Zhangjiajie China TourZhangjiajie National Forest Park Tickets: The ¥240 Entry and Everything It Leaves Out
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park tickets cost ¥240 and admit you for four days, which sounds generous until you find that the ticket pays for no lift of any kind. The Bailong Elevator, the three cableways and the valley tram are each charged separately, and two people riding both ways on two days spend more on transport than on entry. This page prices the whole thing, including where a Zhangjiajie park pass or a guided tour works out cheaper.
Quick answer
Entry to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park costs ¥240 and stays valid four days, covering the eco-shuttle buses inside the park and safety insurance. Lifts are extra: ¥65 for the Bailong Elevator, ¥72 for the Tianzi Mountain cableway, ¥76 for Yangjiajie, ¥65 for Huangshizhai and ¥38 for the Ten Miles Gallery tram, each one way. Entry is real-name and runs on booked time slots.
Key takeaways
- ¥240 for four consecutive days, sold as ¥239 on most booking platforms
- Discounts: ¥122 at ages 14 to 17 and 60 to 64, ¥39 at 65 and over, free under 14
- A pass with unlimited lifts costs about $102 per person and pays off from roughly four rides
- Your first entry is tied to the gate and hour you booked; after that you re-enter freely
- Bring the passport you booked under, since facial recognition is registered at the first scan
- Tianmen Mountain (¥288) and the Grand Canyon Glass Bridge (¥178) are separate tickets
Passes and Tickets You Can Book Ahead
The first three are ticket products: you use them on your own schedule. The last two are guided days that fold entry, shuttles and the named lifts into one price, which is the shortcut for anyone who does not want to manage gate reservations from abroad.
from $102Best for Independent Visits 4-Day Zhangjiajie Park Pass with Unlimited Cable Cars and Bailong Elevator
- Four days of entry, multiple re-entries, no ticket redemption queue
- Unlimited Bailong Elevator plus three cableways and park shuttles
- Covers Golden Whip Stream, Yuanjiajie, Tianzi Mountain, Yangjiajie, Huangshizhai
- Gate is fixed per day: East Gate day one, South Gate day two
from $59Choose Your Own Lifts Zhangjiajie National Park Entry Ticket with Bailong Elevator Options
- Three packages: entry only, entry plus two rides, or unlimited rides
- Official four-day admission, real-name time-slot reservation
- Default route: Bailong Elevator up, Hallelujah Mountain, Tianzi Mountain cable car down
- Book at least three days ahead for preferred slots
from $59Tianmen Mountain Ticket Tianmen Mountain Ticket with Cable Car and Shuttle Bus
- Three route options — pick which direction you ride the cableway
- Includes the glass skywalk and the cliff-side trails at the summit
- Free seven-section escalator between Tianmen Cave and the summit
- Shuttle bus along the 99-bend mountain road
from $59Top Rated — 4.8★, 226 Reviews 1–2 Day Small-Group Zhangjiajie Tour: Avatar Peaks, Glass Bridge & Tianmen Mountain
- Groups capped at about 12 people, English-speaking guide plus audio headsets
- Two glass walks: Grand Canyon Glass Bridge and the Tianmen cliff walkway
- Ten Miles Gallery and the Three Sisters Peaks on day one
- Guaranteed no shopping stops
from $99Top Rated — 4.9★, 666 Reviews 1–2 Day All-Inclusive Zhangjiajie Tour: Avatar Mountain, Glass Bridge & Tianmen Mountain
- Day 1: Bailong Elevator, Yuanjiajie, Hallelujah Mountain, Yangjiajie, Tianzi Mountain
- Day 2: Grand Canyon Glass Bridge, then Tianmen Mountain cableway and 99-bend road
- All entry tickets, park shuttles, elevator and cable cars included
- Hotel pickup near the Forest Park East Gate or in downtown Zhangjiajie
Which Ticket Type Pays Off
The break-even is the number of lift rides you take. Two rides and the bare ticket wins. Four or more, and the unlimited pass does.
| Ticket type | Cost | Lifts covered | Book | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry only | ¥240 | None, ¥65 to ¥76 each | Walkers doing Golden Whip Stream | |
| Entry + 2 rides | About $59 | Bailong Elevator, Tianzi cableway | One classic day, up and down | |
| Unlimited pass | About $102 | Every cableway and the elevator | Three or four days in the park | |
| Guided day | $59 to $99 | Whatever the itinerary names | First visits, no planning |
Every Fare Inside the Park
Published in yuan by the Zhangjiajie tourism authority, converted at ¥7.2 to the dollar and checked on 3 August 2026. Each figure below is one way unless the note says otherwise.
How Buying and Entering Works
Real-Name Booking, and What Gets Checked
There is no paper ticket. The booking is tied to your passport number, date of birth and name exactly as written in the passport, and the gate scans the passport itself. Facial recognition registers you on the first entry so later scans take seconds.
A mismatch is the one failure that stops people at the barrier. If your booking spells the name differently from the passport, or uses a different passport number from the one you carry, the gate refuses entry and the operator has to reissue.
Book at least 24 hours ahead as a rule, and a week ahead around Chinese public holidays. Some listings suspend sales entirely during Chinese New Year, 1 to 5 May and 1 to 7 October.
- Passport number, full name and date of birth must match the booking exactly
- Carry the physical passport, not a photocopy or a photo
- First entry uses the gate and hour you booked; re-entry after that is free
- Unused tickets refund with no fee until 16:55 on the last day of validity
- Cash or a Chinese payment app for the lifts, since foreign cards work at few counters
Time Slots and Gates
Entry runs in slots: 06:30 to 07:00 first, then hourly through the day, with the last entry at 17:00. The slot binds only your first scan.
The gate binds it too. Day one usually defaults to the East Gate at Wulingyuan and day two to the South Gate, and swapping them needs notice to whoever sold you the ticket, typically 48 hours. Entries on days three and four are not reserved by default at all: you tell the seller 24 hours ahead, or ask the staff at the gate.
Huangshizhai runs its own hours, 07:00 to 18:00, and the cableways stop earlier than the gates. Plan to be off the high ground with time to spare rather than counting on a last ride down.
The Five Gates
East Gate at Wulingyuan is the busiest and the shortest run to the Bailong Elevator. South Gate, the Forest Park gate, opens onto Golden Whip Stream and the Huangshizhai cableway. Zumugang in the centre, Yangjiajie in the west and Tianzi Mountain in the north serve specific areas and rarely make sense as a first entry.
Free eco-shuttle buses connect every scenic area inside, so you can enter at one gate and leave from another on the same day. That is what the ticket's transport allowance actually buys.
Which Gate Buys Which Day
Two gates cover almost every first visit. The lifts you pay for depend on which one you booked, which is why the gate choice is really a budget choice.
- Shortest run to the Bailong Elevator and Yuanjiajie
- Lifts you will pay for: ¥65 up, ¥72 down
- 10 minutes from Wulingyuan hotels, 40 from downtown
- The default gate on day one of most tickets
- Golden Whip Stream on foot, no lift needed
- Huangshizhai cableway ¥65 each way, or a two-hour climb
- 30 minutes from Wulingyuan, 40 from downtown
- The default gate on day two
Free eco-shuttle buses link the scenic areas inside the park, so entering at one gate and leaving from another costs nothing. The remaining gates, Zumugang in the centre, Yangjiajie in the west and Tianzi Mountain in the north, serve single areas.
| Day | Gate | Lift spend | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic first day | East Gate | ¥137 | Bailong Elevator, Yuanjiajie, Tianzi Mountain |
| Valley day | South Gate | ¥0 | Golden Whip Stream, Ten Miles Gallery on foot |
| Plateau day | South Gate | ¥65 to ¥130 | Huangshizhai and the view over the whole park |
| Yangjiajie day | West or East Gate | ¥76 | Natural Great Wall, the thinnest crowds |
| Four days, all of it | Any | About ¥350, or the unlimited pass | Everything above at a walking pace |
Lift spend assumes one ride in each direction where a lift is the sensible way. Walking replaces any of them, at two hours a climb.
Discounts, Families and the Four-Day Maths
Who Pays Less
Children under 14 enter free. Ages 14 to 17 and 60 to 64 pay ¥122, and anyone 65 or over pays ¥39, which covers the shuttle and insurance rather than admission. Youth and senior rates apply to the lifts too, at roughly half the adult fare.
A family of two adults and one twelve-year-old therefore pays ¥480 for four days of entry, then adds lifts for the adults only where the child rides free. Passports are checked against those ages at the gate.
| Age | Entry | Bailong Elevator | Tianzi cableway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 14 | Free | Free or half | Free or half |
| 14 to 17 | ¥122 | ¥33 | ¥36 |
| 18 to 59 | ¥240 | ¥65 | ¥72 |
| 60 to 64 | ¥122 | ¥33 | ¥36 |
| 65 and over | ¥39 | ¥33 | ¥36 |
When Four Days Beats Two
Two full days covers the park's headline sights: Yuanjiajie and Tianzi Mountain on one, Golden Whip Stream and Huangshizhai on the other. The ticket runs twice that long for a reason.
Weather is the reason. Mist that makes the pillars photograph well on Tuesday can sit so low on Wednesday that Yuanjiajie shows you a wall of grey. A re-entry costs nothing, so a four-day ticket is insurance on the one view you came for.
The unlimited-lift pass, about $102, breaks even at roughly four rides. Anyone planning a single classic day should buy the cheaper package instead; anyone spending three days walking the high ground should not.
The Two Tickets This One Does Not Include
Tianmen Mountain charges ¥288, including its 7,455-metre cableway, and sits 30 kilometres away above the city. The Grand Canyon Glass Bridge charges ¥178 for the canyon and the bridge together, 40 minutes east of Wulingyuan.
Neither is covered by park entry, and park entry is not covered by either. Most two and three-day itineraries buy all three, which is the real cost of the trip people picture when they say Zhangjiajie.
Ticket Questions
How much is entry to Zhangjiajie National Park?
¥240 for an adult, about $33, valid four consecutive days from the date you pick. Booking platforms usually show ¥239, which is the same ticket with the eco-shuttle buses and insurance itemised. Ages 14 to 17 and 60 to 64 pay ¥122, over-65s pay ¥39 and under-14s enter free. No lift is included at any age.
How much time do you need for Zhangjiajie National Forest Park?
Two full days for the park itself, one for Yuanjiajie and Tianzi Mountain and one for Golden Whip Stream and Huangshizhai. Three to four days if you add Tianmen Mountain and the Glass Bridge, which are separate scenic areas. The four-day ticket validity exists so that a fogged-out morning does not cost you the view.
Which month should you avoid in Zhangjiajie?
1 to 7 October and 1 to 5 May, the two national holiday weeks, when the park runs far past comfortable capacity and demand for the Bailong Elevator reaches several times what it can carry. Chinese New Year is the third, and some ticket listings suspend sales during all three. March to May and September to mid-November are the windows worth booking.
Is the glass bridge in Zhangjiajie worth it?
Worth it as a canyon ticket, not as a bridge ticket. ¥178 buys the Grand Canyon scenic area with the bridge, and the two to three-hour walk down through the gorge is what people describe afterwards, rather than the few minutes on the span. Our glass bridge page sets out the ticket options and the drive from Wulingyuan.
Can you buy tickets at the gate?
Not reliably. Entry runs on real-name time-slot reservations, and slots in the shoulder seasons sell out before the day. Book at least 24 hours ahead, a week around public holidays, and carry the passport the booking was made under. The four-day pass with unlimited lifts removes both the ticket queue and the lift queues at the counters.
Do the tickets include the Bailong Elevator?
No. Entry covers the eco-shuttle buses only. The Bailong Elevator is ¥65 one way and ¥130 return, and the Tianzi Mountain, Yangjiajie and Huangshizhai cableways are ¥72, ¥76 and ¥65 one way. Combined lift passes run ¥238 to ¥298 depending on the number of rides, and the unlimited version sells at about $102 with four days of entry attached.
Can you leave and come back on the same ticket?
Yes, after the first scan. That first entry has to use the gate and hour you booked; after it, you can exit and re-enter freely for the rest of the four days. Days three and four are not reserved by default, so tell the seller 24 hours ahead or ask the gate staff to register them on site.