8 Sept – 24 Sept 2024
If you have followed our travel blog for some time, you probably know that Kin and I are not fans of popular tourist destinations. But it would be a huge regret even for us if we didn’t hike the world-renowned mountains of Zhangjiajie in Hunan province (湖南張家界).
After leaving Wuhan, we slowly drove southward as we didn’t want to arrive at Zhangjiajie before the summer vacation was over. Zhangjiajie is an absolute nightmare in summer and holidays since it’s one of China’s top five must see natural attractions. It is China’s first national forest park (officially recognized in 1982) and became the UNESCO world heritage site in 1992.
Hotel prices dropped back to very reasonable range of around RMB250 by the time we arrived as the new school term had started. We intentionally chose a mid-range chain hotel near the town centre and away from the National Forest Park so that we could roam around the more local areas and eat in less touristy restaurants.
As we were still exhausted from the drive, we didn’t hike straightaway. We spent a whole week exploring the town. We were surprised to find a number of good Korean restaurants and saw tour buses of Korean tourists. Apparently there was a surge of tourists from South Korea after the pandemic – boosted by the visa-free policy and direct flights between Zhangjiajie and multiple cities in South Korea.
After a few days in town, we drove about 30 kilometers to the nearby mountain range and spent a night in our van. We did a half-day hike and the scenery was already quite stunning.
Then we drove 22 kilometres to Baozijie Mountain (堡子界) where there is a massive forest farming area. We found a parking spot at the forestry station. We were even able to use the staff shower and toilet facilities. We camped there throughout the Mid-Autumn holiday and avoided the spiked up hotel prices.
There are nice hiking trails in Baozijie and the best part is to admire the popular tourist attraction, Tianmen Mountain (天門山) from a distance. We could see the beautiful natural arch in the mountain without paying the rather expensive entrance fee (about RMB250).
Many locals came up to the station to get natural mountain water. Each day we saw people pumping bottles after bottles of water for cooking and brewing tea.
