(张家界・Zhangjiajie) Avatar Mountains

 

Time to plan else Rui kills me.

Budget: JPY (~USD)

• JPY3,750. Hotel (JPY7,500 for 2 nights, 2 pax)

Visit Date

• Target: 2025

When to Go
Apparently April-May or September-October. 

Special Notes

• Points of Interest :
• Hehua International Airport 荷花机场. 
• Tianmen Mountain. 
• Tickets JPY5,623
• Access is via cable car 天门山 or bus. There are five different routes doing different combinations of cable car  / bus. Diagram here. Since I don't want to take a bus and prefer to hike up than down, I chose Roundtrip Cable Line B.
• Wulingyuan Scenic Area. Detailed locations for selection.
• Tickets JPY10,275 with unlimited cable cars.
• Locations to visit : 
• Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (张家界国家森林公园). 
• Yuanjiajie (袁家界)・Hallelujah mountains where the Avatar mountains are.
• Tianzi Mountain  (天子山). Great for hiking with nice sunrises.
• Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon (张家界大峡谷)
• Tickets JPY8,859. Canyon, Glass Bridge, Rock Climbing via Ferrata

• Hotel : Wuling Shanshui Hotel, unsurprisingly is not in google maps. I booked via trip.com

Itinerary

High Level : Friday - Tianmen Mountain, Saturday : Wulingyuan National Park, Sunday : Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon (with Glass Walk) am, Wulingyuan National Park pm

Friday

• 9:00am. Arrival at airport 荷花机场. 
• 10:00am. Take Didi to Tianmen Mountain. Expected travel time is 41mins, 26.7kms if via bus, but there's a cable car only 8 mins drive away from the airport. 
• There's a luggage area at Tianmen mountain. 
• Follow the route to do Tianmen Mountain. Head to Wulingyuan for hotel. 

Wulingyuan : days to alternate based on weather

• 06:00am. Head to Wulingyuan East Gate. It opens at 7am. Headup to Tianzi Mountain. 
• Figure out how to get to Avatar Mountains lol.  

Sunday : days to alternate based on weather

• 9:00pm. Flight out.