Wow, this is the third time this year I've seen Zhangjiajie on the front page! I grew up in a city near Zhangjiajie. During college years, I worked at the Zhangjiajie national park as a tour guide during summer vacations. Since I could speak English, I used to tour guide people from English-speaking countries. Yep, this place is amazing! Definitely worth a visit. I don't know how the English guidebooks tell you guys to travel through the park. But I know the experience might feel different from what you have in the US, simply because the national parks in China are crowded during most of the year. My advice is that you should check out China's national holidays before you go. 1/10-7/10 is not a good choice apparently, since this time is the China's National Day holiday. Here I want to share a little secret with you guys. Despite many visitors, you can still enjoy a tranquil time. There's very few people early in the morning and late in the dusk. I was once walking around the top of a mountain in the dawn. There was no one but me. Seeing hundreds of pillar-like stones really took my breath away. Another secret I want to share is that you probably won't find the place "Yaozizhai" in your guidebook. It's as beautiful as Yuanjiajie, but there's literally no one going there!!!! Just imagine being alone in a wonderland of this kind as shown in OP's pic. I once camped there, on the top of a mountain, on the edge of a precipice, with several American friends of mine. That was one of my best memories of my life. I later went to a few natioanl parks (including Grand Canyon) in the US, but I still found Zhangjiajie very unique for its own good! I watched "Avatar" in a movie theater years ago, seeing the Hallelujah moutain made me almost cry... Beautiful memories came flooding back.
SelectAll_Delete on October 6th, 2017 at 14:59 UTC »
This location was used as inspiration, but they never shot any footage that was used in the movie here.
spcartman on October 6th, 2017 at 17:20 UTC »
Wow, this is the third time this year I've seen Zhangjiajie on the front page! I grew up in a city near Zhangjiajie. During college years, I worked at the Zhangjiajie national park as a tour guide during summer vacations. Since I could speak English, I used to tour guide people from English-speaking countries. Yep, this place is amazing! Definitely worth a visit. I don't know how the English guidebooks tell you guys to travel through the park. But I know the experience might feel different from what you have in the US, simply because the national parks in China are crowded during most of the year. My advice is that you should check out China's national holidays before you go. 1/10-7/10 is not a good choice apparently, since this time is the China's National Day holiday. Here I want to share a little secret with you guys. Despite many visitors, you can still enjoy a tranquil time. There's very few people early in the morning and late in the dusk. I was once walking around the top of a mountain in the dawn. There was no one but me. Seeing hundreds of pillar-like stones really took my breath away. Another secret I want to share is that you probably won't find the place "Yaozizhai" in your guidebook. It's as beautiful as Yuanjiajie, but there's literally no one going there!!!! Just imagine being alone in a wonderland of this kind as shown in OP's pic. I once camped there, on the top of a mountain, on the edge of a precipice, with several American friends of mine. That was one of my best memories of my life. I later went to a few natioanl parks (including Grand Canyon) in the US, but I still found Zhangjiajie very unique for its own good! I watched "Avatar" in a movie theater years ago, seeing the Hallelujah moutain made me almost cry... Beautiful memories came flooding back.
ErectForOxfordCommas on October 6th, 2017 at 17:43 UTC »
Actual filming location