Ranked by popularity — down off the mountains to the river
Ordered by how popular they are, with an honest note on which is half a day, a full day or an overnight, and whether it fits one or two spare days.
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If you leave the parks for just one place, make it Fenghuang. This is an old town on the Tuojiang River (沱江), home to the Tujia and Miao, where stilt houses (diaojiaolou) stand on wooden posts out over the water along both banks, with old stone bridges, a covered rainbow bridge, and little boats poling slowly past — a place the Chinese rank among the most beautiful old towns in the country.
By day you wander the stone streets, tea houses and Miao silver shops; the real star, though, is night, when the timber houses light up along both banks and reflect in the river. Stay a night and you can walk the town again early, before the crowds. From Zhangjiajie it's now about an hour by high-speed train — far easier than the old 4-hour bus.
This is the easiest day trip on the list, because the high-speed train gets you there in just 23 minutes. Furong Town, formerly Wangcun, is a Tujia old town over 2,000 years old, built so that its stilt houses straddle a big waterfall in the middle of town. The falls are roughly 40 metres wide and 60 metres high, splitting the old town as they drop — hence the nickname, the town that hangs on a waterfall.
You walk stone streets worn smooth and shiny, stop for the famous Miao tofu from the film Hibiscus Town, and watch the falls from a tea-house balcony. Honestly, the town is far more compact than Fenghuang — half a day to a full day does it — which makes it the right call when you have only one free day but still want a riverside old town, or as a stop on the way to Fenghuang, since they're close along the same line.
If you're here in summer and want a soaking, white-knuckle thrill, this is the wild one — rafting the Mengdong River, a 47-kilometre river in Yongshun county about 80 kilometres southwest of Zhangjiajie. The actual run is 17 kilometres, one of just two 4A-grade rafting routes in China, alternating rushing drops with calmer stretches as it passes through green gorges and small roadside waterfalls.
The rubber rafts seat only a few people, you wear a life jacket throughout, and there are staff stationed at the risky points. It takes about 2.5–3 hours and you'll get thoroughly wet. Small children and non-swimmers should skip it, but anyone who loves an adrenaline rush will be hooked. The site is close to Furong Town, about 30 minutes by car, so in summer it's a popular pair on one trip.
Not every day has to mean a long drive — if your last day is tired legs after hiking, or you'd like to understand the Tujia culture that belongs to this region, Dayong Fucheng in central Zhangjiajie (Yongding district) is an easy half-day. It's built on the site of an old prefectural mansion with over 600 years of history, and gathers the stilt houses and architecture of the Tujia, Miao, Dong, Yao and Bai peoples in one place. You walk through each group's recreated village, the Dong wind-and-rain bridge, and the Zhangjiajie museum.
Entry is currently free. In the evening there are usually folk performances like the Baishou (hand-waving) dance around a bonfire, plus Tujia ceremony shows. If you want to try local cooking — the Tujia 'ten bowls' of smoked pork, hezha soup and duck blood with sticky rice — there are restaurants here for it. It suits anyone who doesn't want to hike all day but still wants a taste and a story of the place to take home. Read our Tujia cuisine guide for more.