Classic Zhangjiajie Landscapes (5)
Yaozizhai Tour Route: Also called Yaozizhai or Jiegong Mountain, Yaozizhai faces Huangshizhai and Yangzhai in a three-way standoff. At 1,050 meters elevation and 0.5 square km, its summit is a narrow ridge over 1,400 meters long and 100 meters wide—a flat viewing platform with cliffs over 300 meters deep on three sides, famed for its perilous beauty.
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.
Yaozizhai Tour Route
Yaozizhai, also known as Yaozizhai or Jiegong Mountain, stands in a three-way rivalry with Huangshizhai and Yangzhai, at an elevation of 1,050 meters, covering an area of 0.5 square kilometers. The top of the stronghold is a narrow ridge, over 1,400 meters long and 100 meters wide. It is a flat viewing platform with sheer cliffs on three sides dropping over 300 meters, known for its precipitousness. In 2003, the Laomowan to Baiyinggu special tour trail, the Yaozizhai circuit tour route, and the Tianqiao to Shuiraosimen tour route were opened. The main scenic spots on the Yaozizhai tour route include: Layered Rocks Surging Pagodas, Pointing Out Rivers and Mountains, Eagle Beak, and Heaven Bridge.
[Liubin Rock] Five hundred meters south of Laomowan, on the right slope, there are upper and lower rock wall recesses like houses, overlapping like buildings. The lower rock house is by the roadside, covering 50 square meters. Inside, stone slabs are laid and stone benches placed. Entering feels like entering a cave dwelling; looking up and out, peaks surround in a circle. Going half a circle to the left to the upper rock house, it is 30 meters long and 10 meters wide. The back wall is steep, and the right side has a quiet deep valley.
[Echo Valley] Located at the end of the Yaozizhai mountain path. Cliffs on both sides press close, over 200 meters high. Shouting from below the valley, the sound reverberates to the top, clear and loud; shouting from the top, the sound spirals to the bottom, reaching the east valley and west slope, like a great bell, with lingering echoes.
[Heaven Bridge] One thousand meters south of Echo Valley is a slope covered with green like a curtain. On the slope is an opening like a bridge arch, oval-shaped, 40 meters long and 20 meters high. Above the arch is a 200-meter-long stone beam like a bridge deck. This bridge spans the void, with both ends slightly upturned, and the deck is 4 meters wide. The bridge opening holds green, a world apart, just as the Ming Dynasty Tujia poet Tian Rongchao described: 'Two mountains cut through, one gate empty; one gate splits open, two mountains through; how many immortals cannot close it, all year only white clouds seal it.'
[Layered Rocks Surging Pagodas] On the northern edge of the Yaozizhai top, several cliffs jut out into the air like platforms. Standing on the platform and looking down, dozens of stone peaks rise from the ground, layer upon layer, surging out from the valley in a rushing momentum, shaped like a pagoda forest. This scene is the 'Layered Rocks Surging Pagodas' recorded in the Qing Dynasty 'Tongzhi Zhili Lizhou Gazetteer.'
[Jiegong Temple] Walking east along the top of Yaozizhai, you can see the ruins of Jiegong Temple from the Ming and Qing dynasties. This temple was built by local Tujia people to commemorate the peasant uprising leader Xiang Wang Tianzi, who exhausted his efforts. The temple has two courtyards and one hall, covering 220 square meters, with a wood-stone structure and blue tile roof. Existing relics include the mountain gate and some stone pillars, stone walls, stone bases, and tiles—a rare cultural landscape.
[Spear Rock] Fifty meters down from Echo Valley to Huanglian Bay, in the mountain pass forest stands a slender stone peak shaped like a spear. The top peak is 5 meters long, with a cone like a spearhead. Below the spearhead, it is thin like a long handle, and where the round and pointed parts meet there is a joint like a ring, with shrubs growing on the ring like tassels. The peak head is sharp, towering abruptly, like a spear. Its heroic posture of piercing the blue sky with an unblunted edge leaves visitors amazed.