Zhangjiajie: A Nature-Loving Family’s Epic Travel Adventure In Hunan, China

The name Zhangjiajie (张家界) might sound familiar to you if you have the same social media algorithm as mine. My husband and I are nature-lovers; thus, we naturally veer towards scenic places and suitable hiking destinations for our family of five. As we had the chance to travel to China at the end of the year with our three young boys (ages 10, 8 and 5), we decided to tick Zhangjiajie off our travel bucket list and were glad we did.

Where is Zhangjiajie City?

Zhangjiajie is a small city in the northwestern part of Hunan Province, central China. We were in Shanghai prior to this where we went to Shanghai Disneyland, amongst other touristy activities and caught up with friends who were there.

Our mode of transportation to Zhangjiajie was by domestic flight (travel time was 2 hours 30 minutes) as the high-speed rail alternative would have taken us seven hours.

As there are no direct flights from Singapore to Zhangjiajie, others whom we spoke to either flew in from Chengdu or Changsha, then took a high-speed rail into Zhangjiajie West Railway Station. That was also the station where we took a train to Furong Ancient Town.

3 Hotels in Zhangjiajie, 3 Different Attractions

During the Zhangjiajie leg of our trip, we stayed at three hotels across five days and five nights in different parts of the city as we wanted to shorten the distance travelled to scenic attractions after we had checked into our hotels.

This minimised the trouble needed to lug our luggage around while we travelled.

The three main attractions we headed to were:

1. Wulingyuan Scenic Area (home to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park – 森林公园)
2. Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon (大峡谷) and
3. Tianmen Mountain (天门山)

I will share with you my family’s wonderful experience travelling to these amazing places and hopefully, it would inspire your travels to China too.

Off-Peak Perks

One of the main reasons it was a delight to travel to China from November till early December was due to the weather and manageable crowds.

My advice is to choose carefully when to go, avoiding peak periods like the local school and public holidays. It made a whole lot of difference in how we appreciated a popular tourist destination such as Zhangjiajie.

#1. Wulingyuan – Home to Wulingyuan Scenic Area

Checking into Manyuan Resort Hotel

We landed in Hehua International Airport at night and took a 40-minute airport transfer to our first hotel – Manyuan Resort Hotel in Wulingyuan (武陵源) district. It was overall a comfortable stay overlooking the Suo Xi River.

My boys were overjoyed as there was a play tent and slide installed for their free play. I was thrilled with the idea of soaking in a hot tub in the cool weather and my husband was glad at the prospect that we could do our laundry comfortably at the hotel premises.

Yet, the best thing about the hotel was its strategic location.

Being just a 10-minute walk from Wulingyuan Scenic Area via the Wulingyuan East Entrance Gate, it was a doable stroll for all of us in the cold weather.

Should you be staying in Zhangjiajie city, it would take an additional 40 to 50-minute ride by car to the East Entrance Gate, which is the most intuitive and convenient entrance.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

Wulingyuan Scenic Area is a national forest gazetted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992. Since then, it has attracted many to visit its towering quartzite sandstone pillars and peaks such as the famous Hallelujah Mountain that inspired the science fiction movie series Avatar.

For such major attractions, the Chinese have done a terrific job at crowd control and making scenic sites accessible for the young and old via elevators and cableways. However, strollers are not so suitable for the terrain, so I suggest babywearing your kids instead.

Shuttle buses were readily available to board and due to the low peak season in November, we had shorter wait times.

We reached the top of Yuanjiajie scenic area by taking a 1 minute 30 second ride up Bailong Elevator (百龙天梯). My 5-year-old was thrilled alongside his brothers during the ride up as glass lifts are his favourite mode of transport.

We had a rush of adrenaline as the glass lift shot us up 326 metres, only to be ushered immediately into the beautiful stage of nature at eye-level. We even witnessed one of the world’s highest natural stone bridges rising 357 metres from the valley floor, which was called ‘First Bridge under Heaven’ (天下第一桥).

Whilst I instinctively started snapping pictures and videos with my phone, the best way to admire the scenery in front of us was to capture it in our memories. There were multiple lookout points for us to view the sandstone landscape at various angles so we kept walking, stopping and admiring.

My boys enjoyed snacking at elevation as there were plenty of rest stops providing authentic and affordable street food. Do request for no chilli to taste test what the hawkers mean by ‘not spicy’. Trust me on that.

Tianzi Mountain, Lights and Meituan

After soaking in the sights at Yuanjiajie, we skipped Yangjiajie scenic area due to a lack of time and transferred to a smaller ‘roller-coaster-worthy’ shuttle bus ride to Tianzi Mountain. It is best to bring along Sea-bands or motion-sickness medication for this leg if such rides make you woozy.

McDonalds was a treat for us, especially so for our boys who did well to hike up and down stairs. A cable car ride along the Tianzi Mountain Cableway ended the day for us and took us back down the valley.

If you have the time and energy, do stay a little later around the Wulingyuan East Entrance Gate as the place lights up beautifully at night along the Suoxi River. We admired the river night view from the comfort of our hotel room as the temperature was dropping.

Meituan, the Chinese equivalent of our online food delivery app, was our life saver as we did not have to leave the comfort of our hotel room for some delicious comfort food!

#2. Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon – the Thrilling Side of Things

Whilst still staying at Wulingyuan, the friendly hotel staff helped us to purchase entrance tickets for attractions, amongst which were tickets for Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon (大峡谷).

If Wulingyuan Scenic Area is for nature lovers, the Grand Canyon Scenic Area is for nature lovers who are also thrill-seekers.

Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge

Though it isn’t a heart-pumping activity, walking across the Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge (玻璃桥) could be heart-stopping for some.

I noticed the opposite for most on the bridge though, especially my boys who ran across at some points and laid down with limbs casually sprawled across the glass-panelled floor, beyond which was a 300-metre deep valley. At the mid-point, they even gathered with others to witness a rare occasion of a couple doing a bungee jump!

On top of the various activities already included in our general ticket package, one could pay extra for more adventure such as the Via Ferrata route where you walk along the side of a cliff while attached to a harness.

Our ticket package included sitting on a zipline which I would have done sans kids. Yet, as none of our kids qualified for the 30kg weight requirement, we opted instead for glass elevators and glass walkways to reach the bottom of the valley.

One exciting part of the way down was via a slideway where we wore a fabric waist-down and slid down a short final portion of the mountain side.

Hiking along the Valley Floor

Starting and ending with boat rides at Rainbow Square and Shenquan’s Lake Pier, we took a leisurely and straightforward walk through the gorge.

As our tummies were rumbling, we chomped down on burgers at the local fast-food joint at the base of mountain. It was delightfully tasty and even comparable to fast-food joints we are used to.

Cascading waters, towering karst cliffs on both sides, lush greenery, peculiar caves and crystal blue waters lined the boardwalk and stoned path we took. With a different picturesque view at every turn, the 3km walk was well-worth it and doable even for our young boys.

#3. Tianmen Mountain – One Mountain Higher than Another

Checking into Zhangjiajie City Hotel

For this leg of our Zhangjiajie adventure, we checked out of our hotel in Wulingyuan District and checked into Hampton by Hilton Zhangjiajie Tianmen Mountain which is in Zhangjiajie city.

We chose this specific hotel as it was right across from the Tianmenshan Cableway Station. This cableway brought us up to Tianmen Mountain (天门山), our third main attraction to conquer.

Taking Line A route up

There are three main routes to explore Tianmen Mountain. The route we took was Line A which typically brings visitors up directly to the Upper Station of Tianmen Mountain Cableway via cable car. However, since 6 November 2025, there has been a closure of the upper section of the cableway for a period between one to two years due to maintenance.

The usual 28-minute cable car ride was reduced to 10 minutes, but it was the most scenic cable car ride we have ever taken still. We stopped at the middle station and were ushered seamlessly to shuttle buses.

Tianmen Mountain Cave Floor

Taking the shuttle bus up to the foot of Tianmen Mountain Cave (天门洞开) turned out to be an adventure in itself, as the driver expertly navigated the 66 bends of the Avenue Toward Heaven (Tong Tian Avenue).

The ride was only about 10 minutes and though there were bends of 180 degrees, the drive wasn’t as dizzy as we thought it would be. When the cave came into view, we were all mesmerised by the highest natural karst arch in the world.

After a simple lunch of noodles at the foot of the cave, my eldest son wanted to take up the challenge of climbing the famous 999-step Sky Ladder or Stairway to Heaven.

Since he was so determined and even wanted to time himself, the rest of us decided to follow suit and climbed it too. It turned out to be a great family achievement after having scaled Mount Bromo previously. This one takes the cake.

Tianmen Mountaintop

After reaching the top of the 999 steps, we thought had reached the top but nope, we haven’t. I had a better understanding of the Chinese saying ‘there’s always one mountain higher than another’ when we travelled on the transmountain escalator.

This was made up of seven sets of escalators, which brought us higher by an elevation of 200 metres beyond the top of the 999 steps.

Looking down from the top, we were intrigued that the people climbing the Stairway to Heaven were tiny dots! The elevation made me a little dizzy but my mountain goat-like kids were generally well acclimatised.

We explored the mountain top via the west line but headed straight for the Forest Sightseeing Cable Car in order to save time. This meant setting our sights on reaching Yunmeng Fairy Peak (云梦仙顶).

It took us 50 minutes to reach this highest peak of Tianmen Mountain (elevation of 1,518.6 metres above sea level), which offered unparalleled views of Tianmen Mountain’s 16 peaks.

The Forest Sightseeing Cable Car turned out to be a chairlift experience that relieved our tired legs as we went to and from both ways. The only downside of this chairlift was that each child was required to be accompanied by an adult. Thankfully, we met kind folks who accompanied one of our sons on both the to and from trips.

Heading back down via the Tianmen Cave Express Cableway

As the sun was setting close to 5 pm, we decided to head back down via the Tianmen Cave Express Cableway. It took just 5 minutes to reach the base called Mountain Gate.

From there, we took a ride-hailing car to 72 Strange Buildings (七十二奇楼), which was an architectural nod to the native Tujia people’s stilted houses. The building housed many eateries where we had our dinner and desserts.

Zhangjiajie, China is a League of its Own

While planning this epic trip, our friends asked whether we were never heading back to China and thus planned to fly from Shanghai to Zhangjiajie, followed by Beijing, Chinese cities that were considerably far apart.

Our reply to them was that we really wanted our family to experience the beauty of Zhangjiajie together. That was something doable for our boys and we had no regrets flying internally to reach it.

Thanks to the Chinese, we were transported not just by our own two feet, but via many modes of transport such as elevators, escalators, cableways and chairlifts, to scenic sites that would otherwise have been much harder to access.

For that, I would rank Zhangjiajie as one of the most accessible high elevation scenic sites I have been to.