Zhangjiajie

Why Zhangjiajie works

Zhangjiajie's sandstone pillars — over 3,000 of them, carved by millions of years of water and freeze-thaw erosion rather than volcanic or tectonic action — form China's first national forest park and the acknowledged visual inspiration for the floating Hallelujah Mountains in Avatar (one peak was officially renamed Avatar Hallelujah Mountain in 2010). Wulingyuan Scenic Area, the core of the park, is best explored via the Bailong Elevator, a glass lift bolted to a 326-metre cliff face that carries visitors up into the pillar forest in under two minutes, and the Yuanjiajie plateau's winding boardwalks, which weave between pillars at eye level rather than viewing them from below. The Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge, the world's highest and longest glass-bottomed bridge when it opened in 2016, spans a gorge 300 metres down and draws its own queue of visitors testing their nerve on the transparent floor. Tianmen Mountain, reached by a cable car that is itself one of the world's longest, adds Tianmen Cave — a natural arch punched through the mountain's face — and a cliffside glass walkway of its own. Mist and cloud are near-constant here, softening the pillars into ink-wash scenery that shifts by the hour; clear mornings are rare enough to plan around.

Trip Snapshot

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