Seven-Day Travelogue: Zhangjiajie, Tianmen Mountain, Mengdong River, and Fenghuang
A DIY travelogue of Zhangjiajie, Tianmen Mountain, and the Mengdong River. We just returned from Zhangjiajie and want to pass on some experiences and information to friends heading to Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang. At home we researched travelers' journals and guides online and did our homework thoroughly. No group tours, no shopping, focused on sightseeing without backtracking, pay after service. 'The DIY itinerary designed...'
This article is compiled from the original travel notes on the "Zhangjiajie Tour Guide Network" (33519.com); it is a record of trips from earlier years. Time-sensitive information such as ticket prices, schedules, and accommodation prices is subject to the latest announcements from scenic areas and transportation authorities; the itinerary ideas and attraction introductions still have reference value.
A travelogue of an independent trip to Zhangjiajie's Tianmen Mountain and Mengdong River. We just came back from traveling in Zhangjiajie and have some experiences and information to pass on to friends who are going to Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang. At home we looked up backpackers' travelogues and guides online and did plenty of homework.
No group joining, no shopping, focused on seeing the sights, no backtracking, pay after consuming. "The essence travel route designed for independent travelers" — Zhangjiajie three days two nights (economy route) all-inclusive 470 per person. Guide fee 50 yuan per day, still quite a good deal.
Main attractions: Golden Whip Stream, Yuanjiajie, Yangjiajie, Tianzi Mountain, Ten-Mile Gallery
A three-day, two-night Zhangjiajie itinerary covering four major scenic areas (Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Yuanjiajie, Yangjiajie, Tianzi Mountain, Suoxiyu).
Day One: Pickup at the station in the morning; Golden Whip Stream, Guanyin Presenting a Child, Golden Whip Rock, Master and Disciple Fetching Sutras, Longevity Spring, Two Turtles Exploring the Stream, Purple Grass Pool, Meeting After a Thousand Miles. From the Meeting After a Thousand Miles spot, climb the Luancuan Slope up to Yuanjiajie, or from Shuirao Simen (take the elevator up to Yuanjiajie). In the afternoon, visit Yuanjiajie's Back Garden, Soul-Enchanting Terrace, Number One Bridge Under Heaven, and Bridge-Viewing Terrace. Overnight stay: Yangjiajie.
Day Two: Morning; visit Tianzi Mountain's Daguantai, Divine Chicken Pecking (from which you can see the Ten-Mile Gallery), Immortal Bridge, and Tianzi Seat.
Afternoon: tour Yangjiajie's One Step to Heaven, Sky Corridor, Wulong Village, Three Ghost Gate Passes, Tianbo Mansion, Golden Rooster Crowing at Dawn, etc. Overnight stay: Yangjiajie.
Day Three: tour Tianzi Mountain's Shentang Bay, Point-General Terrace, He Long Park, Tianzi Viewing Platform, Imperial Brush Peak, Fairy Scattering Flowers, etc. You can take the Tianzi Mountain cable car down, or walk down from Tianzi Pavilion via Wolong Ridge to the Ten-Mile Gallery, and tour the Ten-Mile Gallery — Fierce Tiger Roaring at the Sky, Longevity Star Welcoming Guests, Golden Rat Watching the Sky, Xiang Wang Reading Books, Herb-Gathering Old Man, Three Sisters. End the pleasant Zhangjiajie trip. This route includes many attractions that tour groups don't visit — we saw them all.
At past ten at night, we took a flight departing from Shanghai Pudong and arrived in Zhangjiajie at one in the morning. At the airport exit, we saw a Tujia girl holding a sign reading "Receiving Teacher Li's group of 14" waiting at the arrival gate. We took a ten-minute car ride and arrived at the four-star Leiden Grand Hotel that Guide Yang had booked for us — a deluxe standard double room with a listed price of 880 yuan, which Guide Yang booked for us at only 240 yuan per standard double room including breakfast for two. The conditions felt good, newly built, and the breakfast was also quite rich.
The next morning we took a car to the main entrance of the Forest Park. It truly lived up to its reputation. We quickly bought tickets and went in. The ticket price is 248 yuan per person; student tickets for those under 24 are 134 yuan; press cards, military disability certificates, and tickets for the elderly over 70 are completely free.
Day Two: Golden Whip Stream — Yuanjiajie
Following the Golden Whip Stream tour route with its clear mountains and clear waters, we advanced deep into the Zhangjiajie Scenic Area. Walking along the Golden Whip Stream, with towering peaks above our heads, ancient trees blocking the sun around us, rare flowers all over the fields, and a trickling stream beneath our feet, breathing the fresh air of the light rain, people and nature had already become one. The Golden Whip Stream is 15 li long in total, and the environment is extremely quiet and secluded. Many rare flowers and unusual trees grow on both sides. Guide Yang kept introducing to me the varieties of various flowers and trees. Unfortunately, I don't know much about this area — I only know that many of them are precious plant species, such as dawn redwood, dove flower, lobster flower, and so on. The tallness of Golden Whip Rock, the smugness of Zhu Bajie, the affection of Meeting After a Thousand Miles, and the golden whip fish of Purple Grass Pool made me walk into a fairyland on earth. At the Meeting After a Thousand Miles spot — this place is named because two peaks look very much like two long-parted lovers embracing each other — here we turned onto the road up to Yuanjiajie.
Yuanjiajie sits at an altitude of over 1,100 meters. To get up there from the Qianli Xianghui (Thousand-Mile Rendezvous) point, you have to climb the very steep Luanchuanpo slope. After all that hard climbing to reach Yuanjiajie, the Back Garden is one of the best viewing spots, gazing across at Huangshizhai in the distance. Before your eyes the clouds churn and the mist surges, peaks appear and vanish, and the fantastically bizarre mountain peaks drift magically through the haze, a scene of infinite variety—from whatever angle you look, it is a perfect Chinese landscape painting. The wondrous sight thrilled me endlessly, and the fatigue of the climb was swept away completely. I had finally glimpsed one face of Zhangjiajie's 'earthly paradise.' Afterwards I also saw the Mihun Tai (Bewitching Terrace), the Number One Bridge under Heaven, and other sights. Urged on by Guide Yang, we left the viewing platform looking back at every step. That night we stayed at a hotel near the Number One Bridge under Heaven,
Day Three: Yangjiajie----Tianzi Mountain
We took a bus to Yangjiajie, got off after about ten minutes, and walked into the scenic area. The scenery grew finer all along the way, and after about ten minutes we reached Wulong Village. Wulong Village is built on an isolated peak. To enter the village you must pass through three checkpoints, each one incredibly perilous—especially the last, where a person can only squeeze sideways through a sliver of sky between giant boulders. It is called the 'Weight-Loss' Pass, also known as the Slimming Gorge, because anyone overweight finds it impossible to get through and must first lose weight. Wulong Village was long a bandit stronghold, and the TV drama 'Suppressing Bandits in Wulong Mountain' was adapted from the true story of the PLA suppressing bandits here, with many scenes actually filmed on location. Guide Yang kept telling us stories of the old bandits along the way. Xiangxi has many mountains and dense forests and has always been known for bandits—I had long heard of this—but after seeing the beautiful scenery around Wulong Village, I couldn't help sighing to the guide: 'With scenery this lovely, how did the bandits ever choose such a place?' Tianbo Mansion is just southwest of Wulong Village. If you see Tianbo Mansion, you too will say: I love beauties, but I love the mountains and rivers even more!
From Yangjiajie we took the eco-bus to Daguantai on Tianzi Mountain. South of Tianzi Mountain is a large crescent-shaped valley containing Shentang Bay and Ganxi, part of Suoxiyu. Visitors view the scenery from Tianzi Mountain, circling around the gorge. Below Tianzi Peak you can see the whole panorama of the Tianzi Mountain scenic area. Gazing out, the sky is a vast blue, the clouds are light and the breeze gentle, and in the valley rise towering peaks and jagged rocks. The peaks here are smaller than those in Zhangjiajie Forest Park, mostly unconnected to one another, concentrated mainly around Shentang Bay and Helong Park. Viewed from below Tianzi Peak, they look like a forest of stone. The center of the valley has more open ground, and on rainy or misty days it becomes a sea of clouds, known as the West Sea. Though I had no chance to witness the spectacle of the cloud sea, hearing it described, the Penglai fairyland of little peaks half-hidden in the clouds, like so many islets, quickly took shape in my mind. Walking along the valley for about forty minutes, we reached such sights as the Immortal Bridge and the place where the Son of Heaven sat in meditation. The Son of Heaven's meditation spot is like a stone wall stretching from the mountain into the deep valley, with bottomless abysses on either side. Standing at the end of the wall, with the bright sun overhead, the deep ravine below my feet, and the sound of pine winds in my ears, the peaks of the West Sea opposite seemed closer and more beautiful for lack of any reference point—almost within reach. At that moment I truly wished the West Sea were a real sea, so that I could plunge in, swim freely through Shentang Bay, and embrace these peaks one by one, so real yet so dreamlike, so full of spirit.
Legend says Xiang Dakun once cultivated himself here at the Son of Heaven's meditation spot for three years, and later led the Tujia people in rebellion and proclaimed himself king. Xiang Dakun was a Tujia peasant uprising leader of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, regarded by the local Tujia people as a national hero and Son of Heaven. Countless legends about him circulate in the scenic area, and Tianzi Mountain is named in his memory. Though these legends are mostly bizarre and exaggerated, they still add much humanistic color to Zhangjiajie's extraordinary natural scenery. After seeing One Step Is Hard and the Divine Chicken Pecking, we stayed the night at Yangjiajie
Day Four: Shentang Bay----Ten-Mile Gallery
The Shentang Bay viewing platform is the best vantage point on Tianzi Mountain. In the bay the forest is dense and the ravine deep, with grotesque rocks standing like swords and halberds; when the wind rises, it is like the thunder of drums and ten thousand galloping horses. Legend says Xiang Dakun, defeated here, jumped off the cliff but did not die, and continued to drill his troops in the bay. At the nearby Dianjiang Tai (Reviewing Stand), a row of peaks stands in formation—legend says these were Xiang Dakun's generals, who after his death refused to submit and turned into peaks, still being reviewed by him. After seeing Shentang Bay and the nearby Helong Park, we descended along Wolong Ridge to the middle section of the Ten-Mile Gallery. The Ten-Mile Gallery refers to the beautiful scenery on both sides of Ganxi. Here you can view the peaks of Tianzi Mountain from below upward, similar to Golden Whip Stream. However, the trees here are sparser and the peaks on both sides are a bit farther apart, so on the whole it does not feel as fine as Golden Whip Stream. After the Ten-Mile Gallery we saw Water Winding Around Four Gates, known as the original model for Chinese landscape painting. Accompanied by Guide Yang, we left the Wulingyuan scenic area and arrived in Zhangjiajie city, staying that night at the Leighton Hotel in the city,
Day Five: Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park
Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park all-inclusive ticket price: 258 yuan per person, self-paid (includes: admission to Tianmen Cave and the summit area, round-trip Tianmen Mountain cable car, and eco-bus transport). Taking the Tianmen Mountain cable car up the mountain is the most convenient and also the most special way to tour Tianmen Mountain. The line has an inclined length of 7,455 meters, the longest high-mountain passenger cableway in the world. Starting from Zhangjiajie city, it goes straight to the primeval sky garden at the summit of Tianmen Mountain, like a rainbow spanning 'heaven and earth.' Tianmen Mountain is a mesa-like isolated peak with sheer cliffs on all four sides, its main peak at 1,518.6 meters above sea level. Because of its high altitude and perilous terrain, it is shrouded in cloud and mist all year round. Since ancient times Tianmen Mountain has been said to be a sacred mountain standing at the boundary between the immortal and mortal realms, with many traces of immortals and deities on it. In the hearts of the local people, Tianmen Mountain has always been a spiritual mountain for praying and making wishes—even the singer Li Na took her vows here. The most representative features of Tianmen Mountain are its sixteen peaks and sixteen caves, of which the most famous is Tianmen Cave, known as the world's highest cave through a mountain. The 1999 World Aerobatic Competition and the 2006 Russian Air Force Zhangjiajie Tianmen Mountain flight performance—two astonishing feats of human limit-defying daring—made Tianmen Cave the focus of worldwide attention and made many more people long to go there. That night we stayed at the Leighton Hotel in the city. People often say that after seeing the Five Great Mountains, no other mountains are worth seeing; after seeing Huangshan, no other mountains are worth seeing. I say that after seeing Zhangjiajie, even Huangshan need not be visited—an earthly paradise!!
Day Six: Mengdong River Rafting
At 7 o'clock sharp we waited at the entrance of the Leighton Hotel. Mengdong River rafting is 180 yuan per person. The rafting bus usually comes to pick up guests joining the rafting. When we got on, several tourists were already aboard, and then the bus went to pick up several more. By 7:30 everyone was gathered, and we left Zhangjiajie for the Mengdong River. The drive took about an hour and a half, and the rafting about two and a half hours. The night before at the Leighton Hotel, there was thunder and rain in Zhangjiajie at midnight, and we thought the water would be high today and the rafting would be very exciting. Only when we got there did we learn that a dam had been built upstream to regulate the water flow and equalize things, so the thrills of the rafting were only so-so. Later, the road to Fenghuang was rather bumpy, and I joked that you could treat the bus as a boat to make up for the rafting feeling, haha. Still, the waterfalls were all the more spectacular for it—along the rafting route we saw at least seven or eight waterfalls, very beautiful.
During the rafting, belongings can be left on the bus, watched by a guide who follows the bus; generally it is safe, so you can relax. A change of clothes is essential. Wearing a raincoat is useless—the ones sold there are of too poor quality and will definitely leak, unless you prepare your own in advance and bring it rather than buying at the rafting start point. Still, poor as they are, you should buy one; it is a bit better than none, and during water fights it can block a little, otherwise it is unbearable. Also be careful that the raincoat may fade—mine stained my white clothes, and when my husband wiped his face the tissue came away yellowish, so it is best to buy a white one or check when buying whether it fades. Raincoats are priced at 5 yuan each, bargainable to 3 yuan; the large water guns are priced at 20 and can be bargained to 12 each; small water guns are priced at 10 and can be bargained to 4 each; water ladles are 2-3 yuan each. The more people, the more bargaining power. It is best to get acquainted with everyone on the rafting bus and agree to bargain together, buying the same raincoats and water-fight tools, so the photos turn out nicer too. But many of them are collected back at the end point and resold, so check the quality carefully—on our boat, quite a few of the 'weapons' broke halfway through the water fight. Do not buy shoe covers under any circumstances; they are useless and water still gets in. The best approach is to take off your shoes and socks and leave them on the bus, and the day before, swipe the disposable slippers from the hotel and change into those, or buy straw sandals at the small shop at the starting point (they are just a little scratchy). Prepare some rubber bands; those who wear glasses can use them to secure their glasses, and they can also be used to tie the cuffs of raincoat sleeves and trouser legs.
Water fights are quite fun. Even if you don't want to fight, you'll end up fighting anyway, because as long as someone on your boat wants to fight, the other boats will retaliate not just against him—and even if they only wanted to hit him, they couldn't aim that precisely—so everyone gets caught in the crossfire. If you're all young people, you might as well join in; everyone wears a life jacket, so there is absolutely no danger. Since you've come out traveling, just go wild and have fun. The most infuriating and also funniest thing was my husband: at first he firmly said he wouldn't join the water fight. I told him that if he didn't fight he'd just get hit for nothing, and only then did he reluctantly agree to let me buy a water ladle and a small water gun. But when the fight really started, he was the most excited of all. This fellow, finding himself blocked by the people in front of him on the same boat, simply stood up to fight—and ended up falling into the river. Utterly speechless... Water fights during rafting make it fairly easy to get slightly hurt. On my boat, three people (including the fellow who fell in) got a bit of skin scraped, and the few band-aids I had brought came in handy. I suggest that anyone going rafting bring a couple along.
If you really don't like water fights, you can explain in advance and see whether they can arrange for you to share a boat with others who don't fight (each boat holds 8-12 people). The boatman will control the boat's speed and keep a safe distance from other boats so others can't reach you—though I only saw one tour group made up entirely of elderly people do this.
The rafting end point is Hani Palace, where there are changing facilities, 1 yuan per person; if you want to rinse off it is 3 yuan per person, with hot water. After changing, the same bus goes to Fenghuang. The 180 yuan per person is actually the price of a one-day tour from Zhangjiajie back to Zhangjiajie covering Mengdong River rafting and Wang Village (that is, Furong Town); the rafting ticket alone, not counting bus fare, is 124 yuan per person. On the way, the guide on the bus will recommend three sights in Wang Village. Personally I don't think they are worth visiting, and I suggest not going. At 1:30 in the afternoon we arrived at Wang Village, and the bus drove directly to the Old Street parking lot. Wang Village is no longer the flavor it had in the movie; the Old Street is very commercialized and there is not much to stroll through. After eating lunch you can just slip away. Lunch is at your own expense and is not included in the bus ticket, so you don't necessarily have to eat at the restaurant the guide takes you to. This time we went to the No. 113 Liu Xiaoqing Rice Tofu that Wanglong mentioned (few places on the Old Street have house numbers; just keep walking along the street inward, and after about 10 minutes you'll see it—there's an obvious sign at the shop entrance). We ordered 2 bowls of rice tofu at 2 yuan per bowl, 1 bowl of river snails for 10 yuan, and some leaf cakes at 1 yuan each, which counted as our lunch. On the way there, the guide on the bus will ask who is going to Fenghuang and say he will arrange a bus for you. Actually it works like this: there is also a bus in Fenghuang doing the rafting + Wang Village one-day tour, and the two drivers exchange guests going to Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang at Wang Village. Going to Fenghuang is 40 yuan per person, and the driver earns a little commission for bringing passengers. If you don't take their bus, that's fine too—Wang Village bus station (10 minutes uphill from the Old Street exit, turn right, it's under the bridge) has many buses to Jishou, and you can take one there to Jishou and then transfer to Fenghuang. The difference is that the buses at the station are minibuses, while the bus the guide introduces is a large coach and more comfortable; the route is actually the same, both going via Jishou. If there are many of you, I suggest chartering a vehicle at the bus station—300 yuan can charter a vehicle directly to Fenghuang. This time we took the Fenghuang coach, which dragged on until 13:15 before departing from Wang Village. On the way the driver took the tourists to a shopping stop at the Guzhang Tea Factory for 20 minutes of shopping. Passing through Jishou, the drive from Wang Village to Fenghuang took nearly 3 hours, and we only arrived in Fenghuang at 6 o'clock.
Day Seven: Fenghuang Ancient Town
Fenghuang is where the former capital of Xiangxi was located. It was once a gathering place for politicians, warlords, tusi (native chieftains), merchants, Miao people, and bandits. In Chinese history centered on Central Plains culture, it counted as standard barbarian territory. In this mountain town of no more than a few kilometers, modern times produced the writer Shen Congwen, the painter Huang Yongyu, the politician Xiong Xiling, and others. According to locals, Zhu Rongji also once studied at Fenghuang No. 1 Middle School. There is a sense of a place that breeds outstanding people. Today's Fenghuang is a mixed Miao-Han community, and it stands at the starting point of tourism development. Apart from the age-old buildings and the emerald Tuo River, it increasingly carries the smell of a tourism economy.
Have you ever seen a river emerald green and overgrown with water plants? The Tuo River is one. As our wooden boat glided over this jade-like water, our eyes were filled with her enchanting forms: her slender body swaying slowly and gracefully with the ripples, her lush branches and leaves twisting and entwining with alluring charm. Yet she always modestly stayed deep beneath the water's surface, in no way hindering the boat's passage. The boat seemed to travel over jade covered with plant patterns. Along the Tuo River is an old street covered in the wrinkles of history, but it is just old bottles filled with new wine—most of what you see inside are handicrafts sold to tourists. There are also many ancestral halls, opera stages, and temples, all reduced to dwellings where people wash rice and raise chickens. The former residences of famous people have also become empty shells, merely adding one more place to pay homage to history—except that there is a charge. That night we stayed at a riverside inn upstream on the Tuo River. On the morning of the eighth day we returned to Jishou to take the train back to Shanghai.
Some of the above images are from the internet.