The Forest Park ticket is the best-value ticket in Zhangjiajie and the most misunderstood one. It costs RMB 236 and it lasts four days. That part sounds simple. What trips people up is what it does not cover: every elevator and cable car inside the park is a separate purchase, and on most itineraries those add up to more than the ticket itself.
Here is the whole thing with the real numbers in it, including the four-day rule that people get wrong and the one thing a foreign passport has to do at the gate.
What the ticket costs
Prices checked on against the park’s official bulletin board. They are set by the Hunan development and reform commission and have not moved since 1 January 2025.
| Ticket | Price | Valid | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry + park buses | RMB 236 | 4 days | Entry and all shuttle buses inside the park |
| Entry only | RMB 165 | 4 days | Entry. No buses |
| Entry + buses, concession | RMB 119 | 4 days | Students, and 60–64 |
| Under 14 or over 65 | RMB 0 | 4 days | Entry free. Buses are extra |
| All-in pass | RMB 530 | 4 days | Entry, buses, and unlimited rides on the three cable cars and the Bailong Elevator |
| Annual pass | RMB 310 | 1 year | Entry and buses. For people who live here |
RMB 236 for entry and the park buses, valid four days. Entry alone is RMB 165, and most people should not buy it — the buses are how you get around a park this size. It covers 264 square kilometres, and the shuttle network is the only way you get between anything in it.
In your own money, at roughly USD 1 = RMB 6.72 and USD 1 = MYR 4.09 in October 2026: entry plus buses is about USD 35 or MYR 143. Entry alone is about USD 25 or MYR 100. The all-in pass below is about USD 79 or MYR 322. Rates drift, so read those as estimates rather than quotes.
Then there is the one most visitors never hear about. The park sells an all-in pass at RMB 530: four days of entry, all the park buses, and unlimited rides on the three cable cars and the Bailong Elevator. Bought separately the same thing costs RMB 534, because 236 for entry and buses plus 298 for the lifts adds up to 534.
The saving is four yuan. Buy it because it turns two bookings into one, and two queues at the gate into one.
There is also a RMB 3 insurance charge at the point of booking. It is optional and you can decline it.
Don’t take our word for the numbers, though. The parks have to post them on an official bulletin board, produced by the Wulingyuan market supervision administration. Here it is.
Concession tickets, and the rule nobody prints
Almost every overseas booking site sells one thing: the adult ticket. Klook, Trip and the rest will happily sell four adult tickets to a family of four. We book the categories the park actually has, so children, students and parents pay what they are meant to pay — often half price, sometimes nothing at all.
| Age or status | Category | Entry + buses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 14 | Child | Free | Entry costs nothing. The shuttle buses are bought separately at the gate |
| 14 to 17 | Student concession | RMB 119 | The default band for this age. The passport is the only proof needed |
| 18 to 59 | Adult | RMB 236 | The full published price |
| 60 to 64 | Senior concession | RMB 119 | The passport is the age proof |
| 65 and over | Senior concession | Free | Entry costs nothing. The shuttle buses are bought separately at the gate |
| Full-time student, bachelor’s level or below, under 24 | Student concession | RMB 119 | Both conditions at once: the course must be bachelor’s level or below, and you must be under 24. Bring the physical card. Master’s students do not qualify |
Add the optional RMB 3 insurance on top, per person. A 15-year-old pays RMB 119 plus RMB 3.
Two different measurements decide what a child pays. Height decides the rides: under 1.2 metres tall goes free on everything, shuttle buses included, and a child taller than that pays full price for every cable car, elevator and sightseeing train, no matter how old they are. Age decides the gate: children under 14 enter free and pay only the RMB 3 insurance, and the shuttle buses are bought separately at the gate. Children aged 14 to 17 pay the concession price of RMB 119. Send us a child’s age and height and we will tell you exactly which ticket to buy.
One student rule trips people up. Being a student is not enough, and being 23 is not enough. The park wants both: enrolled at bachelor’s level or below, and under 24, with the card in your hand. A master’s student pays the adult fare, and that is the policy rather than a mistake at the window.
Now the part no overseas booking site prints, because none of them sell these categories. Concession discounts do not follow you from park to park. It depends on the park. In the National Forest Park the discount stops at the gate: foreign passport holders pay full price for the Bailong Elevator, the three cable cars and the Ten-Mile Gallery train at any age, whatever their admission ticket says. Tianmen Mountain and the Grand Canyon glass bridge work the other way, and their transport discounts are sold to foreign visitors on the same terms as to Chinese citizens.
Which is why anybody can end up paying too much. Online booking systems default to the adult full price for a foreign passport. There is no field for a student card and no field for height. We book the concession category against the real policy, tell you what the lifts will cost on top, and there is nothing left to argue about at the window.
What that looks like with real money. A family of four, two adults and two teenagers: RMB 236 + RMB 236 + RMB 119 + RMB 119 for admission, which is RMB 710 instead of RMB 944. If everyone rides the lifts, those are RMB 298 each with no reduction for the teenagers. Admission got cheaper. Everything else did not.
What the ticket does not cover
Every lift and cable car inside the park. The Bailong Elevator is RMB 65 one way, the Tianzi Mountain cable car 72, the Yangjiajie cable car 76, Huangshi Village 65, and the Ten-Mile Gallery train 38.
- Bailong Elevator — 326 metres up the cliff face to Yuanjiajie.
- Tianzi Mountain cable car — up or down the Tianzi Mountain side.
- Yangjiajie cable car — to Wulong Village.
- Huangshi Village cable car — to the Huangshi Village viewpoint.
- Ten-Mile Gallery train — along the valley floor, for when your legs have had enough.
Run the classic loop and see where that lands. In at the sign gate, up the Bailong Elevator to Yuanjiajie, across to Tianzi Mountain, down the Tianzi Mountain cable car. That is 65 plus 72: RMB 137 on top of your 236. A day in the park costs RMB 373 before you have eaten anything.
There is a bundle for it. Three cable cars and the elevator, four single trips: RMB 238. Unlimited trips: RMB 298. It does not include the Ten-Mile Gallery train, which is the thing people find out at the platform.
Neither does the RMB 530 all-in pass, and that surprises people. The Ten-Mile Gallery train is RMB 38 on its own, every time, whatever else you are holding.
Is it worth it? Not really, unless you use all of it. Four trips for 238 works out to about RMB 60 a ride, against 65 to 76 bought separately. That saves you very little across two days and nothing at all across one. Buy the 298 unlimited version only if you are in the park for three days and intend to keep moving. If you walk up and ride down, pay per ride.
The lifts and cable cars have their own bulletin board, with the combination tickets on the bottom half of it.
How the four days actually work
Four consecutive days, and every entry inside those four days needs its own booking: a date, a time slot and a gate. Four days does not mean four walk-ins.
When you book, the first day gets locked to a gate and a time slot. Miss that first slot and the four days keep running, but the first day is gone.
The park has five gates, and the one you pick decides your day:
- East gate, the sign gate at Wulingyuan — split into Line A towards the Tianzi Mountain cable car and Line B towards the Bailong Elevator and Ten-Mile Gallery. Line B is the one most people want.
- South gate, the original Forest Park station — closest to Golden Whip Stream.
- West gate at Yangjiajie.
- North gate at Tianzi Mountain.
- Middle gate at Zimugang.
Which one you want depends on where you are sleeping and what you want to see first. That is a planning question rather than a ticketing one, and it is the thing we sort out with you before we book anything.
If you are holding a foreign passport
This is the bit that catches people out, and it is not written down in English anywhere on the booking pages.
Chinese ID cards go through the turnstiles on a scan. A passport does not. It is the same ticket, bought the same way, and then a completely different arrival.
So does a passport change anything? Yes. Bring the physical passport to a staffed window at the gate, and they will check it against the booking before you go in. Chinese ID cards scan straight through. It is a queue rather than a four-second beep, so allow for it.
Can I buy a ticket at the gate? Not in any useful way. The park runs real-name booking with time slots and the gates hold very little spare. With a foreign passport you also need a staffed window rather than a turnstile, which is another reason to arrive with the booking already done.
Booking through us
You do not have to. The official channel is the WeChat mini-program, it works, and if you have a Chinese phone number and read Chinese you will be fine.
What we are for is the other case. Passes are real-name and the popular time slots go quickly. We hold an allocation with the park, so we are not refreshing a page at 8pm hoping for a slot. We take your passport details, we book all four days in one go rather than leaving you to rebook each morning, and we tell you which window to walk up to.
We charge the face value of the ticket. No service fee, no markup. If the park runs a cheaper rate for your dates, that is the rate you pay. The ticket is not where we make anything.
How booking actually works
- You ask. WhatsApp or email with your dates, how many people, and which gate you think you want. Say so if you do not know — that is the question we ask you anyway.
- We check the allocation and come back with a price. Usually within a few hours, always within 24.
- We send you a way to pay. We confirm the dates first, then send you either a PayPal link or a WeChat Pay and Alipay QR code. We do not take card numbers by email or WhatsApp, and we do not ask for your passport photo in a web form. Passport details come later, by email or WhatsApp, once we know we have the dates.
- We book it into your passport and tell you which window to walk up to. You get the gate, the time slot, and what to have in your hand.
Cancellations and refunds
We would rather you knew these terms before you book than after.
| When you cancel | What you get back |
|---|---|
| Before we issue the pass, car not sent | Everything |
| Pass issued, car not sent, more than 2 hours before pickup | The pass, minus the park’s 5% |
| Car already sent, or the pickup has happened | The pass, minus the park’s 5%. The pickup part is not refunded — you took the ride |
| You already went into the park | Nothing on the pass |
| Your flight was delayed or cancelled | Both parts move to another day, no charge |
And the pickup part is only ever the amount printed on your sheet. Paid RMB 72 for it, we keep RMB 72. We are not going to charge you for a ride you never took, and we are not going to keep more than the ride cost.
Cancel any time before the ticket is issued and it costs you nothing. Once it is issued, two things still work. If you never enter the park that day, we can refund it — the park takes 5% and you get the rest. And if your flight is delayed or cancelled, we move the booking to another day at no charge; send us the flight record and we do it.
One thing we do differently, and it matters more if you are coming from overseas. The time that counts is when we receive your message. Not when a system logs it, and not when a form goes through. If your connection drops in the park, or the app will not load on hotel wifi, or you are six hours behind and it is 3am where your phone thinks it is — we go by the timestamp on our side. That is the whole point of having a person on the other end.
The one condition: we need to be able to reach you. Give us a WhatsApp number or an email you actually open while you are travelling. A refund we cannot confirm with you is a refund we cannot process.
Cancel before we issue it and it costs nothing. After it is issued, if you never enter the park that day we can refund it and the park keeps 5%. If your flight is delayed or cancelled, we move the booking for free. We go by the time we receive your message.
The pass with a pickup
A ticket gets you into the park. It does not get you here. Most people land at Hehua Airport or Zhangjiajie West station with no plan for the 40 kilometres between there and Wulingyuan, and that is the part that goes wrong at ten at night with no driver willing to run the fare.
So we sell the two together. The RMB 530 all-in pass, plus a private car waiting at arrivals with your name on a board:
| What you book | Pass | Pickup | Per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass + airport pickup, 2 or more travellers | RMB 530 | RMB 72 | USD 90 |
| Pass + station pickup, 2 or more travellers | RMB 530 | RMB 60 | USD 88 |
| Pass + airport pickup, travelling alone | RMB 530 | RMB 150 | USD 101 |
| Pass + station pickup, travelling alone | RMB 530 | RMB 120 | USD 97 |
The pickup on its own is RMB 150 from the airport and RMB 120 from the station. Buy it with the pass and, when there are two or more of you, it comes down to RMB 72 or RMB 60 a head, because the car is going that way anyway. On your own you pay what the car costs.
In ringgit, at the same October 2026 rates, USD 90 is about MYR 368 per person and USD 101 about MYR 413.
Yes. The RMB 530 all-in pass with a private airport or station pickup is USD 90 per person for two or more travellers, and USD 101 if you are travelling alone. Station pickup is a little less, because it is a shorter run.
Everything about it — what the driver does when your flight is late, what you sign, what happens if you cancel — is on our pass and pickup page.
Things that go wrong
- The first slot is locked. Booking ties you to a gate and a time on day one. Miss it and the day is gone, though the ticket keeps running.
- Every entry needs a booking. Including days two, three and four. Arriving without one does not work.
- A passport needs a window, not a turnstile. See the section above.
- The lifts are not included. Budget RMB 137 for the standard loop on top of the ticket.
- The RMB 3 insurance. Optional. Decline it if you like.
- Anyone selling you a cheap paper ticket at the gate. There is no such thing. Entry is real-name and tied to your passport.
Do you need a car with it?
A ticket gets you into the park. It does not get you to the park, and it does not move you between the gates, which are a long way apart. If you want the ride from the airport or the station sorted in the same booking as the pass, that is the pass and pickup page. If you already have a plan for that, buy the ticket and go. If you do not, our private driver page covers car and driver by the day, and the three-day itinerary is the plan we build most often around a four-day ticket.
Working out how to spend all four days is a separate question. It is answered on the five-day trip page for people who have the time, and the two-day itinerary for people who do not.
WhatsApp — +86 180 7449 1863. We answer in English, usually within a few hours and always within 24.
Email — lianjizhi0744@hotmail.com. Easier if you are sending passport details.
What to send us: your dates, how many people, every traveller’s name exactly as printed in their passport, and which gate you think you want. If you do not know which gate, say so — that is the question we ask you anyway.
Tickets for the other parks are on our ticket booking page.
Families, halal food, and getting along in Chinese
Three things worth knowing if you are flying in from Malaysia or Indonesia with children or parents in tow.
Paying in your own money. We quote in RMB, and we will give you the same figure in US dollars or ringgit so you can check it against your bank before anything leaves your account. We take PayPal, WeChat Pay and Alipay, whichever of them is already on your phone.
Halal food. Zhangjiajie has halal restaurants, but none of them are obvious to a visitor and none of them are signposted in English. Ask us when you book and we will send you the ones we send our own guests to, with the Chinese name to show a driver.
Chinese when it matters. Message us in English, Mandarin, or a mixture of both. When you are standing at a gate with a driver who speaks no English, we can be on the phone with the person in front of you.
Not the same as the glass bridge
The bridge that sells out is at the Grand Canyon in Cili county, an hour and a half from here and a separate park with a separate ticket. If that is the one you meant, it is on our glass bridge tickets page.
Not sure how the money side works here? Our guide to paying in China with Alipay, WeChat Pay and PayPal covers setting the apps up before you fly, the fees, and how much cash to carry.
Questions people ask
How much is a ticket for Zhangjiajie National Forest Park?
RMB 236 for entry and the park buses, valid four days. Entry alone is RMB 165, and most people should not buy it — the buses are how you get around a park this size.
What is not included in the ticket?
Every lift and cable car inside the park. The Bailong Elevator is RMB 65 one way, the Tianzi Mountain cable car 72, the Yangjiajie cable car 76, Huangshi Village 65, and the Ten-Mile Gallery train 38.
How long does the ticket last?
Four consecutive days, and every entry inside those four days needs its own booking: a date, a time slot and a gate. Four days does not mean four walk-ins.
Can I buy a ticket at the gate?
Not in any useful way. The park runs real-name booking with time slots and the gates hold very little spare. With a foreign passport you also need a staffed window rather than a turnstile, which is another reason to arrive with the booking already done.
I have a foreign passport. Do I need to do anything different?
Yes. Bring the physical passport to a staffed window at the gate, and they will check it against the booking before you go in. Chinese ID cards scan straight through. It is a queue rather than a four-second beep, so allow for it.
Can I get my money back if I do not use the ticket?
Cancel before we issue it and it costs nothing. After it is issued, if you never enter the park that day we can refund it and the park keeps 5%. If your flight is delayed or cancelled, we move the booking for free. We go by the time we receive your message.
Is there one ticket that covers the cable cars as well?
The park sells an all-in pass at RMB 530: four days of entry, all the park buses, and unlimited rides on the three cable cars and the Bailong Elevator. Bought separately the same thing costs RMB 534, because 236 for entry and buses plus 298 for the lifts adds up to 534.
Do children get in for free?
Two different measurements decide what a child pays. Height decides the rides: under 1.2 metres tall goes free on everything, shuttle buses included, and a child taller than that pays full price for every cable car, elevator and sightseeing train, no matter how old they are. Age decides the gate: children under 14 enter free and pay only the RMB 3 insurance, and the shuttle buses are bought separately at the gate. Children aged 14 to 17 pay the concession price of RMB 119.
Are the cable cars and elevators included in the concession discount?
It depends on the park. In the National Forest Park the discount stops at the gate: foreign passport holders pay full price for the Bailong Elevator, the three cable cars and the Ten-Mile Gallery train at any age, whatever their admission ticket says. Tianmen Mountain and the Grand Canyon glass bridge work the other way, and their transport discounts are sold to foreign visitors on the same terms as to Chinese citizens.
How do I pay?
We confirm the dates first, then send you either a PayPal link or a WeChat Pay and Alipay QR code. We do not take card numbers by email or WhatsApp, and we do not ask for your passport photo in a web form.
Do you take WeChat Pay or Alipay?
We take PayPal, WeChat Pay and Alipay, whichever of them is already on your phone.
Is there halal food near the park?
Zhangjiajie has halal restaurants, but none of them are obvious to a visitor and none of them are signposted in English. Ask us when you book and we will send you the ones we send our own guests to, with the Chinese name to show a driver.
Can you pick me up at the airport as well?
Yes. The RMB 530 all-in pass with a private airport or station pickup is USD 90 per person for two or more travellers, and USD 101 if you are travelling alone.