Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park

This is a MUST if you are in Zhangjiajie. It’s just as breathtaking as the Avatar mountains.
You will need a day for Tianmen mountain.
It costs RMB275 for cable car and cable car down.
We took the bus up to the first stop of the mountain then walked up to the Cave (mountain with the hole). Then walked up 1,000 steps. The view is amazing.
From there we then took the world’s longest escalator to the top of the mountain. We then went from the West side (yellow route) and followed the mountain edge to the east side ;red route).
We also took the ski lift chair to the pagoda for a magnificent view. We did a return trip. Costs RMB25 one way.
The ski lift chairs is in the middle of the mountain.
There are loads of shops and places to eat. Loads of toilets, very well kept.
We were lucky that it rained the night before so we had all lot of clouds and mist.

An important tip:
Go early and leave around 4pm - 4.30pm.
The return ticket you upon leaving for the cable car down you need to go to the booth near the First Aid Station where you queue up outside for the cable car. You then need to jump onto the next available time slot for the cable car down. You cannot just queue and go because it’s packed! It’s so busy. The queue is astronomically long!!
We left 5.30pm and after finding out about the slotted time we had to wait 1hr before we could even start to queue up. So in total it took us 2hrs. We took the 6.50pm cable car down.
So just make sure you get there upon opening and leave earlier. It will save you a lot of time.
The glass bridge is not that great. RMB5 for the small one. The glass is dirty so you cannot see much.
The cable car going down takes you back to the town Centre and it’s awesome because it goes through town.
I would do this trip again ????

Second to the Avatar mountains this is the other “must” see on your visit. We took the cable car from the city to the top of the mountain (7.5 km long!!) which gives you beautiful views of the mountain. On the top it was cloudy so we walk around the full top of the mountain and on the western side it opened up so you could enjoy the view and the massive drop below your feet. Do take the glass walkway if you are not scared of heights. It is impressive. The actual cave (or rather hole) is amazing. I suggest first going to the bottom of the 999 steps and the walking up - you really feel the awe of the place.

We arrived at the cable car station at about 9:30 and waited until about 10am to get on the cable car. We didn’t realise there were different tickets available for routes going up and down (only realised this when coming down). We got to the top after a 30 minute cable car ride and walked on the east line. I would suggest walking the west route so that you can do the glass walkway on the west side. The weather got progressively worse abs by the end of our route we could hardly see a thing. The views first thing were amazing and the glass walkways were brilliant. Not much options for food going around so take snacks. When we got back to the top of the cable car they told us we didn’t have the right ticket and needed to go to the tainted cave and go down that way. We didn’t want to do this as we had seen the cave and were tired and wet by this point. They finally allowed us back down the cable car but it took some effort. My suggestion-walk west route and finish by going down to the cave.

The only important tip is to figure the most efficient root so that you can save your energy and time. I took the longest cable ride in the world to the top, and the stairs down, (you can either use the escalator or just climb down). Since it was not too crowded when I visited, I was able to spend much time on the mountain and just relax. It’s a must see for every tourist!

To visit the mountain you can take cable car or a bus up a road with many tight turns. We would recommend taking line A cable car but the other routes look interesting as well.

With line A you get to the summit and work your way down and the total cost is 275 yuan. Once you get to the top you can get to the highest point on Tianmen mountain and have views of the temple, the steep cliffs, the city and the lakes and trees below. We spent 3 hours walking around the west and east sides at the top, went over one glass walkway (cost is 5 yuan pp), visited the temple and had many drink vending machines and convenience stores. We took a break in the temple area and had some dumplings which was the halfway point. The east side is nice and offers views of Tianmen Cave from both sides. The escalator from the top to Tianmen Cave is on the east side so it made sense to go west first then to the east. We skipped the chairlift in the middle because it didn’t make sense to take it (cost is 25 yuan).

The escalator is a long system and takes about 15 minutes. We spent about 15 minutes in the cave area then walked down the stairway to heaven. This took us around 20 minutes to descend and our legs felt like jelly when we got down. The square at the bottom offers good views of the stairway, waterfall and Tianmen Cave. We spent 20 minutes on the square taking pictures and checking out shops then spent another 15 minutes walking to the Transmountain Cable Car to get down. The cable cars at the lower station are very large so do not expect to wait long. The cable car on the way down went over where the fox fairy show stage and then we took a ten minute walk to get to the bus. There are many buses so the lineup went quick as well and then it took 10 minutes to get back to the cable car station in the city.

Line A was very worth it but if you are looking for a fairly challenging stairway you can go to the Transmountain Cable Car route. Please note that there is hourly admittal periods for the cable car and if they sell out of a line you have to take another cable car route. We arrived here at 8:30 and were admitted to the station at 9:00 am and boarded our cable car at 9:15 am. We lucked out in July 2020 and had a great time with an easy hike!

Fog snow, few people beautifull other way and experience to visit this mountain, there is not views but still worthy, less people so enjoy more. The best route is take the cable from the town to the top of the mountain, its 7 km and take about 30 min, do the visit ( round patch that take around 3-4 hours) and go down using the escalators, the longest in the world. There is two section, after first one you can visit the the "hole" of the montain and walk down the stairs or use the another escalator section to go down, then there is a bus bring you again to the cable station, i couldn´t see the hole because the fog so cannot tell if its worthy.For ticket go early ( from 07:00 ) to take it , cost 230RMB all included, cable, mountain ticket and escalators. So choose and hotel near by if you can. In winter or low season you can buy it same day, not problem, in peak season better book in advance. i liked very much this experience in winter, specially if you like do it without too many people. its very cold to be prepared , on top you can buy in the shop for just 15rmb crampons to avoid slips, you must buy them if is snow the path . I went middle of January just before spring festival so its the lowest season to go i guess, For the crystal bridge there is two need to pay 10 rmb each , i dont recommend do it since nothing to see with the fog in winter. There is few places to buy snaks and food.All the trees and vegetation are totally frozen so the views are amazing like a fairy tale.

We went to Tianmen mountain in the midst of winter, not a popular time to visit, it was on the day of Chinese New Year, there was absolutely zero crowd, it was bitter cold, the cable car ride was too good but the glass bridge were closed, it was extremely cloudy, the views were spectacular when the clouds cleared temporarily . Although we enjoyed the Trip in winter the place is worth going once more in summer