elevator (optional) + cableway (optional).
IMPORTANT:
All information I'm sharing in the following section are the ones we got from the hotel and tried to follow (at some point we made it to get completely lost and ended up in the different end of the park and then took a taxi for 30 minutes to get back to the city we wanted to go). To be honest we didn't liked the park as the landscape is not as impressive as it might seem like on the pictures, it was super loud everywhere because of the screaming tour guides, there were thousands of people and you had to wait for hours in queues, everywhere were food trucks and it's smell and additionally it's not really a park for good hiking as it is sooo huge that you are more or less forced to go by bus within the park. We would have preferred to skip Zhangjiajie and instead spend more days in Wulong, but at least the hotel was super nice so we spend the 2nd day relaxing in the hotel's garden.
Tour description
1st stop - Bailong Elevator
From the main entry take the bus to the Bailong Elevator (百龙天梯) - as there are many busses and stops, maybe better show the driver where you wanna go so that he lets you off the bus at the right station. The ticket for the elevator is not included in the main entry ticket and need to be bought inside the park when you reach the elevator.
2nd stop - Hallelujah Mountain and Natural Bridge
After using the elevator, walk 5 minutes to the next bus station and take the bus to the Enchanting Stop (迷魂台车站). From here make sure to walk the lower and not the upper way to see Heaven Pillar (Hallelujah Mountain) and the Natural Bridge.
3d stop - Fields in the sky
To reach the next spot you have to take the bus to 天子山方向, change to another bus and continue to 三岔路口下车. From here you can take another vehicle to get to "Fields in the sky" and back to the bus station you came from.
4th stop - Some nice viewpoints
Take the bus to Tianzi Mountain Helong Park Stop (贺龙公园) and visit following viewpoints: Helong Park, Fairy Dispersing Flowers, Tiazi Tower, Yubi Peak, Yunquing Rock and Helong Bronze Statue. You can also walk further down to see some more spots if you've got some time but these are the most important ones.
5th stop - Tianzi Mountain Cableway
After walking back, take the bus from McDonald's (Jepp, you read correct - they have got McDonald's in the middle of the national park) to the Upper Station of the cableway and drive down. Afterwards you can take a bus to the main Wulingyuan Entrance (武陵源门票站) to explore a bit of the city and maybe also discover Baofeng Lake.
There is a really really nice Dumpling space in Wulingyuan City called "Fresh Meat Dumplings" (张嘎盖鲜肉水饺武陵源店) - Highly recommended to have some lunch / dinner there :)
