Zhangjiajie National Park

When you are thinking about traveling to Asia, most people do not immediately think about China. Too bad, because it is a country with the most beautiful landscapes you can imagine. The moment we saw a picture of the incredible Zhangjiajie, this enormous Natural Park, where immense stone pillars rise above the trees, we knew we wanted to visit China. If you somehow recognize the mysterious landscape in the pictures, you can be right, because the scenery of the famous movie Avatar was based on this beautiful place.

Endless peaks!

The city of Zhangjiajie is where your journey will begin; a city you can reach by plane, bus or train. Because this city is still quite far from the national park, a lot of people stay in the town Wulingyuan, just near the park. The Chinese made Zhangjiajie National Park very accessible with various bus lines, cable cars and even a 326 m high elevator, so you can admire the views from a lot of different angles. At first we thought: “are you kidding me, cable cars??”. But it will give you an amazing ride, with fantastic views.

Cable Car ride Zhangjiajie National Park

You enter the park through a huge entrance from where busses can bring you to different spots in the park. You can buy a ticket for multiple days, so you can explore the whole park; at the bottom, through the forest and along the stream, but also around the tops of the “pillars” to enjoy the views. As said, you can take a cable car or the elevator to reach the “above level”, but you can also hike up of course! There are various routes to climb up or walk down yourself.

If you are looking for an extra adrenaline shot, visit the highest and longest glass bridge in the world, right through the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon. The “glass bottom bridge” can carry around 8000 people a day, approximately 600 persons at a time. Therefore, you have to buy a separate ticket for this bridge up front.  

Bridgde near the Hallelujah Mountain from above

As if this amazing park is not reason enough to visit Zhangjiajie, there are some other (literal) highlights you can visit. Just outside the city of Zhangjiajie lies Tiamen Mountain. The locals around here must love cable cars, because the longest cable car in the world (7 kilometers!) will take you to the top of this mountain. You can walk around impressive cliff edges and on glass skywalks, where you can look 1500 meters down. Another way to go up or down is by bus on a road with 99 turns. Because of the weather and lack of time we didn’t go to Tiamen Mountain. A good reason to go back I guess.. 

Foggy mornings