Yangjiajie is linked to the Yang Family. During the Song Dynasty, the well known General Yang Ye led an army and encircled Prince Xiang and his followers here in order to put down their rebellion. As the battle took so long time that he had to settle down here with family. Generations later, numbers of descendants of General Yangye went really big and Yang became the biggest family name here. Consequently, this area was named Yangjiajie, which in Chinese literally means the "territory of the Yang Family". Covering an area of approximately 40 square kilometers, Yangjiajie Scenic Area is located in the northwest of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, joining to Yuanjiajie in the east and Tianzi Mountain in the north. Yangjiajie is famous especially for the landscape of great rocky peak walls. It is also the only area in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park where visitors may need to use hands to climb the mountain and thus attracts lots of backpackers and adventurers.
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☝ the Natural Great Wall in Yangjiajie Scenic Area
Peak Season: 07: 30-18: 00. Low Season: 08: 00-17: 30. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park ticket includes Yangjiajie Scenic Area and tourist doesn't need to purchase additional ticket to visit Yangjiajie.
The main attractions in Yangjiajie Scenic Area are: Wulong Village, Tianbo Mansion, the Natural Great Wall and the Air Corridor.
Wulong Village, Tianbo Mansion and the Natural Great Wall are in the northern part of Yangjiajie and the One Step to Heaven and the Air Corridor are in the southern part, while the cableway station is located in between. Tourists have to make a U turn once they have gotten out from the cable car but want to view sceneries in both the north and south sides. Since the scenic trail in Yangjiajie is 16 kilometers long, Tianbo Mansion in the northern end of the trail is far from the Air Corridor in the southern end. It can take an entire day to visit all the attractions in Yuanjiajie. For this reason, most tourists would prefer to spend 3-4 hours touring selected sites including Wulong Village, Tianbo Mansion and the Natural Great Wall instead.
☝ Wulong Village in Yangjiajie Scenic Area
According to what the local people said, Wulong Village or Oolong Village in English is where the bandits used to live. It is a good place to learn about the folk customs of Western Hunan Province. The village is located on the top of a high mountain. When there is a war, the terrain makes it easy for the people who live inside to defend themselves but difficult for invaders to attack and occupy.
It takes quite a while for visitors to walk through the mountain road to get to Wulong Village. It is even more difficult to walk from the Wulong Village to Tianbo Mansion. Halfway through there is a place called the Three Ghost Gates, and the roads in this area are extremely narrow with many steps and steep slopes. For instance, the narrowest space between the stone walls is only 30 cm. What's even more adventitious is that visitors have to climb up a vertical steel ladder on the way to finally reach the Tianbo Mansion Observation Platform, which offers marvelous views.
☝ The ladder to Tianbo Mansion in Yangjiajie Scenic Area
However, the most impressive site within Yangjiajie should be the Natural Great Wall located near the cableway station. Looking ahead, visitors can find dozens of mountain walls standing out majestically. The asymmetrical scattered mountains have high similarity of spirit with the Great Wall of China which is fantastic and magnificent. It is said that these landscapes of mountain walls formed 380 million years ago from rocky peaks through weathering corrosion. Layer by layer, the slim peaks are like walls to look horizontally and are peaks to look vertically. On top of each peak there is a flat top, and surprisingly there are vigorous Wuling pines growing on it. These extraordinary scenery amazed tourists from all over the world.
The observation deck of the Air Corridor situated between the two cliffs is a huge rock of approximately 30 square meters. Since it takes an hour or two to reach this area after climbing over several mountains, number of tourists to this area is not big. However, the scenery here is very beautiful. Standing on the observation deck of the Air Corridor, visitors can overlook the peak forest as well as the plain located at the foot of the mountain.
☝ the Natural Great Wall in Yangjiajie Scenic Area
The west entrance of the Forest Park or so called Yangjiajie Ticket Station is the closest to Yangjiajie Scenic Area. There, tourists can ride the cable car and get to the top of the mountain in 10 minutes, and fare for one-way ticket is CNY 72 Yuan. The cable car saves your time and efforts. Since the carriage has a panoramic sunroof, visitors can enjoy the views along the way, such as cascading peak walls, deep valleys, lovely streams, extraordinary canyons, and even monkeys playing around in mountains. However, due to the steepness of slope, the cable car ride is relatively thrilling. Please be aware of this before you actually take it.
It takes 10 to 15 minutes to go to Yangjiajie from Yuanjiajie by taking the free environmentally friendly shuttle bus and it takes 20 to 25 minutes to go to Yangjiajie from the Huangshizhai or Yellowstone Village the same way.
☝ Unlike that of other scenic area, the road in Yangjiajie is a bit steep and old people should pay special attention to their steps.
As visitors have to climb extensively for certain parts in Yangjiajie, it does require energy to visit this area. Therefore, it is more suitable for those young people and middle-aged tourists who are very energetic to take challenges. Normally, children, the elderly, the weak, overweight and obese travelers are advised to end the tour after visiting Wulong Village as the road thereafter is really narrow and steep since some travelers may feel it's a big challenge even for walking up and down the stairs of the following road.
☝ A shuttle bus running inside Zhangjiajie National Forest Park is taking tourists to the scenic area.
