7 Days Zhangjiajie to Fanjingshan Unbelievable Nature Tour

Full Itinerary Day by day (Can Be Customized)

Day 1 Zhangjiajie Arrival

Welcome to Zhangjiajie! Upon your arrival, our local tour guide will meet you with a sign on which says your name at the arrival hall in the airport or train station. Then our guide and driver will transfer you directly to your hotel in Wulingyuan in Zhangjiajie by our comfortable private car (non-smoking), and the guide will help you check in. The rest of today is on your own to explore this fabulous city in China.

Arrival Ideas: Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport 6 kilometers from city downtown serves flights between major domestic cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Qingdao, etc. and some international cities like Bangkok, Osaka, etc. Besides, you can also take a normal train to Zhangjiajie Railway Station from many destinations, like Changsha (4.5-5.5 hours), Yichang (4.5-5 hours), Tongren (about 7 hours), Wuhan (10 hours), Xian (15 hours), Shanghai (20 hours), Beijing (23 hours), and so on.

Evening Idea: Xibu Street at Wulingyuan downtown is popular for a leisure walk. You can stroll at the Tujia ethnic flavored shopping pedestrian street to taste local snacks, find interesting artifacts and enjoy the beautiful night view with colorful lights.

Day 2 Yuanjiajie Avatar Mountains - Tianzi Mountain (B, L)

After breakfast, you will go to explore the core scenic area of Zhangjiajie National Park - Yuanjiajie and Tianzi Mountain. Firstly, take a sightseeing bus to experience Bailong Elevator, the fastest elevator and also the tallest outdoor elevator in the world. Enjoy the 1.5 minutes to be shot from the valley bottom up to the pillar peak. And then, hike amongst the multiple erupting stone columns at Yuanjiajie Scenic Area and open the mysterious “Pandora World”. During the exciting hike, get a good preparation to have an enviable look at the South Sky Pillar of around 150 meters high, the authentic prototype inspiring the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain; enjoy the best scenery at Enchanting Platform with tens and hundreds of beautiful stone peaks similar to a lot of nutritious bamboo shoots towering from the ground; also, closely watch the peculiar First Bridge of the World that is naturally made with an only 5-meter long stone platform linking the two peaks together to form the rare world wonder.

Then, take the sightseeing bus to visit Tianzi Mountain. Walk to He Long Park there, which is the best viewing deck to admire very closely the incredible and magnificent view of odd stone peaks standing one after another. Most appealing pictures of the four wonders of Tianzi Mountain are photographed there, including the mists and clouds, moonlight, rays of sunshine and winter snow. Also, step a little further to Tianzi Pavilion nearby to enjoy the marvelous view and terrific sightseeing of the Xihai Peak Forest from another angle of view. After that, take the cool Tianzi Mountain Cable Car down with groups of rockery hills passing by outside your glass window, and then take the sightseeing bus to exit Wulingyuan Park.

After the exciting tour, your guide and driver will escort you to your hotel.

Day 3 Yellow Dragon Cave - Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon & Glass Bridge (B, L)

After breakfast, be ready for today's exciting adventures. You'll first drive about 60km from Zhangjiajie downtown area to visit Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon. Now, its your bold moment to take the challenge and walk on the transparent Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge to feel like walking on the clouds, which is the world longest and highest glass-bottomed bridge so far in the whole universe, with total length of 430 meters and height of 400 meters above the deep valley. After the thrilling moment, take the elevators and enjoy the Nuokeli Slideway to the valley bottom for a cooling down and please your both eyes with the fascinating natural sceneries of the lush forest, emerald lake, various vegetation, etc. at the popular Rainbow Square, Momo Cave, the Holy Spring Lake, etc.

Next, you’ll drive about 20km to see the natural wonder in the Yellow Dragon Cave, also known as Huanglong Cave. It is a underground-lost palace which is praised as the most beautiful cave in the world by UNESCO Experts, with an area of 100,000 square meters, a length of 7.6 kilometers, a height of 140 meters. There are two underground rivers, four waterfalls, 13 caverns and 10,000 stalagmites and stalactites is this huge limestone cave. The Magic Needle and Chair of Dragon King are two most famous sights in the cave.

After the sightseeing, drive to Wulingyuan to check in your hotel.

Day 4 Zhangjiajie Tianmen Mountain - Fenghuang Ancient Town (B, L)

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up at your hotel. On this day, you will make a great trip to Tianmen Mountain, another magnificent national forest park in Zhangjiajie City.

First transfer to take the Tianmen Mountain Cable Car and ascend from Zhangjiajie downtown up to the peak of Tianmen Mountain of over 1,400 meters above the sea. Travel by the about 7,455 meters long cableway that is so far the longest one among the whole world and have a shocking look at the wandering Avenue toward Heaven from the glass. Then, take the Forest Sightseeing Cable Car to visit Tianmen Temple originated from Tang Dynasty on the mountain peak, which is one of the only world 5 Buddhist temples preserving the Buddha body relics. Walk around the temple cluster to appreciate the featured Qing Dynasty styled Buddhist structure with verdant forest surrounding by.

And then, hold your breath to take two scary walks on the cliff path circling the mountain body. One is the 60-meter long and 1.6-meter wide Glass Skywalk with transparent glass material 1430 meters above the bottomless valley, which makes you feel walking in the air in sunny days and fairyland in misty and cloudy days, while another must be the 1600-meter long Ghost-Valley Plank Road hanging on the cliff. Just step on and test!

After that, take the escalator from the peak down to Tianmen Cave to see the giant hole on the mountain. Formed by natural pressing and collapsing into 131.5 meters high, 57 meters wide and 60 meters deep, this cave is really a rare wonder of the world. Next, walk downstairs along the super steep 999-steps with the highest inclination up to 45°, which is the only access to Tianmen Cave from the foot of the mountain for a lot of prayers worshiping there. Lastly, walk several minutes to take a cable car to descend the mountain.

Travel tips: For safety reasons, the Ghost-Valley Plank Road and Tianmen Cave may be closed in winter if there are heavy snows, freezing weather or regular maintenance. Your travel consultant and tour guide will adjust your itinerary accordingly.

After the visiting, your guide and driver will escort to Fenghuang Ancient Town which is about 200 kilometers from Zhangjiajie, taking 3.5 hours for driving. Upon arrival, your guide will help you check in your hotel. When night falls, every old house lights up and the whole atmosphere becomes festive, colorful and amazing. Take a relaxing walk and appreciate the fabulous night view of this ancient town.

Day 5 Fenghuang - Fanjingshan (B, L)

In this morning, you’ll have a nice tour in Fenghuang Ancient Town. With over 300 years’ history, it is located on the western edge of Hunan Province and next to Guizhou Province. Praised as the most beautiful tiny town in China, it sets an example of what villages were like before the start of modernization. In the town dozens of lanes are paved with stones that run between the wooden houses built on stilts. Generations of local people have stepped on the lanes and worn them down bit by bit.

Fenghuang Ancient Town offers a totally different day views which would really bring you back to ancient time. Have a slow walk and feel the calmness and zen of this beautiful place. Take a small boat ride on the Tuojiang River passing through the most essence part of the old town (from Beimen Pier to Longevity Palace) to imagine what life was going in the past. Visit Former Residence of Shen Congwen to listen to the beautifully novel of “Border Town” which is Shen Congwen's masterpiece for its brilliant portrayal of Chinese rural life before the Communist Revolution. Enjoy more memorable time to have a look at the landmark of the ancient town - Rainbow Bridge and explore East Gate Tower, Wanming Pagoda, etc.

In the afternoon, drive to Jiangkou County, which is conveniently located at the foot area of Fanjingshan.

Fanjingshan National Nature Preserve was listed as the UNESCO World Natural Heritage in 2018 with the peculiar conspicuous mountains formation in sea of karst retained from the remote era 65-2 million years ago and praised as the No.5 Buddhist Mountain in China for being the place of enlightenment of Buddha Maitreya.

Day 6 Fanjingshan Exploration - Jiangkou (B, L)

After breakfast, your guide and driver will meet you at your hotel. Then, you will be driven to the entrance of Fanjingshan to discover this world well-known fantastic holy mountain along the popular south route. 

Enter the mountain and take a sightseeing bus to Yu’ao Station and continue to take the cable car there to catch a bird’s eye view of the dense emerald forest of Mount Fanjing. Now, start your hiking from the Forest Hiking Road to witness the famous Mushroom Stone. It is the landmark of Fanjingshan and draws people’s follow by its unbelievable image of the bigger top quadrate putting off center on the smaller quadrate bottom, which forms like a mushroom vividly and seems easy to fall. However, for one million years, it just stands so still there after centuries of rain, snow, wind and sunburn. Remember to take a standard photo of tourists with it!

Then, continue to hike to the Old Golden Summit and walk up to its peak. With an elevation of 2,494 meters, it is the best observation deck to appreciate the panorama of Fanjingshan. Also, from the summit, you will see the iconic Red Clouds Golden Summit clearly from a distance. Then, walk down gradually to admire the natural scenery along the way to visit the sacred Buddhist attractions including Wanming Cave, Buddha Worshipping Stage, Monk Pagoda, Pudu Square, etc. You will not miss the Cheng En Temple that was built first from the Ming Dynasty and one of the four royal temples at Fanjingshan. Walk in the major temple with solemn scarlet walls and dark tiles, worship among the about 10 halls, and imagine the rising and falling and recovery of Fanjingshan’s Buddhist status in the past hundreds of years.

Here, take your challenge to hike along the narrow, steep and rough steps with iron chain up to Red Clouds Golden Summit that shows particularly often on Fanjingshan photographs. This thumb-like peak is a world rare miracle erecting about 100 meters high from the flatter mountain bed millions of years ago and is separated with two peaks and a gorge by natural wearing and with a bridge linked between. After reaching the top, visit the appealing Temple of Buddha, the bridge and Maitreya Temple in sequence to feel walking from present to the future in Buddhist belief. While witnessing the hard-to-believe difficulty of building houses on such a steep crest, stand on the peak to command the panoramic view of Fanjingshan and enjoy the feeling of being in the “space in the sky”. (Note: You can choose to go up or not considering your physical condition at that time. Just tell your needs to the guide.)

After the physical consuming hiking, walk by Jingxin Pool and go to see Wanbao Rock. You will truly believe Fanjingshan was in fact a part of ocean in the remote 1.4 million years ago by the strong proof of the cobbles, shells, paleontological fossils, and so on left within the shale rock there.

After the fantastic sightseeing, drive to Jiangkou County for accommodation.

Day 7 Fanjingshan/Tongren Departure (B)

Today is free for you to transfer to next destination. 

Departure Idea: Fanjingshan is about 78km to Tongren city. There is an airport and 2 Train stations in Tongren and these transportation junctions connect Tongren to a number of major cities in China. You can take flights to Beijing, Xian, Shanghai, Changsha, Guiyang, Kunming, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, etc. or take bullet train to Guiyang, Changsha, Shaoshan, Yueyang, Wuhan, Xianning, Nanchang, Xinyang, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Jinhua, Yiwu, etc.

The quotation for this trip is from $1379 Per Person

1. This price is for one person, based on a group of 2 adults sharing one standard double-bed room in a 4-star hotel and traveling with our private tour in low seasons.
2. This price is subject to change according to your traveling season, group size, hotel class, change of activities in your itinerary and possible fluctuation of currency exchange rate. If you want a lower price, you can get more people to join you, or use economy class hotels.
3. This price is only valid to March 31, 2025.
4. Reference exchange rate of USD 1=RMB 6.85. The final quote is based on current exchange rate. It may change according to the currency fluctuation, while the RMB quotation will be remained the same.

How Our Teams Serve you at China Discovery

"Highest Standards of Quality and Honesty" is the core value of each specialized team at China Discovery.

Eveyone in our company is working hard for only one goal, which is to ensure the highest level of service, luxury, and attention to detail from the minute you begin planning your trip, to the day you return home.

1-on-1 Travel Consultant

Our travel consultants are professional, experienced and responsible, helping you from the very beginning to the end of your China trip!

After sending us an inquiry, one of our travel consultants will get back to you within 0.5~23.5 hrs. In the next few days, he/she will be working closely with you to formulate a customized tour plan, as well as providing professional suggestions based on your travel interests, time, and budget.

Beside, he/she will keep in contact with you during your entire tour in China, continually checking if everything is going well as planned.

We're working at Chengdu Bamboo International Tours, local based in Chengdu.

Local Tour Guides

Our local guide in every destination is not only very friendly, enthusiastic but also very informative and knowledgeable.

Once you arrive in the destination, the patient and punctual guides will pick you up and take you to get under skin of the city at your own pace. By in-depth discovery and explanation, they’ll show you more about the history, culture, customs and authentic local life. Throughout the journey, they're not only expert guides who take care of all the details but also fellow travelers who are dedicated to help you explore in comfort and style.

Our guides are passionate about what they do, and it shows all the way!

Local Drivers & Vehicle

Using our private transfer service makes you comfortable, relaxed and worry free all the way!

Our private service includes licensed drivers with many years’ driving experience and air-conditioned, non-smoking, clean and well-maintained cars/vans. Drivers are local, polite, friendly and helpful, taking you to your tourist sites, hotels, airport/train stations in safety. All kinds of vehicle are offered, and yours depends on the size of your group. Usually, we offer sedan cars, SUVs, business vans (MPV) and different types of buses, all with extra space for your luggage.

Our private transfer service guarantees you the highest comfort!

Comfortable & Homelike Hotels

In each destination, you’ll enjoy a comfortable stay in a great location!

The hotels we choose are based on star rating, great locations, well-equipped facilities, cozy bed, high quality service and guests’ feedbacks. Choices are a lot ranging from luxury 5 star, comfortable 4 star to budget 3 star. You could decide where to stay to best suit for your budget and likes. Generally, the hotels have both Western and Chinese breakfast with a wide choices.

If you have already got an ideal hotel, please feel free to tell our travel consultants and they'll book the hotel for you.

Have good sleep in our well-selected hotels in all the destinations of China.

Meals & Dining

We can satisfy all the dietary requirements no matter you want Chinese local food, western food, vegetarian food or muslin food.

The restaurants we will take you for lunch or dinner are all designated tourist restaurants approved by local tourist administration bureau. They have very good sanitary conditions and the food is prepared fresh and clean.

There will be some meals excluded in your itinerary as you like, and your private guide will be delighted to give you some suggestions and take you to the local restaurants to taste like Beijing Roast Duck, Xian Dumpling Dinner, Sichuan Hotpot, etc., if you are interested in local food tasting.

All the dining options will satisfy your stomach!

Check What our delighted customers are saying about our services

Hi Mr Wang,

Thanks! I had a weekend away to Xi’an, China to celebrate my birthday. It was an exciting weekend and it was certainly something off the beaten trail for most of my friends. The itinerary you have suggested provided good coverage of the city’s rich history. From the fascinating Terracotta Army to the City Walls to the sacred Mount Hua, to the Muslim Quarter to the Drum & Bell Towers, there’s an interesting story from every historical era in Xi’an. I managed to hike up Mount Hua from North Peak to West Peak, but I didn’t get to do the dangerous plank walk as it was closed.

The hotel Eastern House was very accessible too with food places within steps and its proximity to the Drum Tower is a plus. The room was very clean and comfortable.

At this point, I have to quickly mention our amazing tour guide Betty Jiao Yan who was assigned to us as part of our private tour package. She made our time feel so very special and I wonder if Xi'an would have been as awesome without her. She had such a positive and caring nature and when we had to say goodbye, we felt very sad. It was strange to miss a guide after only knowing her for 5 days! Luckily we still keep in touch on WeChat. Our driver Mr Ma was very polite, punctual and accommodating, making our travel a pleasant experience

Anne

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Anne‚ Singapore, January 25, 2024

Hi Jack,

Thanks. The Harbin and Snow Town trip was excellent and very enjoyable. We are now in Japan skiing, and will send our feedback upon our return on 31st Jan.

Best wishes

Leong

Leong‚ Singapore, January 24, 2024

Hi Rita,

From my end, everything is remarkable! Jane is amazing! She really make us feel welcome.

All the hotels were amazing too! My parents also very impressed.

I will definitely reaching out again, next time when I visit China. There’s many more places I want to visit.

Best regards,

Jefry

Jefry‚ Indonesia, January 21, 2024

Dear Rita,

We are home. Thanks for arranging this nice trip. Everything worked out nicely except the smoking room problem in Chengde.

Thanks again.

John

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John‚ USA, January 19, 2024

Hi Rita,

In response to your enquiries, we had a wonderful experience with the tour arrangements in both Guilin and Yangshuo. Both the tour guide and driver were very professional and handled the arrangements well.

I am surely recommending any friends or relatives who are interested in travelling to China in future to use China Discovery. Also, will be looking at other destinations for ourselves too.

Thanks once again for the wonderful experience.

Kwan

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Kwan‚ Malaysia, January 18, 2024

Check What our customers are saying about us on Tripadvisor.com

We are one of the few China travel agencies who have kept active and received lots of feedbacks and reviews during pandemic years

Thitikorn C

"China Discovery is very professional agent in China...last January 2024, I contacted Vivien again to Huangshan and she has shown her professional as an agent with quick response and keep contacting me..." read more »

Reviewed on February 17, 2024

Thitikorn C

"China Discovery is very professional agent in China...last January 2024, I contacted Vivien again to Huangshan and she has shown her professional as an agent with quick response and keep contacting me..." read more »

Reviewed on February 17, 2024