Why go
Wulingyuan is the reason 'Avatar' and a century of ink painters before it found their strangest landscape. The four scenic zones overlap into one great maze: the National Forest Park on the west, Suoxiyu in the centre, Tianzi Mountain to the north and Yangjiajie in the east. Shared shuttle buses and cable cars knit them together, but the scale rewards a slow, multi-day approach.
The two classic days belong to the forest park — Yuanjiajie's pillars and the Bailong Elevator, Tianzi's cable car and the Golden Whip Stream valley walk. A third day, spent in Yangjiajie and Suoxiyu's Ten-Mile Gallery, is where the crowds thin and the pillars go on.
- Tianzi Mountain's cable car and ridge views over the 'pillar sea'
- Yangjiajie — the least-crowded zone, with the one-way Yitian 'heaven ladder' trail
- Suoxiyu's Ten-Mile Gallery, a valley of named stone columns
- Golden Whip Stream and the green heart of the whole protected area
The quieter zones
Yangjiajie has the highest views and the fewest tour groups — its Yitian trail winds along cliff edges under the summit. Suoxiyu's Ten-Mile Gallery is a gentle valley walk with a little train for those who prefer wheels; the named pillars here are the local sense of humour at its most literal.
Practical tips
Buy the 4-day combined ticket — single-day visits queue twice as long for the same views. Stay at one of the hotels inside the area near the Wulingyuan gate to start before the crowds. Mornings are mistier and clearer; by 10:00 the pillared ridges fill with tour groups.
Getting there
- Shuttle from Zhangjiajie city or the airport to the Wulingyuan gate (~40 min)
- Status
- UNESCO World Heritage (1992)
- Zones
- Forest Park, Suoxiyu, Tianzi, Yangjiajie
- Size
- 26,000 ha, ~3,000 sandstone pillars
