Wulingyuan
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Interesting facts
- In January 2010 one of the pillars, the Southern Sky Column, was officially renamed Avatar Hallelujah Mountain after the film's floating mountains.
- Zhangjiajie, one of the four parts of Wulingyuan, became China's very first national forest park in 1982.
- Although the scenery resembles limestone karst, the pillars were shaped by physical erosion, with frost and plant roots prying the sandstone apart, not by chemical dissolution.
- The Bailong Elevator climbs its 326 metres in about a minute and a half and was certified by Guinness in 2015 as the world's tallest outdoor lift.
- Roughly the lower half of the Bailong Elevator shaft is buried inside the cliff, while the upper part is an exposed steel frame.
- The lift runs three glass cars side by side, each able to carry up to 50 passengers at once.
- Construction of the Bailong Elevator began in 1999 and stirred debate over its effect on a World Heritage landscape; it opened in 2002.
Why it is worth it
Wulingyuan is a forest of stone. More than 3,000 pillars and peaks of quartz sandstone rise from the valleys of north-western Hunan, many of them over 200 metres tall. Between them run gorges, streams, pools and waterfalls. The landscape is so improbable that it looks invented; UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1992.
The pillars were shaped over hundreds of millions of years: the sandstone was laid down in the Devonian period and then lifted by tectonic forces, and erosion by water carved it into separate columns. The scenic area covers about 690 square kilometres of the Wuling Mountains and is made up of four parts: Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, the Suoxi Valley and Tianzi Mountain nature reserves, and the more recently added Yangjiajie. There are some 40 caves, many rich in calcite formations, and a natural arch, Tianqiaoshengkong, the "bridge across the sky", counted among the highest natural bridges in the world.
Getting up among the peaks is part of the experience. Huangshizhai, the highest area at about 1,050 metres, can be reached by cable car or by a long staircase. On another cliff the Bailong Elevator, a lift 326 metres high built into the rock face, carries visitors to the top and is billed as the tallest outdoor elevator in the world. Eco-shuttle buses run between the main areas inside the park, and the scenic area counts some 560 viewpoints and sights. The forests also shelter vulnerable wildlife, including the dhole, the Asiatic black bear and the Chinese water deer.
The area is large, and it is worth planning which of its four parts to see before arriving.
Getting there
The scenic area lies in Zhangjiajie prefecture, about 270 km north-west of Changsha, the capital of Hunan. Wulingyuan town is about 7.5 km from the heart of the site; buses from Zhangjiajie's central bus station reach it in 45 to 60 minutes. The park has several gates, of which the east gate at Wulingyuan and the south gate are the most convenient; from the east gate the shuttle to the Bailong Elevator takes about 30 to 40 minutes. The nearest airport is Zhangjiajie Hehua (DYG), about 27 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Wulingyuan is a scenic and historical site in the Wulingyuan District of South Central China's Hunan Province. It is noted for more than 3,000 quartzite sandstone pillars and peaks across most of the site, many over 200 metres (660 ft) in height, along with many ravines and gorges with picturesque streams, pools, lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. It features 40 caves, many with large calcite deposits and a natural bridge named Tianqiaoshengkong, which is one of the highest natural bridges in the world. The site also provides habitat for many vulnerable species, including the dhole, Asiatic black bear, and Chinese water deer.
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