Accessible Exploration of the “Avatar” Mountains in Zhangjiajie

On Monday evening I received a message: “Imagine how boring life would be if we went through it without challenges that we can learn from and conquer.” The woman who sent it was flying to Zhangjiajie the next morning. She is 77, American, traveling on her own, for 12 days.

She had first contacted me two months earlier. She sent me an itinerary she had planned herself, day by day, and after it a list of 26 requirements, asking me to confirm each one. One of them read: every cableway, lift and escalator must be included. When I read that list, I knew this woman had worked out something that many people never do.

You have probably seen the movie Avatar. Many people will tell you that the floating stone mountains in the film were modeled on my home, Zhangjiajie, in Hunan, China. I grew up among these mountains and started guiding tourists in 2016. These days more and more of my foreign guests are over 60, and nearly every woman among them asks the same question in her first email: “I hear there are a lot of stairs. Can I manage at my age?” They ask about the stairs. This woman asked which stairs she could skip.

Tuesday Morning

At a quarter past nine, I met her at the airport. We drove straight to Wulingyuan, where she is staying at the park gate rather than in the city. That is the first thing I arrange for older guests: sleep at the gate, save two drives a day, sleep a little later in the morning and get back a little earlier in the afternoon.

The classic view of the stone pillars is from Yuanjiajie, up on top. Younger visitors hike up from the valley floor. With her, we took the Bailong Elevator, a sightseeing lift built on the outside of a cliff: a little over a minute from the valley floor to the top. From the lift, the park’s eco-bus took us to the viewing platform.

She stood at the railing for a while, looking first, and then turned to me and said, “So this is the Hallelujah Mountain from Avatar.”

I have stood at that spot with many people in their 70s and 80s. What they see is exactly what a 20-year-old sees. The only difference is that we came up in a lift.

A Little After Three

Between the viewpoints we rode the bus. From each stop to the platform the path is paved, so you walk a stretch and stop, walk a stretch and stop. We had lunch on the mountain. A little after three I took her down on the Tianzi Mountain cableway, and by four she was back at the hotel.

Coming down after three is my rule, not the park’s. The cableways and the lift have no fixed closing time; the park decides when to close depending on how busy the day is. So I never plan around the last ride. I ask in the morning, and the descent goes early in the day. With older guests, this matters more than anything else.

I also skipped two places for her that day. The Golden Whip Stream is a lovely valley path of more than seven kilometers, but it takes a long time to walk in full, so I take older guests only along the first stretch from the entrance, to see the water and the pillars on both sides, and then back. Yellow Dragon Cave has many steps inside, so I swap it for a boat on Baofeng Lake, which gives you the same water and mountains from a seat. Her list had said she is vegetarian and wants breakfast only, so that is how we handled lunch, without asking twice.

In a Couple of Days, Tianmen Mountain

Her itinerary also included Tianmen Mountain, the one with the enormous natural arch in its cliff face, right on the edge of the city. Many older guides still say, “Take the cable car straight up from the city.” That long cableway from the city no longer carries passengers, so do not plan around it. There is now one way up: your ticket is checked at the mountain gate, an express cableway takes you to the square below Tianmen Cave, and escalators built inside the mountain carry you to the summit. You come back the same way.

For older travelers this is actually good news: the whole visit is cableway and escalator. The last stretch up to the cave has its own five-stage escalator, which I always add for older guests so nobody faces the long staircase. The glass walkway along the cliff needs shoe covers and is optional. If you would rather not, you sit in the square below the cave and watch the clouds.

The Glass Bridge in the Grand Canyon is also in her later day plans. I have already bought the ticket that covers both the canyon and the bridge. On the day, whether she goes down to the canyon floor will depend on her legs. If she stays up, she still crosses the bridge on the same ticket. The canyon floor has many steps, which is why I never put it on the first day. On the first day I need to see how someone walks on level ground.

She Was Not Avoiding Anything

When I put her message and her 26-item list side by side, it made sense. She is not afraid of walking, and she is not avoiding challenges. She has simply chosen them: which stretches are worth walking, and which ones to hand over to a lift. A 77-year-old does not fly across the world alone to prove she can climb stairs.

I have also guided guests in wheelchairs, and I say this plainly in advance: the level paths inside the park, the eco-buses, the cableways and the Bailong Elevator all work. The viewing trails on the summits have many steps, and pushing a wheelchair there is awkward. So for a wheelchair user I plan to ride wherever riding is possible and to see what can be seen from there. I do not promise the whole route.

If You Are Thinking of Coming

• Foreign passport holders aged 65 and over currently enter the Forest Park free of charge, and those aged 60 to 64 pay half. Tianmen Mountain has a senior price: about CNY 152 for ages 60 to 64 and about CNY 116 for 65 and over, with your passport. The Grand Canyon is priced at the adult rate.
• All tickets require real-name reservations. A tour company can do this for you, so you do not need a Chinese phone number or a Chinese payment app.
• Wear closed, non-slip shoes. Bring your regular medication in its original packaging, enough for the whole trip plus a day or two. The summits are cooler than the valley, so pack a light jacket, and a raincoat or umbrella.
• If you do not eat spicy food, are vegetarian, or need low salt, say so once and your guide will order for you in Chinese.
• One or two sights a day, and back at the hotel early in the afternoon.

Let’s Have a Conversation:

Have you ever crossed a place off your list because of “too many stairs”? If you have been to Zhangjiajie, which part surprised you most? If you have not, which of the two mountains would you want to see first? Tell me in the comments.