Destination Guide

Zhangjiajie: a forest of stone you climb into

Mist pours through the gaps; stone pillars punch the sky. Welcome to Zhangjiajie. The town sits at the foot of the cliffs. The landscape stands on end. This is not a city you stroll. It is peak-forest you walk up into. What is Zhangjiajie like? Sheer. Scattered. Damp. All sandstone temperament. Wulingyuan sets more than three thousand quartz-sandstone pillars on their feet: Golden Whip Stream in the gullies, Yuanjiajie and Tianzi Mountain on top of the columns. This is not water-dissolved karst. It is a forest cut from rock by wind and rain. The floating mountains from Avatar are here. You can walk up onto them. The culture is western Hunan. Tujia stilt houses cling to the slopes; Miao song comes out of the villages. The town is short; the mountains run long. Eat first: the sour-and-chili of Xiangxi (sour first, smoked bacon after), a bowl of rice tofu, then Tujia cured pork. Then take the cableway, step into the gaps between pillars, and watch cloud catch on the stone. Zhangjiajie is not a city you step into. It is a mountain that closes around you.