Hunan, China
Must-VisitZhangjiajie
The Real-Life Avatar World
Zhangjiajie is home to thousands of sandstone pillar mountains draped in mist and forest — the landscape that inspired the floating Hallelujah Mountains in Avatar. Beyond the national forest park, Tianmen Mountain's glass-bottom walkway and the world's longest glass-bottom bridge draw visitors who want to combine dramatic scenery with vertiginous thrills.
Best time to visit: April-June, September-October
Explore Zhangjiajie by theme
Highlights
- Zhangjiajie National Forest Park
A landscape of more than 3,000 sandstone pillar mountains rising through cloud and forest, covering 264 square kilometres of northwestern Hunan. The pillars — some topping 1,000 metres — were carved over 300 million years by erosion, and the overall effect is less like a mountain range and more like a gallery of vertical sculptures.
- Tianmen Mountain and Glass Walkway
A separate mountain from the national forest park, Tianmen is notable for a natural cave arch punched through the rock at 1,300 metres, a sheer-sided cliff road with 99 hairpin bends, and a 60-metre glass-bottom walkway bolted to the cliff face at the summit.
- Grand Canyon Glass Bridge
A 430-metre glass-bottom suspension bridge stretched across the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon at a height of 300 metres, connecting two cliff faces above a river gorge. When it opened in 2016 it held the record for the world's longest and highest glass-bottom bridge.