6-Day Zhangjiajie & Fenghuang Ancient Town Tour

Arrival — Welcome to Zhangjiajie
Arrive at Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport, where your English-speaking guide and private driver will meet you and transfer you to your hotel. En route, glimpse the city's dramatic skyline framed by karst peaks — a preview of the natural wonders ahead.

Afternoon — Hotel Check-In and Leisure
Settle into the Pullman Zhangjiajie, a hotel with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the mist-wrapped mountains. Unwind with a Tujia herbal foot soak or stroll the hotel's Zen garden, designed with miniature replicas of the area's famous peaks.

Evening — Optional Night Market Visit
Dine at the hotel's Mountain View Restaurant, choosing dishes such as stewed boar with wild peppers. For early arrivals, you may opt for a guided walk to the Dayong Night Market, where vendors grill river fish skewers and serve Ciba (glutinous rice cakes) under red lanterns.

Accommodation
Overnight at Pullman Zhangjiajie.

Morning — Tianmen Mountain
Begin with the Tianmen Mountain Cableway, a long aerial ride with views of jagged peaks and the 99 Bends Road winding below. At the summit, walk the Glass Skywalk that clings to the cliffs, then ascend the 999 Steps to Tianmen Cave, a natural arch that symbolizes a gateway to heaven. Local legends link the cave to Tang Dynasty Taoist immortals.

Afternoon — Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge
Cross the glass-bottom bridge that spans the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon, one of the world's longest and highest bridges of its kind, suspended over lush ravines. Admire the waterfalls and karst pillars far below your feet, and, for the adventurous, consider the optional bungee jump.

Evening — Tujia Cultural Performance
Dine at the Xibu Yuefu restaurant on smoked bacon with wild bamboo shoots, then attend Charming Xiangxi, a dance-drama blending Tujia drumming, stilt-walking, and legends of the Xiangxi River.

Accommodation
Overnight at Pullman Zhangjiajie.

Morning — Yuanjiajie Scenic Area
Enter the Avatar Mountains, where quartzite pillars rising some 1,000 meters are said to have inspired the film's floating peaks. Ride the Bailong Elevator, a glass lift built into the cliff, to Avatar Hallelujah Mountain and the First Bridge Under Heaven, a natural stone arch. Your guide will share stories of the hermits who once sought seclusion in these misty heights.

Afternoon — Golden Whip Stream Hike
Stroll about 7.5 km along this crystal-clear stream, flanked by towering sandstone pillars. Spot macaques, rare dove trees, and Mother-Son Peak, a rock formation tied to a Tujia legend, and pause at the Waterfall of the Scholar, named for a scholar-poet who once composed verses here.

Evening — Tujia Village Dinner
Feast on wild mushroom hotpot at Panda Inn, an eco-lodge near the park. Afterward, join a Tujia bonfire with hand-waving dances (Maogusi) and songs celebrating the harvest.

Accommodation
Overnight at Panda Inn.

Morning — Zhangjiajie to Fenghuang (depart hotel about 08:00)
Your guide and driver collect you from your Zhangjiajie hotel and head south through the Wuling Mountains, the limestone and quartzite country that divides northwestern Hunan from neighbouring Guizhou. The drive takes about four hours. Watch for the terraced fields, the whitewashed Miao and Tujia villages on the hillsides and, on clear days, the layered ridgelines that give this corner of Hunan its reputation as one of the most photogenic landscapes in China.

Afternoon — Fenghuang Ancient Town
Fenghuang was founded in 1704, in the forty-third year of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, as a garrison town guarding the frontier between Hunan and the Miao territories to the south. The old town was designated a National Historic and Cultural City by the State Council in 2001. Your guide leads you along the Tuojiang River, past the ranks of diaojiaolou — wooden stilt houses braced on riverbank piles — and across the Hong Bridge (Rainbow Bridge), whose covered arcade was first built in the Ming dynasty. You also walk the East Gate Tower, the best-preserved of the town's original four gates, and the narrow stone lanes of the old quarter.

Cultural Insight — A Town of Writers and Craftsmen
Fenghuang is the birthplace of the novelist Shen Congwen (1902-1988), whose novella Border Town fixed the town in the Chinese literary imagination, and of the painter Huang Yongyu. Shen Congwen's Former Residence and the Chongde Hall are both open as small museums. Miao silverwork, wax-resist batik and hand-made ginger candy are still produced in the lanes, and your guide can introduce a workshop where the work is done by hand rather than for the coach trade.

Evening — Tuojiang by Night
After dark the riverbanks are lit and the stone bridges reflect in the water, which is when Fenghuang is at its most photographed. Dinner is Hunan and Miao cooking — sour fish soup, smoked pork with garlic shoots, and the town's own blood duck. Your guide walks you back to the guesthouse on the river.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
Riverside guesthouse, Fenghuang Ancient Town.

Morning — Fenghuang Before the Crowds
The lanes are quietest before nine. Begin with a short boat ride on the Tuojiang, poled past the stilt houses and below the old city wall, then climb to the East Gate and follow the wall to the Hong Bridge. Continue to Shen Congwen's Former Residence, a small courtyard house where the novelist was born in 1902, and to the Chongde Hall on the north bank.

Late Morning — Crafts of the Miao Frontier
Fenghuang sits in the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, and the local craft tradition is Miao rather than Han. Your guide takes you to a working silversmith and, if you wish, to a batik workshop where indigo wax-resist cloth is still dyed and hung to dry in the lanes. Free time follows for the riverside market and the local snack stalls — rice noodles, pressed ginger candy and sticky-rice cakes.

Afternoon — Return to Zhangjiajie
After lunch in the old town, drive north through the Wuling Mountains back to Zhangjiajie, arriving in the late afternoon. Check in and take the rest of the day at your own pace.

Evening — Zhangjiajie at Leisure
Dinner at the hotel. Your guide can arrange a Tujia folk performance or a walk along the riverside night market in Zhangjiajie's city centre if you would like to go out.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
Zhangjiajie.

Morning — Yellow Dragon Cave
Explore this 15-km karst labyrinth, lit in vivid colors. Cruise its underground river past the Stone Coral Waterfalls and the Dragon King's Throne Hall, home to a towering stalagmite, and listen as your guide shares local legends of dragons guarding hidden treasure.

Afternoon — Baofeng Lake
Glide by boat across this emerald lake, encircled by cliffs. Tujia singers perform on floating stages, their melodies echoing off Eagle's Nest Village, a cliffside hamlet. Disembark to walk the hanging walkways for close-up views of waterfalls and nesting swallows.

Evening — Departure
Conclude with a farewell meal at Tianzi Snack Street, featuring grilled river fish with sticky rice. A private transfer then takes you to Zhangjiajie Hehua Airport for your onward journey.