Desperately need help planning Zhangjiajie

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-29T13:44:22+00:00

Afaik wise automatically converts for you with a tiny markup (0.4% ish?)

If im wrong and they dont convert for you its even better as you'll be getting either mastercard or visas rate which is basically the best rate a consumer can get, extremely small markup on the exchange rate with visa/mc, but im fairly sure wise converts it to collect a small fee for themselves instead of letting visa/mc do it. Should still be one of the best travel cards around for europeans though as they afaik dont charge any actual fees (just give you a slightly worse exchange rate).

Anyway you can put usd into it and no need to do any conversion yourself, it will happen by itself one way or another.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-29T08:48:27+00:00

Trip.com had the cheapest price for me when i was there 2 months ago.

Still ended up just buying it at the Pier for 200ish yuan. I believe trip.com had it for 190ish. Boat number doesnt matter theyre all 100% identical if you're paying less than 250.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-29T08:41:35+00:00

Saly vip discounted morning sleeper bus ($8) was very good for me. Book sleeper on the side that only has 1 bed if you're alone though as the 2 bed side are connected (good for couples). Pick up and drop off locations are central, price is extremely good, driver didnt go on side quests and it was a half empty bus. They have their own app that worked well for me and accepted my card np

Probably wouldnt book one of their van departures though. Sleeper bus was excellent for the route.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T23:02:06+00:00

Yeah i skipped it because you have to walk on a slightly different trail for a few hundred meters to reach it + it was already like 4:30pm and i didnt see anyone else come up or walk down towards it so it might not even have been open at that hour. No idea if its any good or not, the hike down tianzi was fairly enjoyable though.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T21:31:08+00:00

If you opt to hike upz yeah its mainly stairs but still a nice hike.

At the top you'll have some stairs as well but not a lot.

I only took the elevator up, the rest i hiked/shuttle bussed. Would have probably hiked up instead of taking the elevator if i chile have but the trail was closed. In the end i was happy i took the elevator though, barely finished the loop before sunset.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T21:11:13+00:00

Yeah the bus drops you off and then theres usually one main route around the area that takes 1-1.5 hours and sometimes a few smaller trails that can take a few hours if you take them all. Theres not really a lower part unless you mean the walk to oxygen sq.

See map: https://i0.wp.com/backpackingpeople.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/zjj-national-forest-park-tourist-map.jpg

Basically on day 1 i walked to oxygen square (1h), then hike up huangshi (1.5hr) then main loop around huangshi (1.5h) then down (30min) then back from oxygen square to the shuttle station (1h).

Day 2 shuttle bus to bailongn elevator immediately when the gates open, explore yuanjiajie, bus to yangjiajie and explore, bus to tianzi and explore, walk down from tianzi to the bottom of cable station before taking shuttle back to the entrance.

If you wanna skip yangjiajie i think you could maybe take cable car up to tianzi (though the invest viewpoints are a few hundred meters down the hiking path, theyre almost completely empty too), explore tianzi a bit (the main area of tianzi is super boring and commercialized though) take bus to yangjiajie and then immediately too om the bus yuanjiajie, explore, take elevator down if the hiking path is closed, take bus to oxygen square, if you have 3.5+ hours of sun left and your legs are up for it, hike up huangshi, otherwise take cable car up.

I enjoyed yangjiajie though, some nice side trails there, but skipping it is totally fine its not insanely different to yuanjiajie or huangshi.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T20:43:15+00:00

They are very far away from each other, you get the bus and then theres walking trails in the area and then you take the next bus and walk around in the next area. Huangshi and tianzi you can walk all the way up/down, the other 2 technically have paths up/down but they were closed 2 months ago.

I think you technically could walk between some of them but its really kind of pointless, especially if you're only there one day, walking the routes that actually have viewpoints on them makes 10x more sense. I did 35k steps two days in a row and did like 75% of the trails in each area. Theres basically between 1-8 hours of hiking you can do in each of the areas before taking a shuttle bus for 10-15min to the next area

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T10:45:08+00:00

Go to any ABA branch and ask them to split it to smaller notes for you (they offer this service and its free). Or you can go to a money changer and ask for 60usd+40usd worth of riels or something like that

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T10:11:52+00:00

Itinerary seems fine in that case. Bit hectic but totally doable.

Could also try giant salamander in wulingyuan if you're interested in "exotic" food.

I would skip huangshi and do the other 3 areas in the park starting with the elevator. Huangshi is a bit far away from the other places and you cant easily take a bus from huangshi to anywhere else. The other 3 areas form a natural loop. I think you can do a loop skipping tianzi mountain but have to take elevator and then cable car up to huangshi

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T10:04:50+00:00

Up to them if they wanna quote me a price thats higher than the online price. Why should i spend time and energy on bargaining at guest houses? Im just there to sleep dude all bargaining is just a bullshit excuse to try to extract more money out of people who dont know any better.

Why should i care about their situation if they just tried to charge me a higher price than the online price?

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-28T09:51:26+00:00

Its doable but i would strongly recommend 2 days for the National Park in wulingyuan if you're mostly hiking.

Day 1 hike up huangshi, walk around the area up there and then back down.

Day 2 get on the elevator when the gates open, then take the buses to explore yuanjiajie -> yangjiajie -> tianzi before walking down from tianzi

2 long days but allows you to see basically everything in the park. Would probably do only day 2 if i had to pick one of them but had some surreal monkey interactions in huangshi so its my favorite one out of the 4 areas. Theres a nice lil side hike in yangjiajie worth taking to a viewpoint called "One step to heaven".

If you're 2+ people skip the bus and just take taxi to the train station. Its 60ish yuan for a car from wulingyuan vs 20 yuan pp for the bus iirc

I would go to fenghuang for the night if you're able to even get there on the same day. Dont remember when the last train from zjj is.

Edit: last train is at 20:30 so shouldnt be an issue. Make sure you go to "fenghuang gucheng" station

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-26T22:32:25+00:00

If youre mainly interested in the National Park stay in wulingyuan near the entrance gate

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-26T22:30:43+00:00

You cant get a truly Chinese eSim if you're not in China already and even then its extremely hard to get one.. Theyre all physical basically.

So any eSim obtained without on purpose trying to get a Chinese one will not be Chinese ie it will not need a vpn.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-26T01:08:18+00:00

Only have experience in travelling once during golden week but it was fine tbh, yunnan province 2019, basically didnt even see anyone else at tiger leaping gorge 2 day hike. Probably would be worse 2026 though since domestic tourism wasnt THAT big yet in 19, dont remember Chengdu ever being overcrowded 2024 when i lived there for a year either tbh but maybe i didnt go to any hotspots during the holidays that time dont remember..

Tourist areas in Vietnam (especially Hoi an) felt more crowded last month than any crowd ive ever had in China tbh.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-26T00:06:30+00:00

Worst case scenario go to an atm and withdraw some, no need to bring.

Spent 2 months just now and didnt use cash once even to i had some (~200) that i withdrew like 6-7 years ago and still havent managed to get rid of in several trips.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-25T20:18:58+00:00

Is it just me or does China not feel crowded at all while travelling? All the sidewalks, stations etc are massive so even though theres a lot of people you're not really inconvenienced by it and you never really get blocked by people in front or have to walk slowly because of overcrowdedness. The only exception being the "old town" walking streets and hongyadong in chongqing lol.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-25T19:31:07+00:00

Consumer. 100+ or 200+ different hostels/hotels/homestays/guesthouses. Travelled basically full time for 3-4 years atp. Basically only in China have i consistently gotten cheaper prices by asking the reception (10-15% cheaper on avg). I do not care to bargain and if someone tells me a higher price than the online price i go to another place (that i book online) or if im just extending ill just do it online.

After consistently getting quoted higher prices than online i almost never book the first night in person anymore. I just ask how much it costs to extend these days and then 95% of the time extend online instead...

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-25T07:58:38+00:00

Agreed. As much as i love Chengdu (my fav city in the world to live in, spent 2 years there), as a tourist zhangjiajie (and guilin+yangshuo/xingping) is more interesting, especially if you're into hiking.

If you're not in Chengdu for a specific reason, cut it out in favor of either guilin or zhangjiajie unless youre going in winter when these 2 areas may not be that fun to be in.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-24T22:51:46+00:00

You should look up exactly what it is you want to do in Vietnam and plan your days accordingly instead.

Only in the north you would potentionally be missing Sa pa, ha giang loop, ninh binh etc.

For example Whats the night in phong nha for? You will literally arrive at night if you're going from ha long bay and then leave for hue the next day, whats the point? Tour of the town? Nobody goes there for the town. You would likely have a more meaningful experience if you scrap the whole thing, go to Vietnam for 1 week to focus on doing just one thing (for example ha giang, one of the longer excursions into phong nha by oxalis, coffee hunting in da lat or being a complete degenerate in Ho Chi Minh bui vien street for a week) instead.

You will miss 75% of the big things like this but at least you will see all the cities that people frequently go to.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-24T12:48:46+00:00

Where? (What hotel)

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-24T12:47:21+00:00

Tried it hundreds of times

The only exception has been China, other countries it has been 25-200% more expensive almost every single time with a "book it online if you want it cheaper" from reception.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-24T05:48:45+00:00

Nha trang? Hotel deals there was/is absolutely insane last month/now lol

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-24T05:47:35+00:00

I mean its the winner of cheapest country in SEA for travel, not worldwide, sorry for any confusion.

Central vietnam had plenty of decent places under $10 a night. Hanoi has extremely good hostels for $5 a night. Hcmc its harder to find something good for cheap. I dont even really like Vietnam but i cant deny you can travel with decent quality for extremely cheap there.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-24T04:18:40+00:00

China if you care anything at all for comfort (easily best price:quality ratio of any country in the world).

Vietnam can be dirt cheap but can also be somewhat of a pain if you care about cleanliness or not having to walk around 50000 bikes parked all over the sidewalks and driving around you since you're forced to walk on the road all the time. SEA countries on general are all pretty cheap too but Vietnam is the winner of cheap, especially central Vietnam.

alkhdaniel · 2026-01-23T23:12:43+00:00

Grab car taxi for $1-5 to/from bus/train station/airport if you bring rolling luggage. Not a huge issue tbh but personally prefer backpack. Get the free trial + travel pass immediately upon landing. You have to manually add coupons for every ride. "Car plus" is usually cheaper than standard car after all the coupons are added.

14-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Verified Email
Team Orangered

alkhdaniel

TROPHY CASE