We are a travel agency in Zhangjiajie, not a booking website somewhere else. We book your park tickets under your passport, meet you at Hehua Airport or the railway station, and put a licensed English-speaking guide beside you for the days you are here. Fixed price in writing before you fly. No shopping stops.
Three parks, not one
The single biggest mistake visitors make is assuming Zhangjiajie is one place with one gate. It is three separate scenic areas run by different companies, spread over two districts, and the drives between them are long enough to eat a morning.
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park
This is the one you have seen pictures of: the quartz sandstone pillars, Yuanjiajie, Tianzi Mountain, Golden Whip Stream. It sits in Wulingyuan, about 40 kilometres from the city. It has five entrances, and which one you use on which day is the difference between a good trip and four hours in a shuttle bus. The entry ticket covers four days, not one visit — but every entry still needs its own timed reservation. Details, including what the cable cars cost on top, are on our National Forest Park ticket page.
Tianmen Mountain
On the edge of the city, 15 minutes from the airport. Tianmen Cave, the 99-bend road, the cliff walkways. It is a half-day to a full day, and most people do it on the first or last day because of where it sits.
One thing you need to know before you plan around it: the big cableway has been closed to passengers since 13 October 2026, with no published reopening date. The mountain is open, but currently only on Line C — the fast cableway up to Tianmen Cave, then the seven-stage escalator through the mountain to the top, and back the same way. We will tell you what is running in the week you come.
The Grand Canyon and the glass bridge
Over in Cili County, a drive of its own from Wulingyuan. The bridge is 430 metres long, made of 99 panels of glass, and hangs roughly 300 metres above the canyon floor. It is the thing that sells out first in high season, days ahead, and it runs on timed slots. Read our glass bridge ticket page before you build a day around it.
What we do
Park tickets
All three parks use real-name booking, which means your passport number goes on the ticket and the name has to match at the gate. We sort that out before you land, so you are not standing at an entrance at eight in the morning trying to work out a Chinese booking app on hotel wifi. Prices, concession rules and what happens if you cancel are on the tickets page.
Airport and station pickup
A driver with your name on a sign, waiting when you clear arrivals. Hehua Airport to Wulingyuan is about 35 kilometres and 40 to 50 minutes, longer in summer traffic. We will tell you the real time for your arrival, not the best case. The cars, the drivers and what a day actually costs are on our Zhangjiajie private driver page. If you want the Forest Park pass and the pickup in one booking, that is USD 90 and it is the thing we sell most of.
Hotels
We choose by which park gate you want to be near at seven in the morning, because that one decision shapes your whole trip more than the hotel star rating does. There is a second filter that matters more and that nobody prints: not every hotel here is licensed to register a foreign passport, and the booking sites do not show it. We check first. More on the hotel page.
English-speaking guides
Licensed local guides who work in English every day. They know which entrance to use on which day, when a mountain is going to be fogged in, and how to get a foreign passport through a ticket window that has seen one foreign passport this year. Their licence numbers are on our guide page, and you can look them up.
How many days you need
Two days gets you the Forest Park and Tianmen Mountain, and not much slack. Three days is the honest minimum if you want the glass bridge as well. Four days lets you breathe. Five gets you Furong Town on the way out.
- Two days — Forest Park plus Tianmen Mountain. See the two-day itinerary.
- Three days — the Avatar peaks, the bridge, and the mountain. See the three-day itinerary.
- Four days — our most-booked trip, from RMB 1,550 per person. Four-day private tour.
- Five days — adds Furong Town, from RMB 1,950 per person. Five-day private tour.
What it costs, roughly
The Forest Park entry ticket with shuttle buses is RMB 236 and covers four days. Children under 14 and seniors over 65 pay nothing at the gate. The cable cars, the Bailong elevator and the sightseeing trains are not included, and there is no discount on those for foreign passport holders in the Forest Park — that surprises people.
A private car with a driver is priced by the day, and a four-day private tour with the car, the guide and the tickets starts at RMB 1,550 per person for a group of six. You can pay us by PayPal or card from home, or to the driver on arrival by card, WeChat Pay, Alipay or RMB cash. We do not take card numbers over WhatsApp or email.
Three things that catch visitors out
- Your passport does not go through the turnstile. A Chinese ID card does. A passport has to go to a staffed window and be checked against the booking. It is a queue, not a beep, so allow for it at every entry.
- You cannot buy tickets when you arrive. The parks sell timed slots by real name and the popular ones go days ahead. Turning up with a plan to buy at the gate does not work.
- Paying for lunch is not like paying for lunch at home. Plenty of small places here take nothing but WeChat Pay or Alipay. Set both up before you fly — our how to pay in China page walks through it.
Getting here, and the visa question
Hehua Airport (DYG) has direct flights from a handful of Chinese hubs, and Changsha, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou all connect onward. Zhangjiajie West is the high-speed rail station. Both are covered on the airport transfer page.
You may not need a visa. The 240-hour visa-free transit covers roughly 55 nationalities, DYG is an approved port for it, and ten days is more than enough for the parks. The catch is that you must be going on to a third country or region, not back where you started. Our visa and transit page explains it properly.
How it works
- Send us your dates. WhatsApp or WeChat. Roughly what you want is enough, how many days, how many people, what you actually care about seeing.
- You get a fixed price within 24 hours. One number, in writing. Not it depends when you arrive.
- A deposit confirms it. The balance is paid when you land. We tell you exactly which payment method we are using before you send anything.
Why book with us
- We are here. Our team works in Zhangjiajie. When something goes wrong on the day, there is someone an hour away, not a call centre in another province.
- Licensed. Inbound travel service permit L-HUN-303754. The number is public, you can look it up.
- No shopping stops. Travellers ask us about this more than anything else, so we will be plain about it. We do not run them and we do not take commission from shops.
- Refunds are counted from when your message reaches us. Not from a park system timestamp you cannot see. Cancel before we issue the ticket and it costs nothing.
- Sometimes we say do not come. If your dates are going to be fogged in, we would rather lose the booking than have you fly 8,000 km to look at cloud.
Get started
Tell us your dates and roughly what you want. You will have a fixed price back within 24 hours. Short answers to the usual first questions are on the FAQ page, or you can contact us directly.
WhatsApp and WeChat: +86 180 7449 1863
More about who we are · Meet the guides and drivers who will meet you
How to Zhangjiajie is operated by Zhangjiajie Xinyue Travel Agency Co., Ltd. (张家界心悦旅行社有限公司), a licensed inbound travel operator — Permit L-HUN-303754. The number is public, you can look it up.