Two nights under the sandstone pillars. Wulingyuan / Hallelujah Mountain, the Bailong Elevator, Tianmen Mountain and its skywalk, the Grand Canyon glass bridge.
Replaces Changsha, which was only ever a base for day-tripping here. Two nights but one park day: you land 18:40 on the 19th and fly out 11:05 on the 21st, so Wulingyuan is Tuesday the 20th or it is nothing - and the gate is 27 km from the city before the shuttle inside it.
These are valley figures. The park sits 700-1,200 m higher and runs far colder and wetter - budget near-freezing at dawn on Tianzi Mountain. Cloud and mist are the normal state up there, not bad luck.
In Wulingyuan town, about 370 m on foot from the Wulingyuan bus station, 1.3 km from the Wulingyuan Landmark Gate and 1.25 km from Xibu Street. Chinese-style breakfast, free luggage storage.
1,080 m quartz-sandstone pillar in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Hunan. Officially renamed in 2010 after the film Avatar.
The Avatar pillar - Southern Sky Column, Yuanjiajie, inside Wulingyuan. Reached by the Bailong Elevator or the Yangjiajie cableway.
Natural arch 131.5 m tall on Tianmen Mountain, accessed via a 999-step 'Stairway to Heaven'. Tianmen Mountain National Park, Zhangjiajie, Hunan.
Tianmen Cave: a 130 m hole punched clean through the cliff, up 999 steps. Cable car from Zhangjiajie city, then the escalators.
The main east entrance to the Wulingyuan core scenic area and Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, with the visitor service centre alongside. Park shuttles run from here to the Bailong Elevator, Ten-Mile Gallery and the Tianzi Mountain cableway.
The way in. Roughly 40-60 min from Zhangjiajie city by road, then a further 40 min to 1.5 h of eco-shuttle and lift before you reach an actual viewpoint - which is the argument for sleeping in Wulingyuan town rather than the city. Ticket is valid 4 consecutive days with unlimited re-entry.
Glass skywalk along Tongtian Avenue on Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan. Opened to the public August 2016.
Glass walkway bolted to the Tianmen cliff face. Same mountain as the Gateway, same ticket - do them in one run.
Glass double-deck elevator built into a cliff in Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie. Ascends 326 m in ~92 seconds. Guinness World Record holder.
The Bailong Elevator: 326 m of glass lift bolted to a cliff, and the fast way up to Yuanjiajie. Covered by the Wulingyuan combo ticket.
A 109.9 m stack of Tujia-style stilt-houses on Wulingshan Avenue, certified by Guinness as the world's tallest building in stilt-house form. A hollow gate 38 m high is punched through its middle.
Explicitly a night attraction - the provincial write-up is headlined 'the later it gets, the better it gets' - and dead in daylight. In Zhangjiajie city, so it only works if the group overnights there rather than at the park. Ticket price not confirmed by any official source.
Branch of the local sanxiaguo chain beside the Hampton by Hilton on Dayong Road, near the Tianmen cableway. Order the house three-pot of tripe and intestines, plus mugwort cakes.
Tujia-styled dining hall that doubles as a Xiangxi food culture museum, with tables for 10+ and a banquet hall. Order rock-ear stewed chicken soup, hanging-pot cured-meat rice and sanxiaguo.
Long-running Xiangxi restaurant on Wuling Road that sets the spice level on request and has vegetarian options. Order the fragrant-leaf duck, sanxiaguo and stir-fried yellow beef.
Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport (DYG) - the brigade flies in here from Shenzhen on Oct 19 and out to Xi'an on the 21st. About 5 km from the city, 45 min from the park.
A dammed lake about 2.5 km long sitting on top of the cliffs above Wulingyuan town, toured by small boat between sandstone spires.
Ticketed separately - the core-area combo does not cover it. Stiff climb from the gate up to the water, then a short boat circuit. Half a morning, and the easy filler if weather closes the high viewpoints.
Riverside pedestrian street of bars, snack stalls and shops in Suoxiyu, Wulingyuan town - the closest real night out to the park hotels.
About 2.3 km from the East Gate and walkable from most of the Wulingyuan hotel cluster, so this is the food street that actually fits a park-based two nights. Zhangjiajie city's equivalent is 37 km away and no use to you if you are sleeping here.
Glass-bottomed pedestrian bridge spanning 430 m, suspended ~300 m above a canyon in the Zhangjiajie area, Hunan.
Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon glass bridge, 300 m above the floor. Separate park and separate ticket from Wulingyuan.
The northern high ground of Wulingyuan, named for the Tujia leader Xiang Dakun, who rose in revolt in 1353, styled himself son of Heaven, and was killed in 1385. Its highest point, Kunlun Peak, is 1,262.5 m.
Reached by the Tianzi Mountain cableway or a shuttle from the East Gate. Better cloud-sea odds early in the morning. If you only get one high day, this pairs with Yuanjiajie on the same park ticket. English Wikipedia's coordinate for this peak is wrong by 30 km - the one here is the OSM/Wikidata position.
A separate ticketed canyon east of Wulingyuan: cliff stairways and boardwalks descending past waterfalls to a boat at the bottom.
A different operator and a different ticket from the national forest park. Allow 3-4 h for the full descent plus the boat, on top of the 45-60 min drive from Wulingyuan. Only worth it if you are already going out for the glass bridge, which spans this same end of the canyon.