Day 20: Zhangjiajie, Friday 10th October 2025
Yellow Lantern
35°, fine
NZ$1 = Y4
Y1=NZ$0.25
Up at 8am, out for breakfast to the Starbucks, which is conveniently right next to the McDonalds, at 9am ( Y 107 for 2 ham/cheese croissants and coffees ). Back to the hotel for a bit then out at 10am. Decided to have a bit of a quiet day as we had a full days excursion planned for tomorrow.
We walked to the Lishui River then over the river on Guanyin Bridge, into the city of Zhangjiajie proper. We walked past an Ancient Town which appeared to be permanently closed ( it should be noted that most Ancient Towns are recreations at best, and sometimes they are a bit like a theme park more than a real ‘town’; this Ancient Town complex looked very new and was clearly built for the tourists but had obviously not attracted the people and was now closed ).
While we are on the subject of ‘recreations’ the name Zhangjiajie is not the original name for the city ( it was changed in 1994 ) and often maps or signs will refer to it by it’s former name of Dayong ( which apparently means “big boring place” ). The name Zhangjiajie was borrowed from the nearby Zhangjiajie National Park, and that name was taken from a village within that park. The name means “Zhang family home” with Zhang being a prominent family in the area.
We walked into the main shopping area of town, which consists of 2 main parallel streets with cross streets / plazas between them. We wanted to cross one of the main streets but, like a lot of busy streets in towns, the only way toy appeared to be to go through an underpass under the street. So we headed down the steps…to find that the streets in this area all had a shopping mall under them, running directly under and in line with the streets above. So there was a whole world under this area that we did not expect. That said the shopping malls were very much aimed at locals, and we felt like were in a place that very few non-locals went, and there was a lot of staring as we walked through the shops. Most of the shops were selling clothes, shoes, bags, toys, food etc and not things that we would buy.
We turned left and went west under Huilong Rd, then north then back east under a different street ( Jiefang Rd ). We got a few “hello”’s and “ni hao'”’s but most people just looked surprised to see us. We popped up into a more normal above ground shopping mall ( Qifang Sq) and then out to street level again. We found a Chagee cafe for a drink ( Y40 for 2 drinks ) and a rest at 11am.
Carried on walking east along Jiefang rd, briefly went up into another Ancient Town complex ( also closed but with a few random shops scattered around ) then to the eastern end of Jiefang Rd. We had had enough of walking so we caught a Didi back to the hotel at 12:30 ( Y36 for a 5 minute ride; there was some confusion at the start about our pickup location so the driver had to park the car, and he had to pay for a parking ticket, which we got charged for as part of the fare ) .
We relaxed for the afternoon as Liz was still not well.
The photo above shows one of the few times we were able to see Tianmen Mountain clearly as it often had fog/clouds around it. The cable car we took yesterday ( 2 cars visible left of frame ) goes over the ridge in the foreground and then arrives at the mountain at the highest point you can see this shot.
Out at 5:30pm, walked west to Zhangjiajie Citizens Park then north to the Lishui River, then east along the river bank and back around south towards the the hotel. We cut through Xingmin Rd which seems to be a new road with lots of modern apartments and new restaurants and lots of construction happening, and back to the hotel at about 6:30pm. The temperature was very pleasant at this time of night.
Headed out for dinner at 7pm, went to restaurant in the alleyway just down from our hotel, we sat outside in a small courtyard and beef stirfry, egg/onion dish ( fu yung? ) and 2 beers for Y76.
Back to the hotel at 8pm after buying breakfast supplies ( buns and yoghurts ) for tomorrow as we had an early start and wouldn’t have time for going out for breakfast first.
Zoomable Map ( pin is located on our hotel location )