Hunan Province is famous not only for Zhangjiajie National Park (I wrote about it here, by the way), but also for the ancient Chinese town of Furong (Furongzhen), built around a waterfall. We discovered it thanks to viral videos on Instagram and decided to see for ourselves: is it really that beautiful? In this article, I’ll tell you how to get there, where to stay, and what else you can do besides admiring the waterfalls.

How to get there

From Zhangjiajie, you can take a train to Furongzhen Station in just 20 minutes. You can also take a taxi, which takes about 1.5 hours (and is expensive), or a bus, although its schedule is unclear. The train is definitely your most convenient option. However, our trip happened right in the middle of the Chinese holidays, so getting train tickets was basically impossible.

That’s how I discovered a pretty cool feature on Trip.com: if there are no tickets available, you can select several options, pay for the most expensive one, and the system will keep checking for you to see whether tickets become available. If the most expensive tickets sell out, the system will automatically buy the cheaper ones. We managed to get our tickets about 24 hours before the trip – very lucky!

You’ll arrive at the train station and might immediately wonder whether you are actually in the right place. It looks like a completely ordinary Chinese town. And yes, it is: an ordinary Chinese town built around the “old” part, which you still need to get to – and it isn’t free…

Since we had booked a super-expensive hotel, we were entitled to a transfer directly to the hotel. The driver met us at the station and drove us towards the town, but at the entrance to the historic area we were stopped and asked to pay the entrance fee! Even though we had already booked a hotel inside. We were pretty annoyed, but later realised that it was actually worth it.

Where to stay

If you search for hotels on Booking.com, you’ll probably end up with options in the “new” Furong, so we decided to search on Trip.com instead. For some reason, it works really well with China.

Our goal was to find a hotel with a view of the waterfalls. However, because of the holidays, almost everything was booked. Eventually, we found a super-hyped hotel with a great view – but it cost $300 per night. We thought about it and decided that you only live once, and sometimes you might as well splurge on a spectacular view.

The hotel itself was actually pretty ordinary, and getting there involved a rather winding route, but the door of our room opened directly onto a viewing terrace. And from the window (well, technically the bathroom window), we had this incredible view.

We were given a complimentary bottle of wine (merci!), which we immediately opened on the terrace. There was also a Chinese streamer sitting on the balcony who, as far as I understood, was filming a hotel review. She asked me to film a shot of myself enjoying the wine on the terrace, so look for me on Chinese livestreams everywhere.

Tip: if you want a hotel with a direct view of the waterfalls, look very carefully at the photos showing the actual view from the room. They will give you the most accurate idea of what to expect.

Hotels with a genuine waterfall view are much more expensive than other hotels in the old town, which may instead overlook something like this ancient bridge. But that doesn’t mean they are worse – quite the opposite: they are often more comfortable, newer and cheaper. And you can always admire the waterfalls from one of the many terraces at cafés and restaurants.

Keep in mind that the waterfalls are loud, so if you’re a light sleeper, choose a hotel farther away from the water.

There is also another option: come to Furong from Zhangjiajie during the day and leave in the evening, paying only the entrance fee to the town. One day/night in Furong is more than enough.

The waterfalls

I simply don’t have enough words to describe how beautiful this place is. We spent hours sitting on our terrace and staring at the waterfalls. But you can actually explore them rather than just watching them from above! There is a special walking path down below that allows you to walk behind the waterfalls – check out my review.

And at night, the waterfalls are illuminated in different colours, while the houses built around them create the feeling of something completely otherworldly, like a Chinese fairy tale. We felt as if we had suddenly walked into a Chinese historical drama about celestial beings.

Hurry up and enjoy it, Cinderellas, because the lights are switched off at exactly midnight! (Although I’d check the time with your hotel first – things might change.)

What else is there to do in Furong?

This is where we realised that paying the entrance fee wasn’t actually such a bad deal. First, walk around the streets of this ancient town – and don’t throw away your entrance ticket. There are photo spots all around the waterfalls where actual photographers will take your pictures for free! They give you a number. Once you’ve had enough photos, follow the signs and take your number to a little photo-printing booth. They’ll give you miniature versions of your photos and keyrings where you can put them. It’s basically there to make you feel a little better about paying the entrance fee. But that’s not all.

Ask your hotel for the schedule of performances. Yes! There are performances taking place around the town at different times, so you don’t get bored while walking around – the town is pretty small, after all. There are parades featuring people dressed in traditional costumes of the Tujia ethnic minority, which, in some ways, reminded me of the costumes of Central Asian nomads. The parades and performances are accompanied by drums and traditional musical instruments.

Did I already mention historical Chinese dramas? The feeling that you’ve somehow travelled to another era doesn’t go away.

Girls, now pay attention. As part of the parades, there are also half-naked guys in traditional outfits walking around the town. Control yourselves! And definitely take a photo with them. In the evening, you can watch a show near the amphitheatre featuring dancing, singing and a circle around a bonfire. The show opens with a Chinese dragon-shaped firework.

The performance was in Chinese, so we understood absolutely nothing, but it was still very entertaining.

Definitely walk across the ancient bridge and watch the parade from there. Under the bridge, there is a river covered in mysterious mist, where you can take a walk and also watch a performance featuring “fish” – girls carrying fish-shaped figures on long bamboo poles.

And that’s it! It turned out to be a very beautiful and wonderfully relaxed stop on our trip. You can leave Furong from the bus or train station, but because of the holidays, we had to buy a train ticket from a neighbouring town. The entire village saw us off. The hotel driver took us to the station, where we waited for a bus to that neighbouring town. All the passengers were urging the driver to hurry, knowing that we had a train to catch. And yet, we missed it. By 10 minutes! Panicking, we started messaging Trip.com support. They replied very quickly and reassured us that in China, you can get a free ticket for the next similar service if you miss your train. And that’s exactly what happened. After waiting just two hours, we were on our way to Chongqing. I write about Chongqing here.