Luoyang Departure Zhangjiajie Wulingyuan Yuanjiajie 4 Days 3 Nights

The morning train from Luoyang Longmen, one change at Changsha South, and Zhangjiajie West by four. The drive to Wulingyuan climbs steadily and reaches the hotel at half past five. Walk out for dinner on the street of restaurants and order sanxiaguo, tripe, pork belly and radish stewed in one pot, hot enough to be blunt about it.

Attraction introduction: Wulingyuan covers four linked areas north of the city, and its rock is quartz sandstone rather than limestone, too hard to dissolve, so water cuts down the joints and leaves standing columns instead of caves.

Tips: Guests generally find the transfer road is where stomachs turn, since it bends most of the way up. In practice the driver stops once for air, and dinner stays mild because the next morning starts early.

In through the gate at half past seven and by shuttle to the stream mouth. The water runs along the valley floor with cliffs standing straight up on both sides, and the path is flat for more than five kilometres. Lunch at the four-way water junction. In the afternoon the Bailong elevator lifts three hundred metres in a minute, ears popping, and Yuanjiajie begins at the top with a cliff-edge walk to the Back Garden.

Attraction introduction: Golden Whip Stream takes its name from a rock beside it, running between towers that narrow to a few dozen metres apart. The Bailong elevator is built against the cliff face and is the fastest way up. The Back Garden at Yuanjiajie is a bowl ringed by stone towers with the walkway hung at its rim.

Tips: Guests generally find the monkeys go for plastic bags rather than people, and a bag of snacks in the hand is gone in a second. In practice food stays inside packs and hands stay empty, and the elevator is taken before nine to avoid the ten to two crush.

Out at seven, up by cable car, on the summit by eight. On a good morning the cloud lies below and the towers come through it like posts in water. The view above Helong Park takes in the whole gorge. Down at noon, then the Ten Mile Gallery in the afternoon, riding the open train along the valley floor with stone shapes lined up on both sides.

Attraction introduction: Tianzi Mountain rises above twelve hundred metres and is the high point of Wulingyuan, named after a Tujia leader who called himself Son of Heaven. The West Sea stone forest runs off one side of Helong Park. The Ten Mile Gallery is a gorge a little over five kilometres long.

Tips: Guests generally find the summit runs five or six degrees colder with wind to match, and the wait for the cable car is where it bites. In practice coats go up the mountain, and the descent uses the shuttle bus, twenty minutes slower but out of the wind.

Sleep until seven or walk back through the gate for an hour. Bags at half past eight, away by half past nine for Zhangjiajie West, the midday train, a change at Changsha South, and Luoyang by night.

Attraction introduction: The name Wulingyuan comes from the line about the fisherman of Wuling, and while the peach blossom spring is placed elsewhere, this valley does read as a world walled off by mountains. The forest is mostly Wuling pine and dove tree, whose white bracts hang like birds in May.

Tips: Guests generally find chargers and raincoats are the things left behind, since rooms sit in separate blocks. In practice the guide checks each room before checkout and luggage goes into the vehicle together, with forty minutes allowed at the station for security.