Zhangjiajie Family Tour with Furong Town

Welcome to Zhangjiajie! After arriving at the airport, you will find your tour guide holding your name sign and waiting for you. Your tour guide will escort you to the Wulingyuan District (near the attractions we are going to visit), and help you check in to the hotel. You can have a good rest in your room to get over the jet lag and prepare for the next tour!

After breakfast, we will go to the first attraction—Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. It is the first national forest park in China with a total area of 48 million square meters. And this park was listed by the United Nations as a World Natural Heritage Site in 1992. When walking into it, you will see countless plants. At that moment, you may feel like you’re in an oxygen bar. Enjoy the fresh air!

Later, we will take a cable car to the Huangshi Village. In this region, as an old saying goes, “if you haven’t been to Huangshi Village, you cannot say that you have been to Zhangjiajie.”, which demonstrates the importance of the village. The most interesting sightseeing of the Huangshi Village is the Five-finger Peak. The peak is located 200 meters northeast of the Huangshi Village observatory. Overlooking from the observatory, you can see five stone pillars standing side by side, like five fingers stretching out. You may have heard the well-known Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, which is related to the peak as well. Local folklore has it that the five stone pillars of the peak are the fingers of Buddha. A long time ago, Sun Wukong made a bet with Buddha that if he can escape from the hand of Buddha, he’d win, or else he’d be punished. With the ability to cover a hundred thousand miles with one somersault, he, of course, was full of ambition that he will win. However, after a somersault, Sun found himself surrounded by five mountains, which actually are the five fingers of Buddha. For losing the bet, Sun had to accept the punishment and be pressed under the Five-finger Peak for five hundred years. Although it is just a legend, Five-finger Peak, with mystery, attracts people from all over the world to visit.

After lunch, we will take a cable car downhill and visit the Golden Whip Stream. If you have ever wondered which the most attractive canyon in the world is, you may find the answer here. Zhangjiajie is not only famous for its splendid mountains, but also for its mysterious streams, of which the most famous one is the Golden Whip Stream. With a history of more than 100 million years, the stream is still transparent. In the stream live the Golden Whip fishes whose body shape cannot change all their life. There are also giant salamanders as old as the mountains of Zhangjiajie. Beside the stream are pieces of old-growth forest, and you may come across many wild animals such as squirrels and monkeys. If you are lucky, you may also see the lobster flower, which has been living in this region for more than 100 million years. 

After enjoying the beauty of the Golden Whip Stream, we will visit the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon. Even before you come to the canyon, you will notice that it is linked by a giant glass bridge. Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge is 430 meters long, and it is more than 300 meters deep from the bottom of the valley. This bridge is the highest and longest glass bridge in the world. Standing on it, you can overlook layers of peaks in the distance and oversee the deep canyon. At that moment, you may feel the greatness of nature and the tininess of human beings. After visiting the Grand Canyon, our tour guide will escort you back to the hotel. You can stroll around or have a good rest in the hotel to get energized for a better tour tomorrow!

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon

How was your sleep last night? Hope you have regained your strength! Today we will tour the Yuanjiajie Scenic Area, which is located on the north side of the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Although we need to go to the mountain top to enjoy the scenery, don’t worry about that. We don’t have to climb the mountain because there is a better way to get there. Maybe you have taken the elevators over 100 meters, but have you ever taken the elevator over 300 meters? The first place we will visit is the Bailong Elevator. As the highest outdoor elevator around the world, the Bailong Elevator, with a running height of 326 meters, will reach the mountain top just in 1 minute. During the rising of the elevator, you may feel like flying in the mountains and that every second is exciting. Having not had the time to react, you are already on the mountain top. After arriving at the top, we are free to enjoy the beauty of the Yuanjiajie Scenic Area. You must have heard the movie Avatar. In fact, many scenes of this movie are shot here, of which the most famous is the Qiankun Pillar. In December 2008, it was in here that Hansen, Hollywood photographer, chose the Qiankun Pillar as the archetype of the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain. It is the magnificent and fantasy scene in this area that created a splendid set for the movie. But I believe that you will be more surprised to see these mountains floating in the air on the spot than you would be if you saw them in the movie.

After lunch, there will be a bus to take you to Tianzi Mountain cable car station, and you can take the cable car to reach the mountain top. Tianzi Mountain, formerly known as Qingyan Mountain, was named after Xiang Dakun, the leader of the ancient Tujia ethnic group, who led a local peasant uprising and called himself the son of God (In Chinese, the word “Tianzi” means the son of God as well as the king). There are many unique and lifelike peaks here, for example, the Imperial Brush Peak. In the valley, dozens of odd peaks protruding at random like pens on the ground. Going forward, we will reach the highest place in Tianzi mountain, where you can overlook the panorama of this mountain. As you stand here, you can imagine that you are the king of this place, with thousands of stone peaks all kowtowing to you.

After visiting Tianzi Mountain, we will take the cable car down the mountain and take a 10-minute car ride to the Ten-Mile Gallery. You may wonder why it is called that. But when you walk into the scenic area, you will get to know the reason for the name. When you are walking on the forest path, the scenery on both sides is like a beautiful picture scroll, and you are also like being in a gallery. At this time, you can take out your phone to record the beauty, and you will find that each of the photos is like a famous painting on display in the gallery. I believe you will agree that it is one of your most memorable family tours when you are wandering through the galleries with your family members. Perhaps you were so absorbed in the beauty that you didn’t notice it was getting late. Then our guide will take you out of the gallery and back to the hotel.

Yuanjiajie Scenic Area

Ten-Mile Gallery

Today we will leave the Wulingyuan District and move to the next attraction! After breakfast, your tour guide will drive you to Tianmen Mountain. This Mountain, with a typical karst landform, is the highest mountain of Zhangjiajie and is famous mainly for its natural wonder, Tianmen Cave. We will arrange taking the cable car to the mountain. Inside the cable car, you can overlook the panorama of the mountain as well as the winding road, which has 99 curves. When you come to the top of the mountain, you will see the most thrilling attraction—Glass Bridge. Unlike the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge that we have seen before, this bridge is built along the mountain and only wide enough to accommodate two people walking side by side. When walking on the bridge, you can oversee the bottomless valley and admire endless clouds in the distance, as if you were walking in the sky. Besides, Tianmen Mountain is also a perfect place for wingsuit flying, and if you are lucky, you may see that.

Next, we will head for the most famous attraction—Tianmen Cave. With a height of 131 meters, a width of 57 meters, and a depth of 60 meters, Tianmen Cave is the highest natural mountain-piercing cave in the world. Actually, the name of the Tianmen Mountain also comes from this cave. The cave formed in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280). One day, the top of the mountain collapsed, and a cave formed miraculously. The king of Wu (one of the kingdoms of this period) regarded it as a good omen, so he changed the name of the mountain to Tianmen Mountain (In Chinese, the word “Tianmen” means the gate of heaven). There are usually clouds floating over the entrance of the cave, which looks like a fairyland. You can climb up to the cave from the ladder, which has 999 steps, in front of the cave. I believe you will fall in love with this cloud-filled wonderland!

After visiting Tianmen Mountain, we will head to the next attraction, Furong Town. The town is located in the 80 kilometers southwest of the mountain, and it will take about 2 hours to get there. It has a history of more than 2000 years. Furong Town is also called “thousand-year-old town hung on the waterfall” as a splendid waterfall flows through this ancient town. Not long ago, a visitor uploaded a video of himself visiting the town, and the video has been viewed more than 300,000 times in a few days. Many people were fascinated by the beauty here and claimed that they must come here if they have an opportunity. Here, you can also see buildings located on top of the waterfall. Imagine that you open the window inside the house, and not far away, there stand a cliff and waterfall. How spectacular that is! In this ancient town, you can enjoy the beauty as well as the leisurely afternoon with your family!

After visiting Furong Town, we are about to start a family tour to Fenghuang Ancient Town. Fenghuang Ancient Town is located at 120 kilometers southwest of Furong Town, and it takes about two hours to get there. The town, crowned as the Oriental Venice, has a history of more than 400 years. Here, you can not only experience the unique customs and habits of the Tujia and Miao ethnic groups but also admire the beautiful water scenery. Walking on the streets of this ancient water town, with endless mountains, quiet river, and ancient buildings, you will forget the time for such a charming scene. But you don’t need to rush to see all the attractions here, because we still have a whole day to enjoy the scenery here tomorrow. After today’s visit to the Fenghuang Ancient Town, the guide will escort you to the nearby hotel. Have a good rest and save energy for tomorrow’s journey！

Tianmen Mountain

Glass Bridge

Today we will continue our visit to the Fenghuang Ancient Town. Maybe you already enjoyed the beauty here on the streets yesterday, but do you want to explore this ancient city on a boat? Today we will have a boat tour on the Tuojiang River. During this boat tour, you can take your time to enjoy the beautiful scenery on both sides. As the boat’s moving forward, the scenery on both sides also constantly changes. Enjoy the peace! In addition to the beautiful scenery, some of the unique buildings in Fenghuang Ancient Town are also worth seeing. You may have seen many peculiar buildings, but have you ever seen houses supported by logs above the water? When drifting with the boat on the river, you will meet these special houses. After boarding the land from the boat, you will see a bridge, called Rainbow Bridge not far away. The bridge is divided into two floors. The first floor is the shopping area, and the second floor displays treasures such as calligraphy and paintings, free for visitors to tour. About the building of this bridge, there is a story. Legend has it that before the bridge was built, the site where the Rainbow Bridge is located, was where a dragon vein (In ancient China, the dragon vein symbolized the emperor) lied, which indicated that there would be a emperor born in this place. However, when Zhu Yuanzhang (the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty) learned of this, he destroyed this area to prevent his position as emperor from being undermined. But the local people wanted to keep the dragon spirit here, which was believed as a good omen. So the people built a bridge here to keep the dragon spirit.

Besides, we will visit the Former Residence of Shen Congwen, a famous Chinese writer. The prototype of his famous Chinese book Border Town is the Fenghuang Ancient Town. Border Town is to China what the Great Gatsby is to the United States. If you want to know what kind of environment made this great writer, visiting his former residence will tell you the answer. After visiting these attractions in this town, your tour guide will accompany you to the airport to catch your flight back home.

Tuojiang River

Former Residence of Shen Congwen

Editor: Ziyang Zhang

Proofreader: Yan Liu