Zhangjiajie张家界

Zhangjiajie sits in northwestern Hunan. In 1982 it became home to China's very first national forest park — Zhangjiajie National Forest Park — and in 1992, the Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area built around it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Over 3,000 quartz-sandstone pillars rise from the ground here, forming a landscape geologists commonly refer to as a "quartz-sandstone peak forest landform" — one of the world's representative cases of the type. After the 2009 film Avatar became a hit, the park renamed a pillar once called "Southern Sky Column" to "Hallelujah Mountain" in 2010, playing off the resemblance viewers drew to the film's floating peaks. Today's Zhangjiajie pulls together the Forest Park, Tianmen Mountain, the Grand Canyon Glass Bridge and the Tujia villages around them into one gateway city for the wider Xiangxi region.

Culture

A Tujia heartland, home to the Baishou and Maogusi dances

• Yongding, Wulingyuan, Cili and Sangzhi districts/counties are all home to sizable Tujia communities, alongside Bai and Miao neighbors
• The Baishou ("hand-waving") and Maogusi dances are both national-level intangible cultural heritage — the former is often called the ancestor of Tujia group dance, the latter "a living fossil of Chinese dance"
• Large-scale live shows like "Charming Xiangxi" and "Tianmen Fox Fairy" run year-round — an easy way into Tujia song, dance and folklore
• "Diaonian" (the Sheba Festival) is the Tujia community's own New Year, traditionally celebrated a day ahead of the mainstream calendar, with the exact date shifting each year

The "Zhangjiajie Landform"

A world-representative case of its own named landform

• Over 3,000 quartz-sandstone pillars rise from the ground — a world-representative case of this so-called "Zhangjiajie landform"
• Golden Whip Stream is a roughly 7.5km streamside walk hemmed in by peaks, with macaques often foraging along the banks — one of the park's classic routes
• The Bailong Elevator is built straight into the cliff face and climbs about 326m, often billed as the world's highest fully exposed outdoor sightseeing lift
• Tianmen Cave punches clean through the mountain, about 131.5m tall, often described as one of the world's highest natural through-mountain caves

Food & Flavor

Tujia "Three-in-the-Pot" — a dish with real Xiangxi bite

• Tujia "Three-in-the-Pot": cured pork, tripe and radish simmered together, legend traces it to Ming-dynasty Tujia soldiers' pre-battle "combined meal"
• Charred-chili stir-fried pork: dried chilies scorched until faintly smoky, then stir-fried with pork belly, for a deep smoky heat
• Kudzu-root and fern-root starch are common local health snacks and souvenirs
• "Zhangjiajie berry" (hardy kiwi) has become a fast-rising local fruit specialty in recent years