Golden Whip Creek in the park.
The 240 Yuan valued entrance card for Zhangjiajie National Park is a 4-day pass, normally, you can visit most famous parts in the park within 4 days. And if you have it planned well, 4 days is more than enough to tour around in it thanks to the convenient bus rides. So it's quite flexible to plan this part of your trip if you are heading that way, and if you are a photographer who wants to have the perfect moment to take pictures, they have a full year entrance card at price of 280 Yuan.
My buddy left Zhangjiajie for Fenghuang on Day 4, so I headed out to explore more of the park after saying goodbye to him. I have hosted many people in Yangshuo and long realized that friends always have to part ways and there is no easy way to say goodbye, but this is life, isn't it?
Since I was backpacking, there was no reason for me to rush into anything, so I made this 4-day pass to its full use. On my last day in Zhangjiajie, I tried to cover that last major part of the park indicated on the tourist map, even though there were few other minor spots I didn't hit, that was enough for my Zhangjiajie visit, I might come back to this place to visit friends until then I will tour more places in it. The hike on day 4 was to hike up to Huangshi village on another one of the mountain tops and then go along the edge of the village, it was actually quite fun to do so. Let me put in a short description of how to tour this park, there's a creek down at the valley, and few mountains tops, on the mountain tops, there are view points long the edge of the mountain tops, so touring Zhangjiajie Park is basically seeing different pillar-shaped mountains from different angles, most of the time when you are at a view point and look down, it is straight down, here's my little heads up, watch out for belongings, don't drop them when you are taking a picture at the view point, and be prepared if you are afraid of height, but don't worry, the view points are well-fenced to keep you from falling.
Since the park is so big, of course there are a few entrances, my hostel is near the Iconic Gate in Wulingyuan, the park buses were not available for that part and I didn't want to hike back and forth so I paid 10 Yuan for a local bus to another entry that was closer to my hiking destination, Huangshi Village and hiked from there and back to where I was staying along the Golden Whip Creek.
It was a perfect sunny day first time in a long time which I would remember for the rest of my life.
This bronze statue is in the memory of the finder of Zhangjiajie. 吴冠中, He was a nationwide famous painter who paid a visit to Zhangjiajie before any outsider knew about it, at that time, the local government sponsored him to explore that area and offered all kinds of possibilities for him to tour in it, it was hard at that time because it was no tourist paths, no real roads, no nothing. After his visit in the park he suggested that the local government should reserve Zhangjiajie as a national park, after that, local people benefit so much from tourism thanks to him, that's why they built a bronze statue for him, sitting stand in front of another entrance to the park.
A bit foggy when I arrived at another entrance.
I got clearer as the day grew.
From one of the view points
A temple in the village
Pine tree lined paved hiking trails
Sun was about to set on the way back down
Again?!
Last day hike ended at Iconic Gate in Wulingyuan, it was great, I didn't have to double back and was able to hike all the way along the Golden Whip Creek.
The little town I stayed at was worth visiting too, as I was traveling in the low season, not many people around.
