One of the Many Ways to Do a DIY Tour of Zhangjiajie
Zhangjiajie's core scenic area covers 264 square kilometers, with 3,000 stone peaks rising from the ground and 800 winding streams. It blends peaks, forests, caves, lakes and waterfalls, combining the bizarre, elegant, secluded, wild and precipitous—'a view every five steps, a new heaven every ten.' Chinese and foreign visitors call it 'the finest wonder mountain under heaven' and 'the original of Chinese landscape painting.'
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.
The core scenic area of Zhangjiajie covers 264 square kilometers. Within the scenic area, three thousand stone peaks rise from the ground and eight hundred streams wind their way, truly combining peaks, forests, caves, lakes, and waterfalls in one, and gathering wonder, elegance, seclusion, wildness, and peril together. "A view every five steps, a new heaven every ten steps" — it has been praised by Chinese and foreign tourists as "the number one wonder mountain under heaven" and "the original of Chinese landscape painting." If you visit everything, it takes about six to seven days; to walk through the essential sights generally also takes three days. There are many forks in the core scenic area, and many beautiful spots are rather remote. From one scenic spot to another, tourists often cannot correctly estimate the time, and detours, backtracking, and wasted steps are things many purely independent travelers frequently encounter. Although it is independent travel, within the core scenic area it is still very necessary to find a reputable independent guide to help with leading the way, explaining, and arranging the itinerary and time.
Zhangjiajie Independent Travel Guide One: How to get to Zhangjiajie?
1. By plane:
At present, a total of 24 cities nationwide have direct flights to Zhangjiajie city, but apart from Beijing, Chengdu, Changsha, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, other cities do not have daily flights. Since airline schedules change frequently, the flight numbers shown on the computer at the local ticket office should be taken as authoritative.
Friends from the North China direction coming to Zhangjiajie need to use Beijing as the departure city, then fly directly to Zhangjiajie. Beijing has flights to Zhangjiajie every day of the week; Tianjin and Xi'an have Okay Airways charter flights to Zhangjiajie during the peak Zhangjiajie tourism season from March to November. Other cities such as Zhengzhou sometimes also have direct charter flights to Zhangjiajie during very busy flight periods such as July and August.
Friends from the East China direction coming to Zhangjiajie: Shanghai has flights to Zhangjiajie year-round. Nanjing and Hangzhou have charter flights or regular flights to Zhangjiajie every year during the peak tourism season from March to November. Wuxi, Xuzhou, and other places sometimes also have direct charter flights to Zhangjiajie during the very busy July-August period.
Friends from the South China direction coming to Zhangjiajie can choose Guangzhou as the departure city, which has flights to Zhangjiajie year-round. Shenzhen often has direct flights to Zhangjiajie during the peak tourism season from March to November.
If there are no direct flights to Zhangjiajie from nearby cities, you can also choose to fly to Changsha first, then from Changsha take a bus (3.5 hours), train (5 hours), or plane (35 minutes) to Zhangjiajie, and then begin your trip.
2. By train:
Zhangjiajie Railway Station has opened passenger train services with more than 10 large and medium-sized cities in China. Zhangjiajie Railway Station can reach Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other cities directly; the trains from Zhangjiajie to Guangzhou, Changsha, Zhanjiang, and other cities all start from Zhangjiajie, making them convenient to take.
From the Northeast direction: you can take T72, T48, T18, or T227/T226 directly to Beijing, then transfer from Beijing to train K267 directly to Zhangjiajie; or take T238/T235 to Changsha, then transfer from Changsha to N726/N728, N733/N736, N710/N711, N702/N704, or K91/K94, all of which can reach Zhangjiajie. Warm reminder: during Golden Week, friends from the above directions who want to buy return tickets had best buy them in advance, because getting tickets on short notice in Zhangjiajie is very difficult.
From the southeast: friends from Shanghai, Wuxi, Nanjing and other places can take train K533 and get off at Zhangjiajie; friends from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other directions can take trains N702/N704 or N710/N711 and get off at Zhangjiajie; friends from Hubei can take trains 2159 or 1473 and get off at Zhangjiajie; friends from Guangxi can take train 2012 to reach Zhangjiajie; friends from Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan and other areas of Hunan can take N733 directly to Zhangjiajie, and friends from Chenzhou, Hengyang, Changsha, Yiyang, Changde and other areas can take N726 directly to Zhangjiajie.
3. Self-driving:
1) Guangzhou direction: Guangzhou—(Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway→Changsha—(Changchang Expressway→Changde—(Expressway→Zhangjiajie
2) Changsha direction: Changsha (Changchang Expressway—Changde (Changzhang Expressway→Zhangjiajie "only a little over 3 hours to Zhangjiajie"
3) Wuhan direction: Wuhan—(Hanyi Expressway——Jingzhou—(National Highway——Koukou—(National Highway→Lixian County, Hunan—(Provincial Highway——Shimen—(Provincial Highway→Cili County—(Changzhang Expressway)→Zhangjiajie
4) East China direction
1. Shanghai—→Nanjing—→Hefei—→Qianshan—→Huangmei—→Huangshi—→Wuhan—→Jingzhou—Koukou—→Lixian County, Hunan—→Shimen—→Cili County—(Changzhang Expressway→Zhangjiajie
2. Shanghai—→Hangzhou—→Jinhua—→Quzhou—→Nanchang—→Zhuzhou—→Changsha—(Changchang Expressway→Changde—(Changzhang Expressway→Zhangjiajie
5) Beijing direction: Beijing—(Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway→Wuhan—(Hanyi Expressway→Jingzhou—(National Highway→Koukou—(National Highway→Lixian County, Hunan—(Provincial Highway→Shimen County—(Provincial Highway→Cili County—(Changzhang Expressway)→Zhangjiajie) Nanchang direction: Nanchang—(National Highway 207→Zhuzhou—(Expressway→Changsha—(Expressway→Changde—(Changzhang Expressway→Zhangjiajie
6) Hefei direction: Hefei—→Wuhan—→Jingzhou—(National Highway→Koukou—((National Highway→Lixian County, Hunan—(Provincial Highway→Shimen—(Provincial Highway→Cili County—(Changzhang Expressway→Zhangjiajie
7) Zhengzhou direction: Zhengzhou—(Expressway→Wuhan—(Expressway→Jingzhou—(National Highway→Koukou—(National Highway→Lixian County, Hunan—(Provincial Highway→Shimen—(Provincial Highway→Cili County—(Changzhang Expressway→Zhangjiajie
8) Jinan direction: Jinan—→Handan—(Expressway→Wuhan—→Jingzhou—(National Highway→Koukou—(National Highway→Lixian County, Hunan—(Provincial Highway→Shimen—(Provincial Highway→Cili County—(Changzhang Expressway→Zhangjiajie
9) Chongqing direction: Chongqing—→Fuling—→Wulong—→Pengshui—→Qianjiang—→Xianfeng—→Longshan, Hunan—→Yongshun—Zhangjiajie