Zhangjiajie Landscapes (1)
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, a Gem of Scenery: Located 30 km north of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, the park borders Xiehe and Suoxiyu to the east, Shadi to the south, Yuxi, Xinglong and Zhonghu to the west, and Tianzi Mountain to the north. Covering 130 square km, its highest peak, Tu'er Wangyue, rises 1,264.5 meters.
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 bright pearl of scenery, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, is located 30 kilometers north of Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province. To the east it adjoins Xiehe and Suoxiyu, to the south it borders Shadi, to the west it neighbors Yuxi, Xinglong, and Zhonghu, and to the north it connects with Tianzi Mountain. Its total area is 130 square kilometers, and its highest peak, Rabbit Gazing at the Moon Peak, is 1,264.5 meters above sea level. The natural scenery of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is wonderful for its peaks, secluded for its valleys, lush for its forests, and beautiful for its waters. Within its bounds, peaks are wondrous and rocks precipitous, valleys deep and ravines secluded, waters beautiful and forests emerald, and the woods luxuriant. It combines majesty, wonder, beauty, seclusion, and wildness in one, and gathers peaks, valleys, gullies, forests, and waters in one place. Among them are more than 2,000 peak pillars, whose summits and walls are covered with green foliage. Many stone peaks resemble people or beasts, vessels or objects, vividly lifelike and magnificent in momentum. Between the peaks, streams murmur, canyons are deep and secluded, and countless trees spread their branches, their dense shade blotting out the sun.
According to geologists' investigations, the formation of the quartz sandstone peak forest in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is as follows: as early as 440 million years ago, this area was long exposed above water and subjected to erosion. From 380 million to 180 million years ago, the crust here was mainly subsiding, and northwestern Hunan experienced a marine transgression, becoming a vast ocean. Zhangjiajie was in a broad coastal zone, where large amounts of loose silicon oxide (quartz) carried by flowing water from the ancient land were deposited, reaching a thickness of 500 meters. It was pure in quality and uniform in grain, and was the material basis constituting the quartz sandstone peak forest. Thereafter, under the action of the Yanshanian orogeny from 180 million to 140 million years ago, the crust of northwestern Hunan was uplifted by a large margin, the sea withdrew, and a broad, gentle, open folded landmass formed. Zhangjiajie is located in the Sanguansi syncline within the Sangzhi composite synclinorium, near the southern side of the axial part, and most of it is an exposed area of Devonian quartz sandstone. The attitude of its quartz sandstone strata is gentle and not prone to sliding, providing favorable conditions for the formation of the quartz sandstone peak forest. Later, through the Himalayan tectonic movement, the crust continued to rise unevenly, forcing the crustal rocks to fracture. This fracturing did not cause obvious displacement of the rock strata in relative position, and was constrained by three sets of vertical joints in the stress directions of NE 30°, NW 310°–330°, and east-west. This not only controlled the development of Zhangjiajie's peak forest, creating stone peaks of geometric shapes and angular forms, but also controlled the direction of development of stream valleys and gullies; it is the geological environment and structural condition for the formation of Zhangjiajie's sandstone peak forest landforms. In addition, with the cooperation of the deep cutting and lateral erosion of flowing water over tens of millions of years, as well as gravity and biological action, the originally whole mass of quartz sandstone was decomposed into thousands of gullies and ravines. Larger land blocks are called mesa (such as Huangshizhai, Yaozaizhai, Yangzhai, etc.); between two gullies a stone wall is cut, called a ridge, such as Modao Ridge; the stone walls were further eroded into more than 3,000 stone peaks and stone pillars, forming Zhangjiajie's peculiar sandstone peak forest canyon landscape.
As early as the pre-Qin period, the Zhangjiajie area was a place where the ancestors of the Tujia lived and multiplied. In the Qin Dynasty it belonged to Cigu County of Qianzhong Commandery, and in the Han Dynasty to Chong County of Wuling Commandery. During the Three Kingdoms period, it belonged to Lanzhong County of Tianmen Commandery. In the Tang and Song dynasties it belonged to Cili County of Lizhou. Academic experts believe that Zhangjiajie got its name because residents surnamed Zhang lived in a concentrated community there during the Ming Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty "Guangxu Yongding County Local Gazetteer" records: "Zhang (Wan) Cong, during the Chenghua reign of the Ming, came as a commandant from Fengle, Nanchang, to Yongding Guard, and thus became a prominent clan." Yongding Guard Commandant Zhang Wancong moved with his wife and children to the mountain forest area around Longfeng Nunnery in Qingyan Mountain and became the founding ancestor of the Zhang surname; Zhang Wancong's tomb is still behind the old Zhang family house in Miaowan Group of Zhangjiajie Village, on the ancestral mountain. In the third year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty (1630 AD), Zhang Wancong's sixth-generation descendant Zhang Zaihong, "having received imperial favor as a tuan official," established his office here, and the place was renamed Zhangjiajie ("Genealogy of the Zhang Clan of the Bairen Tang"). The Qing Dynasty "Daoguang Yongding County Gazetteer" records: "Wushi Stream originates in Zhangjiajie," and the "Republican-era Cili County Gazetteer" also records: "The upper source of Suo Stream (today's Golden Whip Stream) comes from Zhangjiajie in Dayong." The mountain ridge 1 kilometer south of Luoguta, where the northern source of Wushi Stream and the southern source of Golden Whip Stream divide, was Zhangjiajie in the Ming and Qing periods, that is, today's Zhangjiajie Village of Zhangjiajie Park. Now, Zhang Ziming, Zhang Xinming, and other residents surnamed Zhang in Liufanggang of Zhangjiajie Village all say they are descendants of their ancestor Zhang Wancong, commandant of Yongding Guard. After the Qing Dynasty's Yongzheng-era policy of "replacing native officials with centrally appointed officials," Zhangjiajie was under the jurisdiction of Yongding County. In 1933, the local armed leader Xiong Haiqing, who occupied Huangshizhai, and the bandit chief Zhang Douyuan, who occupied Yaozaizhai, attacked each other. In the autumn of that year, the Bai Shuting regiment of Chen Quzhen's Nationalist forces besieged Huangshizhai for three months without taking it. From the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China period, the Zhangjiajie area repeatedly became a battlefield flowing with rivers of blood; place names such as Luoguta, Zhimata, Shuqi Valley, Luanchuan Slope, and Luoma Valley are all traces of ancient battlefields in the Zhangjiajie area. After the founding of New China, Zhangjiajie Township was established in the Zhangjiajie mountain area, and in April 1958 the state-owned Zhangjiajie Forest Farm was founded. In September 1982, the State Council, entrusting the State Planning Commission, approved the establishment of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, China's first national forest park. Therefore, Zhangjiajie in the narrow sense refers to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and the three neighborhood committees under its jurisdiction: Zhangjiajie, Yuanjiajie, and Luoguta.
As early as the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhangjiajie's wondrous scenery had already been discovered by men of letters. Chen Guangqian wrote in the "Wanli Cili County Gazetteer" of the Ming Dynasty, the first to record the Zhangjiajie scenic area: "Sannü Cliff stands facing Tianmen Mountain, with rocks shaped like three women, commonly called the Three Sisters." The Qing Dynasty "Daoguang Yongding County Gazetteer" records: "Qingyan Mountain, eighty li northwest of the county." The Qing Dynasty "Tongzhi Lizhou Prefecture Gazetteer" gave high praise to Zhangjiajie's landscape: "The gathering of peaks and the source of streams in Yongding are where lofty men dwell and where true heroes exert themselves. Its numinous traces and superb scenery are all obtained by descending into the secluded and entering the perilous. Such as the flat expanse of Huangsizhai, reached by only a single path. The steepness of Zhuma Ravine, no less than nine bends. Even the natural strongholds of Shu and the scenic charms of Wuyi cannot boast of being uniquely peerless." The Qing Dynasty "Tongzhi Lizhou Prefecture Gazetteer" also records: "Qingyan Mountain, with five mountains standing abreast in front, like a stupa. The middle peak is even more towering and steep, thrusting up into the Milky Way; in clear radiance with accumulated snow, it best commands a wondrous view." The Qing Dynasty "Guangxu Yongding County Local Gazetteer" writes: "At the head of the northern mountain records of Yongding County is Qingyan Mountain, named Yuanjiajie, which stretches forty-eight li horizontally and vertically... To its southwest is Huangsi Village, cut away all around, low in the east and high in the west, with no residents on top. Those who shun the world sometimes hide among it... To its north is Pipa Boundary, with the Three Sisters Mountain, embracing Pipa on the left and Xianglu on the right, standing out beyond the clouds, seeming immortal when viewed from afar." This gazetteer also records: "Three Sisters Mountain is behind Chaotian Mountain, with chaotic rocks piercing the sky and the mountain peak standing alone; viewed from afar it is like people traveling, so it is commonly called the Three Sisters." The "Republican-era Cili County Gazetteer" gave an overall evaluation of the landscape of the Zhangjiajie area: "Qingyan Mountain is one hundred fifty li west of Cili County, with lofty ridges and great valleys, connecting several counties... Yangli to the south and Lanzhong to the north, stretching across north and south, peaks cut off and streams coiled, each with different names according to its division, and it is also what may be called a deep region of the Red County."
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park lies in the northern mid-subtropical climate zone. The climate here is mild, with an average annual temperature of 12.8°C. The coldest month averages 1.6°C, and the hottest month averages 29.7°C; the absolute maximum temperature is 36.4°C, and the absolute minimum is minus 4.5°C. The average annual precipitation is 1,228.5 millimeters, with an average of 139 rainy days, 125 foggy days, and 42 frost days per year, and a frost-free period of 240 to 303 days. The forest coverage rate of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is as high as 80.1%, of which the scenic area's forest coverage rate reaches 93.2%; the park's total forest area is 49,442 mu, of which the scenic area's forest area accounts for 22,124 mu. The vegetation belongs to the mid-subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest vegetation zone, with stretches of primary secondary forest, as well as more than 17,000 mu of secondary broad-leaved forest. There are 517 species of woody plants in 93 families. Among the precious tree species, those under national first-class protection include five species: dove tree, ginkgo, emmenopterys henryi, southern Chinese yew, and metasequoia; those under national second-class protection include fifteen species such as long-bracted hemlock, Badong manglietia, Chinese tulip tree, hairy toon, white aril yew, prickly castanopsis, eucommia, Fujian nanmu, magnolia officinalis, zelkova, and linden. The wild animals in the park belong to the Central China subregion of the Oriental realm, with 28 species of mammals. Among them, the rare animals under national protection include seven species: macaque, otter, giant salamander, golden pheasant, pangolin, and large and small civets, as well as musk deer, goral, porcupine, raccoon dog, river deer, clouded leopard, flying squirrel, white snake, red snake, and others, earning it the reputation of a "natural zoo." Birds belong to the Southwest China subregion, with 41 species in 13 families and 6 orders. Precious birds include Temminck's tragopan, long-tailed pheasant, koklass pheasant, golden pheasant, wild pheasant, rail, bamboo partridge, white-necked crow, woodpecker, goshawk, thrush, oriole, lovebird, cuckoo, and Chinese bulbul. There are 208 species of biological insects in 69 families and 41 orders.
The scenic spots of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park are concentrated, with a great many attractions, totaling 136 scenic spots distributed along six tour routes: Huangshizhai, Jinbian Stream, Pipa Stream, Yaozi Village, Shedao Valley, and Yuanjiajie. Among them, the ten greatest wonders of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park are: Jinbian Rock, Zicao Pool, and Qianli Xianghui (Meeting After a Thousand Miles) at Jinbian Stream; Tianshu Baoxia (Heavenly Book Box) and Dinghai Shenzhen (Sea-Calming Needle) at Huangshizhai, and Tianqiao Yidun (Heavenly Bridge Abandoned Pier); the Couple Rock at Pipa Stream; the Mihun Tai (Soul-Enchanting Platform) and Tianxia Diyi Qiao (Number One Bridge Under Heaven) at Yuanjiajie; and the Cengyan Yongta (Layered Rocks Surging Pagoda) at Yaozi Village.