张家界

Why this place

Zhangjiajie is a sandstone pillar landscape: over three thousand slender quartz columns rising hundreds of metres out of forest, often with cloud between them. It is the model for the floating mountains in Avatar, and its scale is genuinely hard to photograph.

What to see

• Yuanjiajie and the Hallelujah Mountain, with the glass elevator up the cliff
• Tianzi Mountain, generally regarded as the better of the two, for the sea of cloud
• Jinbian Stream — a 7km walk along the valley at the foot of the pillars
• Tianmen Mountain, with the 99-bend road and the glass skywalk, on a separate ticket
• Baofeng Lake and the Tujia villages of the surrounding valleys

What to eat

• Tujia cooking: cured pork, sour fish and 'sanxiaguo' dry pot
• The local glutinous rice and the mountain's wild vegetables

How to plan

Three days inside the park, plus a half-day for Tianmen Mountain.

Best time

April–May and September–November; winter is beautiful and empty; summer is hot and crowded

Practical tips

• The park is enormous and the shuttle and cable system is confusing — plan each day and stay inside the park to avoid the gate queues