Tianmen Mountain (天门山)
The tabletop mountain by the city — the world's longest cable car and a gate of heaven in the cliff

For many people this is the whole reason to come. The cableway runs about 7,455 metres (nearly 7.5 km) and climbs around 1,279 metres from the lower station in the city centre up to the summit, normally taking about 28 minutes. On the way you watch the city shrink, pass over the coiling 99-bend road below, and float in straight towards the Tianmen cliffs — a stretch where the camera barely gets a rest.

This is the signature image of Tianmen Mountain: a giant natural arch about 131 metres high and 57 metres wide, cut clean through the middle of the cliff — the source of the "Heaven's Gate" name, because from afar it looks like a doorway opening through the mountain into the sky. Below it climbs a steep stone stairway, the 999-step "Stairway to Heaven" (about 300 metres long). The number 9 stands for eternity in Chinese culture. If you are not up for all 999 steps, escalators inside the mountain take you up instead (for a separate fee).

Along the summit run several walkways pinned to the cliff face, some with clear glass floors jutting out over the drop at around 1,400 metres above sea level — look through the floor and the gorge falls away beneath your feet. The longest and most talked-about cliff path is the Guigu (Coiling Dragon Cliff) walkway, around 1.6 km, looping the rock face for wide-open views from a different angle. The glass sections charge a small extra fee of about ¥5 each for shoe covers, and if you are afraid of heights you can take the ordinary cliff path instead — it is not compulsory.

The Tongtian Avenue (通天大道, "the road to heaven") climbs from around 200 metres at the foot to about 1,300 metres in just 10.77 km, but packs in 99 hairpin turns along the way — the famous snaking-road shot. You see it from above out of the cable car, and on some routes you actually ride a park bus up the road, around 20 minutes of turn after turn that leaves more than a few people dizzy. Bring motion-sickness tablets if you know you are prone to it.

Once you are at the top, beyond Heaven's Gate and the glass paths there are viewpoints and easy forest trails along the summit ridge to wander. On mornings just after rain, a sea of clouds often hangs at cliff level, making the mountain look as if it is floating above them — a view many people come chasing. Up top there is also the old Tianmen Mountain Temple to visit, a calm contrast to the thrill of the cliff edge.