Departs from Beijing on September 5, and the first stop of the self-driving tour is Zhangjiajie.

Because the journey from Beijing to Zhangjiajie takes more than 20 hours, I chose to stop at No. 19 Guoling Hotel in Nanyang, Henan Province (10.5 hours, 924 kilometers) and arrive at Huatian Select Hotel in Wuling Xintiandi, Zhangjiajie at 15:30 on September 6 (7.5 hours, 634 kilometers).

This hotel is the one we chose on the map that is closest to the gate of Wulingyuan Scenic Area and feels the best based on the Zhangjiajie tour plan. It turned out that we were the right choice for this hotel.

This photo was taken standing on the square at the entrance of the scenic area, facing the Wuling Xintiandi Huatian Selected Hotel (where there are several red characters high in the photo).

Let me give a brief introduction to the Zhangjiajie Scenic Area first, because when making plans, I always feel that the names of the scenic spots are very confusing and can easily confuse people.

Zhangjiajie Scenic Area is generally divided into two major areas: Wulingyuan Scenic Area and Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area.

Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area is close to the urban area and can only be accessed by cable car. There are two cable car entrances, one is at the visitor center in the city, and the other is at Tianmen Huxian Theater. You need to take a shuttle bus from the visitor center to reach it.

Wulingyuan Scenic Area is very large. It has four entrances:

1. East Gate-Yuanjiajie Entrance (also known as Peugeot Gate, this door in the photo)

2. South Gate-Forest Park Entrance (the exit for our visit)

3. West Gate-Yangjiajie Entrance

4. North Gate-Entrance of Helong Park

The entrance to Yuanjiajie is the most visited by ordinary tourists. The photo below is from the hotel we stayed in walking towards the entrance of the scenic area and looking at the gate of the scenic area from the square at the entrance (the entrance to the scenic area is the entrance to the right of the tower, and the exit to the left).

Below: View the entrance of the scenic area from the hotel's Sunshine Restaurant platform.

The hotel is too close and convenient to the scenic area. Below are photos of the hotel room.

The hotel is about 200 meters away from the gate of the scenic area. There are KFC and Starbucks on the square at the gate of the scenic area. The street behind the hotel is full of various hotels and restaurants (picture below).

It is understood that this restaurant is visited more by locals (it is on the roadside outside the back door of the hotel), and the restaurant opposite to this restaurant is visited more by foreigners (especially foreigners).

Full ticket for the scenic spot (ticket + transportation) is 215 yuan and is valid for 4 days. Buy cable car and elevator separately.

Looking at the picture above, I feel dizzy! Before going there, I looked at various pictures and instructions, but I couldn't understand them. Through this on-site visit, I finally understood.

Wulingyuan Scenic Area has two dimensions. On the horizontal plane, there are six major parts: Yuanjiajie, Yangjiajie, Tianzi Mountain, Huangshizhai, Shili Gallery and Jinbianxi. In fact, there is still a vertical dimension of mountains and mountains. Yuanjiajie, Yangjiajie, and Tianzi Mountain are placed on the mountain, while Shili Gallery, Huangshizhai and Jinbianxi (the other end of Jinbianxi is the entrance of the Forest Park) are placed on the mountain.

The following picture shows the tour process of several attractions on the mountain.

The red lines in the picture represent the riding, ladders and cableways, and the yellow areas are the scenic spots that can be enjoyed on foot. The upper part is Tianzi Mountain Scenic Area, and the lower part is Yuanjiajie Scenic Area. In the Yangjiajie section, we only saw one scenic spot on the Natural Great Wall (we couldn't find it on the picture). Because it is during the maintenance period of the scenic spot before the National Day, many scenic spots are not open. This time, 90% of Yangjiajie and Huangshi Village are under maintenance and are basically not open.

See the figure below for part of the tour process at the foot of the mountain.

The red and green lines in the picture represent the riding part, and the yellow area is the scenic area for walking. You can buy a single ticket for entering and leaving the small train at Shili Gallery, and you can freely choose to enter and exit by car.

At this point, the distribution of part of Wulingyuan Scenic Area has been introduced. The following describes the attractions according to the tour process:

The first day (September 7): Enter the scenic area at 7:30 and take the shuttle bus (about 20 minutes) to the foot of the Bailong Ladder.

Picture above: Generals Line up (name of the attraction)

It only takes about 1 and a half minutes to go up the elevator, and then take the shuttle bus to the Chizhuo Terrace in Yuanjiajie Scenic Area and get off.

Start walking to visit Yuanjiajie attractions (Hallelujah, Qiankun Pillar, First Bridge).

It is said that some of the above places are where "Avatar" was filmed.

At 10:30, the Yuanjiajie tour ended and continued to take the shuttle bus to Yangjiajie Scenic Area.

The Yangjiajie Scenic Area is under maintenance in preparation for National Day. Basically all attractions are closed, except for the so-called Natural Great Wall. Everyone gathered at this attraction, took a photo and left. Continue to take the shuttle bus to Tianzi Mountain Scenic Area.

Below is the "Natural Great Wall"

Helong Park is right off the shuttle bus. Follow the flow of people to visit (West Sea Stone Forest, Fairy Scattering Flowers, Yubi Peak, Stone Boat).

After the tour, take the shuttle bus (3 minutes) to the cable car station, and take the cable car (13 minutes) down the mountain. Continue to take the shuttle bus to Shili Gallery Scenic Area.

When you arrive at Shili Gallery, you can buy a ticket and take a small train to enter the scenic spot. You can take the bus and watch the scenery while listening to the explanation.

When he came out, he chose to walk and watch the scene that he didn't see clearly on the small train again.

After that, I took the scenic bus down the mountain and returned to the gate of the scenic area (Peugeot Gate). I returned to the hotel at about 17 o'clock and went to the Geng Nong Garden for a meal in the evening.

The first day of play in Wulingyuan Scenic Area is over!

On the morning of the next day (September 8), line up to enter the park from the gate of the scenic area (Peugeot Gate) and take a bus to the Shuihuan Simen Scenic Spot, which is the entrance of Jinbian Creek.

This attraction consists of mountains, water, stones and forests. Whether it is sunny or rainy, it is a very good tourist attraction (it is just hard, it is all about walking!). In addition, there is another major feature here for a long time when monkeys are here. There are many monkeys in the tourist gathering places at both ends of the Jinbian River, and it is very difficult to eat something because monkeys can rob it. On the way, you can encounter monkeys walking swaggering and monkeys playing in the water.

The total length of Jinbian River is about 7.5km. We played while walking, and it took about 4 hours to complete the journey (from the entrance of Shuihuan Simen to the entrance of Forest Park).

There are two entrances and exits in the scenic area, one is the entrance and exit of Shuihuan Simen, and the other is the entrance and exit of Zhangjiajie Forest Park. Most of the famous scenic spots are close to the half of the forest park gate.

On the roadside leading to the gate of the Forest Park, there are many stone tablets with inscriptions from celebrities

Go straight for about 200 meters out of the Forest Park Gate. There is a minibus heading for Peugeot Gate parked on the roadside.

There are special buses operated by the scenic area (10 yuan/person, 30 minutes drive), and there are staff on the roadside who can consult. The minibus stops less than Peugeot Gate (maybe it's a one-way effect, but it's not nearly there), but if you tell the driver, he will try to drive it forward, roughly on this street (which is the street next to the hotel introduced at the beginning of this article).

The tour of Wulingyuan Scenic Area ends here. The next stop is Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area. Overall, the attractions in Wulingyuan Scenic Area are not bad. I didn't see Yangjiajie and Huangshi Village (I feel that the scenery has nothing special except the story.), Yuanjiajie, Tianzi Mountain, Shili Gallery and Jinbianxi are all worth visiting.

Starting from Zhangjiajie Wuling Xintiandi Huatian Select Hotel, go to the Hilton Hotel in downtown Zhangjiajie. Although Gaode Navigation said it only took more than 40 minutes, there were four speed limits of 20km, 40km, 50km and 60km for this section of the road, with the main speed being 40km and the minimum speed being 60km. The entire process of speed measurement and monitoring is carried out at three steps and at one guard at five steps, as if the local money can only be spent on monitoring. 95% of local cars turn a blind eye to this and do not discuss speeding! It was about 34 kilometers and took an hour.

The Hilton Hotel is in a very good location (the underground garage is not exclusive to the hotel and is being renovated). It is across the road from the visitor center and about 5 minutes 'walk (but there is no overpass or crosswalk across the road, making it dangerous to cross the road!)

There are three types of tickets for Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area: Line A, Line B and Line C, which are mainly determined based on the different cableways you take to go up and down the mountain.

There are Tianmenshan cableway (large cableway 108 yuan, at the visitor center) and express cableway (small cableway 76 yuan, at the Hu Xian performance venue) up and down the mountain. There is free shuttle bus connection between the two cableway stations. Others include: 62 yuan for admission, 3 yuan for insurance, 0 yuan for shuttle bus and 42 yuan for mountain escalator.

Specifically: Line A has a large cableway up the mountain, a one-way escalator through the mountain, and a small cableway down the mountain (the line does not duplicate)

Line B small cableway up the mountain, one-way through the mountain escalator, large cableway down the mountain (line does not duplicate)

Line C small cableway up the mountain, go back and forth through the mountain escalator, and small cableway down the mountain (the line is repeated)

On the third day (September 9), the visitor center purchased tickets at 7:15 a.m., and the Tianmen Mountain Line A ticket we bought was 278 yuan. Departs from Tianmenshan Cableway Station (Lower Station) at 7:50 and runs for about 25-30 minutes to reach the Peak Cableway Station (Upper Station). After exiting the cableway station (upper station), you will come to a small platform. What you can directly see (directly in front of you) is the east line sign. The West Line sign is on the left hand side and is difficult to find due to the trees.

This is the key question: how is the best way to walk in order to not climb or to climb less? Before setting off, I read a lot of travel notes and strategy materials, and decided to follow the plan stated in the materials to go up the middle line, down the west line, cross to Tianmen Cave on the east line and then down the mountain. As a result, when I asked here, there were only "east line" and "west line". Finally, under the guidance of the mountain staff, the final route was chosen (only one attraction was abandoned: Yunmeng Limiting).

See the figure below for the tour route

1 Start from the small platform on the cableway station

2 First go to Gongtong Garden in the direction of the east line, take the glass plank road of the Panlong Cliff Line and half of the high-altitude cloud corridor (Kunpeng Top) back, and return to the small platform on the cableway station through Gongtong Garden;

3 Find the Western Line sign and enter the Western Line for a tour. Highlights: Lingxiao Terrace, Ghost Valley Tianchu, Suspension Bridge, Guanguigu Cave, Tianmenshan Temple, etc., and end at Cherry Bay Restaurant.

4 Start at Cherry Bay Restaurant and enter the eastern route. Highlights: Love between Wood and Stone, Lock Green at Shimen, Kouyun Pass, Zuiyun Pavilion, Yuhu Peak, etc., and end with overlooking Tianmen in the north.

5 Take the mountain crossing escalator (a large escalator with seven sections in total, which takes about 15 minutes) and go down the mountain to the back of Tianmen Cave. After walking for a few minutes, you will arrive at the Tianmen Cave Platform.

6 Go down the Tianmen Cave platform, you can walk down the mountain by walking "up the ladder", or you can choose to buy a ticket and take the escalator down the mountain. We chose to walk and took photos while walking. It took a total of 45 minutes to reach the platform below Tianmen Cave.

7 A 15-minute walk from the platform below Tianmen Cave to the small cableway station (upper station),

Take the small cableway for 10 minutes to the small cableway station, walk for 5 minutes to the ferry station, take the shuttle bus for 10 minutes and return to the visitor center (16:00). At this point, the visit to Tianmen Mountain Scenic Spot is over.

Overall, Tianmen Mountain is worth a visit. Let's show the scenery of Tianmen Mountain according to the tour distance (the western line is caught in the fog)!

1. Visitor center and mountain cableway

2. Gongtong Garden

3. Return to the glass plank road of the Panlong Cliff Line and half of the high-altitude cloud corridor (Kunpeng Top), and return to the small platform on the cableway station via Gongtong Garden

4 Western Tour. Highlights: Lingxiao Terrace, Ghost Valley Tianchu, Suspension Bridge, Guanguigu Cave, Tianmenshan Temple, etc., and end at Cherry Bay Restaurant.

4 Start at Cherry Bay Restaurant and enter the eastern route. Highlights: Love between Wood and Stone, Lock Green at Shimen, Kouyun Pass, Zuiyun Pavilion, Yuhu Peak, etc., and end with overlooking Tianmen in the north.

The fog is starting to get thicker and thicker!

Lingquan Courtyard is basically a place where things are sold!

Basically nothing can be seen in this paragraph!

5 Mountain-crossing escalator

6 Take the "climbing ladder" down the mountain

There are several small platforms in the middle of this section of the stepped road for resting.

Platform below Tianmen Cave.

Go to the platform below Tianmen Cave to the small cableway station (upper station)

This is back to the visitor center.

The trip to Zhangjiajie ended successfully.