How to visit the “Avatar mountains” of Zhangjiajie

The “Avatar Mountains” of Zhangjiajie are very real – yet in the age of AI it’d be easy to assume that a landscape this otherworldly could only have been conjured by a supercomputer. 

In fact, the influence ran in the opposite direction, with director James Cameron partly drawing inspiration from Zhangjiajie’s dramatic quartz-sandstone formations when conceiving some of the dreamlike scenery of Pandora, the fictional planet in his 2009 sci-fi blockbuster Avatar. 

Remarkably, this real-life landscape is even more arresting than anything rendered on screen, and it’s little surprise that Zhangjiajie became the first national park established in the Chinese Mainland, in 1982. 

Why should you visit Zhangjiajie?  

Misty skies are pierced by a sprawling congregation of jagged, chalk-coloured spears, each sprouting sun-starved vegetation at precarious angles. It’s boggling to contemplate how these 3,000 towering sandstone peaks – some more than 300 metres tall – were shaped over some 400 million years of elemental erosion. Zhangjiajie must be seen to be believed. 

To stare in awestruck wonder places you in a lineage of thousands of poets and painters who’ve documented their encounters in shanhui landscape paintings for more than a millennium. But experiencing it in real life – feeling the moist mountain air, the sun on your skin, the wind in your hair and the moss beneath your feet – offers something that no simulated rendering can ever match.  

While the Hollywood connection has helped put this jaw-dropping landscape on the tourist map, it’s still easy to have a genuine solo encounter with the wilderness. Established in 1982, the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is just one of four national parks in the 26,000-hecatre Wulingyuan Scenic Area, which means with a little legwork it’s easy to get away from the crowds. 

How to get to Zhangjiajie from Changsha 

Zhangjiajie sits in the north of Hunan province, roughly equidistant from the provincial capital of Changsha (to the east) and the metropolis of Chongqing (to the west). Regular trains run from both cities, with journey times as fast as one hour 45 minutes from Changsha and a little over two hours from Chongqing. Both arrive at Zhangjiajie Train Station in the heart of Zhangjiajie, some 35km from Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. 

You have the option of staying in the city, where there are plenty of affordable accommodation options, or base yourself in the traveller-friendly Wulingyuan village – home to numerous shops, restaurants and hotels. From here, the Wulingyuan entrance is walkable, while the Zhangjiajie forest entrance sits a 30-minute local bus ride away. Visit from both gates on consecutive days to experience a broader perspective.  

The best viewing spots in Zhangjiajie  

Whatever the waiting time, the Bailong Elevator is a must-do. The adrenaline buzz of soaring 326 metres up a mountain in less than two minutes is worth the price of admission alone. The panoramic view of the Yuanjiajie Scenic Area waiting for you is more than the icing on top. In decades past, intrepid hikers would climb for two hours to reach this iconic view.   

None of the park’s three cable cars will disappoint either, but if you have time for just one, most visitors opt for the Tianzi Mountains Cableway, transporting you to the “enlarged bonsai” scenery of the titular peak, where the views are breathtaking beyond words. 

Elsewhere the less-crowded Yangjiajie Cableway unlocks the distinctive “Peak Wall” formation and offers a scenic gondola ride over steep cliffs and lush valleys, while the steep Huangshizhai Cableway – the park’s first – offers impressively steep ascents. You can buy a four-day package ticket including three cable car rides and one trip on the Bailong Elevator – all of which are otherwise separately ticketed . 

Among the top viewing spots accessible on foot, Yunqing Rock, Arranging Battles Platform and Imperial Writing Brush Peaks are all close to one another and easy to reach. No one will regret the walk up from Enchanting Terrace towards the Lucky Mountain. Do not be put off: the misleadingly named 10-Mile Gallery is only 5.8km – and well worth the walk to Three Sisters Peaks.  

Don’t miss: Tianmen Mountain and Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge 

While you could easily lose days exploring Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, there’s a pair of distinct big-ticket attractions nearby worth plotting your time around.  

South of Zhangjiajie city sits the towering Tianmen Mountain, a 1,500-metre high peak accessible via the world’s longest cable car – a thrilling 7.5km, 30-minute journey even more impressive than the national park’s trio. The mountain itself is famed for the 131-metre, heart-shaped archway miraculously carved through its centre, a beguiling natural anomaly shaped by erosion with more than a touch of magic about it. Nicknamed the “Gateway to Heaven”, visitors can climb up via the 999 steps of the “Stairway to Heaven”.  Even more impressive is traversing the 1.5km trail looping around the peak's edge via a precarious system of trails and heart-stopping, glass-bottomed walkways. 

That route is not for the faint of heart – but if you can stomach it, the next logical stop is the viral-famous Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge. Suspended 300 metres above ground, one of the world’s tallest glass-bottomed bridges is renowned for sparking equal doses of excitement and nerves to the millions of visitors every year.