Zhangjiajie – 8 day tour

Summary

Introduction to Zhangjiajie

Some of you may know that the movie Avatar was actually shot in Zhangjiajie. Watch it again after you read this post and I am sure you will recognize the scenery (as well as what has been added by CGI).

Of course, this was not the main reason we visited Zhangjiajie in Chinas Hunan province. There is much more to discover than the “Avatar Mountains”

The city itself is rather small (in Chinese terms) with about 1.6 Million inhabitants. There is an international airport (DYG). We flew in from Dalian (DLC) via Shanghai Pudong (PVG).

There are several National Parks and scenic areas around Zhangjiajie, which we visited.

Wulingyuan National Park
Tianmen Mountain Forest National Park
Tianzishan Scenic Area
Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon National Park
Baofeng Lake Scenic Area

Our Hotel: No.5 Valley Lodge

The hotel is located about 1 hour from the airport, only 2km away from the west gate of Wulingyuan National Park.

There is a very small village near the west gate as well, where you could get basic groceries items (e.g. snacks for day trips, everything else the hotel takes care of)

We stayed there 8 nights and were lucky to get an upgrade after 3 days. First we booked the “Deluxe Theme Room” which was basically a whole house/villa for us alone (2 persons).

The price was not cheap, but you get what you pay for. High end service, stunning scenery and you don’t have to worry about anything.

Then we got upgraded to the “Tree House Suite”, which was actually not really bigger but much cozier and offered a great view.

*Inside the tree house with scenic view of the rice fields*

The hotel service was unbelievably great. We got something like our personal WeChat support where we could organize everything from booking a table for dinner, organizing trips or anything else. The staff spoke perfect English. The whole atmosphere was very “family-like”, the hotel is quite small but spread out over a huge area and several small houses.

*Photo spots are plenty in and around the hotel.*

*Every weekend there is a family style BBQ*

The hotel features 2 restaurants, one at the poolside and one with lake view. The “poolside restaurant” is the “high end” restaurant. Each day you can get a 4-5 course dinner for around 150 RMB/person. The other restaurant offers also a good dinner for 100 RMB/person, the only difference we could recognize was that the view was not as good as from the poolside. The food quality itself was very good in both restaurants.