China National Parks

Wulingyuan in north-western Hunan is China’s most famous landscape abroad: more than 3,000 quartz-sandstone pillars, many over 200 m tall, rising out of subtropical forest. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is the best-known section, and one ticket covers it along with the Tianzi Mountain, Yangjiajie and Suoxiyu areas. The ticket, about 225 yuan in peak season, is valid for four days and registered to your passport, and free shuttle buses link the zones inside.

Plan two full days. On day one, enter at the Wulingyuan gate, ride the Bailong Elevator (a separate ticket, about 65 yuan one way) up the cliff to Yuanjiajie, where the pillar used as the model for Avatar’s Hallelujah Mountain stands, and walk the rim trails. On day two, take the cable car up to Tianzi Mountain or walk the Golden Whip Stream along the valley floor, an easy 7 km on a flat path with macaques on the railings. The Zhangjiajie Glass Bridge over the Grand Canyon is a separate trip about an hour away and needs its own booking.

In Zhangjiajie city, Tianmen Mountain is reached by a cable car that starts in town and climbs for about half an hour, one of the longest in the world. At the top are cliff-edge walkways, some with glass floors, and the 999 steps up to Tianmen Cave, a natural arch in the mountain. Sleep in Wulingyuan town for the forest park and in the city for Tianmen.

Jiuzhaigou, in the mountains of northern Sichuan, is a Y-shaped set of valleys holding more than a hundred lakes coloured turquoise, cobalt and jade by dissolved minerals, connected by waterfalls such as Nuorilang and Pearl Shoal. Boardwalks run beside the water, and a park bus that is compulsory and paid separately carries you between the sights. In peak season, April to mid-November, entry is about 190 yuan plus about 90 yuan for the bus, and a daily visitor cap applies, so book a few days ahead on the official channel. Parts of the park were closed for years after a 2017 earthquake; the full park reopened in April 2024.

Give it a full day: take the bus to the top of the Rize valley in the morning and work your way down on foot. Autumn, from late September to late October, is the classic season, when the forests turn red and gold above the lakes. Jiuzhaigou Huanglong airport sits between the two parks, with flights from Chengdu; the road trip from Chengdu takes most of a day.

Huanglong, about two to three hours away by road near Songpan, is a single valley of yellow travertine terraces filled with coloured pools, climbing to a temple and the Five-Colour Pool at about 3,550 m. A cable car takes you up and you walk down about 4 km. Altitude affects some visitors here, so walk slowly.

Sichuan also has the pandas. The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding is in the city; arrive at opening (7.30am, 8am in winter), when the pandas eat and are active. The Wolong National Nature Reserve has a breeding centre in the mountains, and to the west Mount Siguniang and the glacier of Hailuogou under Mount Gongga are the best hiking. Our China itineraries show how to fit Sichuan into a two-week trip.

Huangshan, the Yellow Mountain in southern Anhui, is the granite range of Chinese scroll paintings: twisted pines growing from bare rock, peaks rising out of a sea of cloud, and stone stairways linking them. The scenic area is compact but steep. Two cable cars, Yungu and Yuping, lift you most of the way from the gate, and from the top you walk between viewpoints such as Bright Summit Peak, Beginning-to-Believe Peak and the Xihai Grand Canyon, a loop of trails and cliff stairs that takes a full day.

Stay overnight on the summit. The hotels around the Beihai and Xihai areas are expensive and basic for the price, but staying lets you see sunrise over the clouds and the mountain after the day groups leave. Peak-season entry, from March to November, is about 190 yuan, with cable cars extra each way. High-speed trains run to Huangshan North station from Hangzhou in about 90 minutes and from Shanghai in about three hours, then a bus takes about an hour to Tangkou at the foot of the mountain.

Combine it with the old villages around Huangshan City or with Wuyuan across the border in Jiangxi, famous for its canola fields in March. Mount Sanqing, two hours west, has granite pillars and a cliff-face plank walk with a fraction of Huangshan’s crowds, and Mount Lu near Jiujiang is a cooler, gentler mountain of villas and waterfalls.

China’s holy mountains were pilgrimage routes long before they were parks, and climbing one is as much about the temples, tea stalls and fellow walkers as the view. The traditional Five Great Mountains are Mount Tai in Shandong, Hua Shan in Shaanxi, Mount Song in Henan, and the two Hengs, in Hunan and Shanxi. The four Buddhist mountains, including Mount Emei and Mount Wutai, are covered in our temples guide.

Mount Tai, above Tai’an, is the most climbed: about 6,600 steps from the Red Gate to the summit at about 1,533 m, four to six hours up, with the South Gate of Heaven near the top. Many people climb at night to reach the summit for sunrise; take a jacket, as it is cold at dawn even in summer. Entry is about 115 yuan in peak season, and cable cars and buses can shorten the climb either way.

Hua Shan, two hours east of Xi’an by bus or 30 minutes by high-speed train to Huayin, is the vertiginous one: five granite peaks reached by stairs cut into near-vertical rock, and the famous plank walk, a narrow boardwalk bolted to a cliff face, done in a harness for an extra fee. The North Peak and West Peak cable cars make it a day trip. Mount Emei in Sichuan, at 3,099 m, combines with the Leshan Giant Buddha an hour away; the Golden Summit has a gilded statue and, on clear mornings, views to Mount Gongga.

The karst landscape around Guilin in Guangxi is the one printed on the back of the 20-yuan note: limestone towers lining a green river, with water buffalo and bamboo rafts below. The classic way to see it is a cruise down the Li River from Guilin to Yangshuo, about 80 km and four to five hours, with lunch on board. The view on the banknote is near Xingping, which is also reachable by road, and the stretch from Yangdi to Xingping is the most scenic part of the river.

Yangshuo is the better base. Rent a bicycle or e-bike and ride out along the Yulong River, take a bamboo raft for an hour between the karst peaks, or climb Xianggong Hill for sunrise over the river. Yangshuo is also China’s best-known rock-climbing area. North of Guilin, the Longsheng rice terraces around Longji climb hillsides of Zhuang and Yao villages, greenest from May to September and flooded and reflective in spring.

In Yunnan, the Stone Forest an hour and a half from Kunming is a field of grey limestone pinnacles with paths through the narrow gaps, easy to see in half a day. In Guizhou, Huangguoshu Waterfall is one of the largest in China, and Fanjingshan, a World Heritage site, has the Mushroom Rock and a summit temple split by a chasm, reached by cable car and steep stairs. The Wulong karst in Chongqing, with its three natural stone bridges, is a day trip from the city.

North-western Yunnan, where the Himalaya fold into deep river gorges, has the best mountain walking in China outside Tibet. Tiger Leaping Gorge, between Lijiang and Shangri-La, is a canyon nearly 3,800 m deep on the Jinsha (upper Yangtze) River. The high trail, from Qiaotou to Tina’s or Walnut Garden, takes two days, with guesthouses along the way, and is one of the great independent treks in Asia. Entry is about 45 yuan.

From Lijiang, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is a day trip: a cable car takes you to about 4,500 m, where oxygen canisters are on sale at every shop, and Blue Moon Valley below has milky turquoise pools. Tickets and cable car slots are limited, so book a day or more ahead in summer. Shangri-La, higher up at 3,200 m, is the base for Tibetan monasteries, grasslands and the Pudacuo national park. Further north in western Sichuan, Yading has three sacred snow peaks above glacial lakes, a demanding day of walking at over 4,000 m.

In the far south, Xishuangbanna around Jinghong is tropical: rainforest, botanical gardens and the Mengda Nature Reserve, with wild elephants in the reserves. Lakes in Yunnan are a draw of their own: Er Hai by Dali for cycling, and Lugu Lake on the Sichuan border, home of the Mosuo people.

Tibet has China’s biggest landscapes, but you cannot visit independently. Foreigners need a Tibet Travel Permit arranged through a licensed agency, with a guide and driver for the whole trip, on top of a Chinese visa; see our China visa guide. From Lhasa, tours run to Namtso, a sacred lake at about 4,700 m, and to Yamdrok Lake on the road to Shigatse. The north side of Mount Everest is reached by road to the Base Camp near Rongbuk Monastery at about 5,000 m. In the far west, Mount Kailash is circled on a three-day pilgrimage of about 52 km, the Kailash kora, beside Lake Manasarovar.

Spend at least two or three nights in Lhasa, at about 3,650 m, before going higher. Altitude sickness is the main risk, and tours are built around acclimatisation.

In Xinjiang, Kanas Lake in the Altai is at its best in late September, when the larches turn gold. Sayram Lake and the Heavenly Lake near Ürümqi are easier to reach, and the Karakoram Highway from Kashgar passes Karakul Lake under Muztagh Ata. In Gansu, the striped Rainbow Mountains of the Danxia landform near Zhangye are best in late afternoon light, and the Crescent Lake in the dunes outside Dunhuang is busiest at sunset. Qinghai Lake, China’s largest lake, is surrounded by canola fields in July.

Changbai Shan on the North Korean border in Jilin is a dormant volcano with a crater lake, Tianchi, at about 2,190 m. The north and west slopes each have their own gate, park buses and viewpoints; the crater rim is usually reachable from June to September and the lake is often hidden in cloud, so allow a spare day. Changbaishan airport and high-speed trains to the area make it easier than it used to be, and winter brings skiing.

The north is about wide skies. Hulunbuir in Inner Mongolia has some of the largest grasslands in China, green in July and August, and Zhalong Nature Reserve in Heilongjiang is a wetland famous for its red-crowned cranes, best in spring and autumn migration.

Hong Kong is a surprise: about 40 percent of its land is country park. The Dragon’s Back ridge walk, Lantau Peak and the coastline of Sai Kung are all reachable by public transport in under an hour from the city, and the parks are free.

Almost every major park sells timed, real-name tickets linked to your passport number, usually through official WeChat mini-programs or the park’s own site, and the busiest ones (Jiuzhaigou, Huangshan, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain) have daily caps. Booking through a travel app such as Trip.com is the easiest option for foreigners. Carry the passport you booked with; it is checked at the gate and sometimes again at cable cars. Entry tickets rarely include park buses, lifts or cable cars, which can double the cost of a day.

Independent travel works well at every park on this page except Tibet. High-speed trains reach Zhangjiajie, Huangshan North, Guilin and Tai’an, and buses or taxis cover the last stretch; our getting around China guide has the details. Stay in the gateway town the night before and be at the gate when it opens, often 7am or 7.30am; you gain two hours before the tour coaches arrive. Weekdays are far quieter than weekends.

Rules are strict and enforced: stay on paths and boardwalks, no swimming or touching the water at Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong, no smoking outside designated areas, and no drones without permission. Many mountain stairways close in thunderstorms or snow. Prices rise in peak season and fall by a third or more in winter, when Huangshan under snow is spectacular and nearly empty. For when to go, see the best time to visit China; for budgets, see China travel costs.