Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

The sandstone that forms Zhangjiajie's pillars was laid down in an ancient sea hundreds of millions of years ago. Uplift of the earth's crust, followed by long erosion and collapse along joints in the rock, left the pillars, ravines and natural bridges seen today.

Zhangjiajie was established in 1982 as China's first national forest park. Together with the adjoining Suoxiyu and Tianzishan areas it forms Wulingyuan, which was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. UNESCO describes more than 3,000 narrow quartz-sandstone pillars and peaks, many over 200 m high, along with ravines, streams, pools, waterfalls, around 40 caves and two large natural bridges. The area also shelters threatened species such as the Asiatic black bear and the dhole. In 2010 the 1,080 m Southern Sky Column was renamed Avatar Hallelujah Mountain after the film.

The Zhangjiajie region is home to the Tujia and other minority peoples as well as Han Chinese, and Tujia culture shapes local food, music and architecture, with wooden stilt houses and dishes rich in smoked and pickled flavours. Tourism has transformed the area since the 1980s; protection policies from 1999 relocated many houses out of the scenic areas to reduce pressure on the landscape. Today Wulingyuan town and Zhangjiajie city are busy service centres, and the park itself can be extremely crowded during national holidays.