Wulingyuan : A Gateway to Avatar Mountain - China

Background

Wulingyuan was not on my radar when I first looking into travelling to Zhangjiajie. I only knew Zhangjiajie is the home of Avatar Mountain. Then I watched a YouTube video where the person said they stayed inside the national park. I thought why ?

Later on I researched some more and found out that Avatar Mountain is located inside Zhangjiajie National Forest Park 张家界国家森林公园. It's a completely different location as Tianmen Mountain where the famous big cave on the mountain is.

To visit Avatar Mountain is best to stay at Wulingyuan 武陵源 which is about 40 minutes by car from Zhangjiajie City. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is huge and would require a few days to visit. One would have to travel back and forth 1.5 hour each day from Zhangjiajie city to Wulingyuan to be able to access the park.

Where To Stay

I thought Wulingyuan is a small town with limited accommodations.  It maybe smaller compares to Zhangjiajie city but there are plenty of hotels there big and small. Even big hotel chains like Pullman and Days Hotel by Wyndham have branches there.

We stayed at Joy Maple Smart Hotel 喜见·枫庭酒店. Our hotel is a smaller hotel but strategically close to East Gate entrance 东门 of the national park. The staff was friendly and very helpful. As soon as we arrived, while waiting for our rooms to be prepared, one of the staff Xiao Tu jumped in and asked if we have purchased our tickets. We haven't because we were not sure whether we could enter the park. She checked the weather and told us we should as it's clear right now. She started giving us instructions on how to get to the park and which way in the park to go.

Her instruction was very helpful as the national park is huge. When I researched the trip and watched numerous videos on YouTube I was worry that I may get lost inside the park. But her instruction made it so clear and easy to navigate different parts of the park.