Avatar Forest, Stone Forest, Hallelujah Mountains in the movie Avatar were inspired by Heavenly Pillar in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Wulingyuan, China
The First National Park in China. It is in Wulingyuan, China in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. It has some of the most incredible hikes. There’s also the world’s tallest outdoor and glass elevator.
This incredible national park is only 1 hour away from Tianmen mountain. It’s the same train stop, same airport, and that’s not all. The Grand Canyon of China is also nearby! China has been working on improving the ability to get to this very, very beautiful area. Today there’s no direct high speed rail from Beijing or Shanghai. We ended up taking the overnight sleeper from Yichang to Zhangjiajie and later flew out from Zhangjiajie back to Beijing. I loved every minute in this beautiful natural area of China. It’s becoming more popular, so try to avoid holidays and weekends.
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Avatar Forest – Forest Does this look familiar from the movie?
Stone Forest
I couldn’t get enough panoramas of the Stone Forest and the amazing natural bridges. The views were spectacular every few feet.
The World’s highest outdoor elevator.
Glass elevator
While we were waiting for the elevator we saw this guy. Not sure where his troop was.
While waiting for the elevator Dean took some pictures.
This beautiful pagoda is the entrance of the park.
While there is a lot of construction going on in in Wulingyuan, China with beautiful new hotels, the older buildings and community are quite cultural and beautiful. Very easy walking. These National parks are some of the most beautiful in the world. Surprisingly it seemed like more than 80% of the tourists we saw were Chinese. We got recommendations on how to spend our time. You could easily spend the entire day… scratch that 3 days if you wanted. We did a highlights trek seeing the Heavenly Pilar that inspired Avatar, the bridges, the stone forest.
There are a lot of local ancient cultures in China. While Beijing is interested in consolidating cultures and making them all Chinese. You’ll see a variety of ancient cultures and tribal clothing including in a part of the park where you can see some of the old ways, customs and culture.
