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Huangshan Travel Guide: Granite Peaks, Cableways & How to Book

Granite peaks above a sea of clouds

Huangshan
Photo: De-Shao Liu (Terry850324) (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Huangshan — Yellow Mountain — is a granite forest of sheer pillars, twisted pines and hot springs, and the one Chinese mountain that everybody means when they say 'the classic mountain'. The park is entered through four gates and moves on cableways and compulsory shuttle buses, so a visit is as much logistics as hiking. Since 2020 it has run on strict real-name, time-slotted, direction-specific reservations made only through the official Huangshan Tourism Platform mini program, and it is one of the few headline sights in China where a single ticket stays valid for three days.

Reviewed 2026-09-13

At a glance

Best time
April–May and October–November for clear ridges and cloud seas; 20 December–20 January is the official winter season, when tickets and cableways are cheapest
How long
2–3 days, including one night on the summit for sunrise
Getting there
Huangshan Tunxi International Airport (TXN); Huangshan North (Huangshan Bei) high-speed rail station, with direct buses to the South Gate and to Hongcun
Getting around
Private cars stop at the transfer centres: shuttles up to the cableway stations are compulsory and ticketed separately, cableways are a third ticket, and the park ticket itself lasts three days

What to see and do

What to eat

Booking & tickets

🏔️ Huangshan Scenic Area: ticket, cableways and transfer buses

Three separate tickets, one reservation system. Entry is 'strong real-name, time-slotted, direction-specific' and bought only through the official Huangshan Tourism Platform (黄山旅游官方平台) mini program inside WeChat or Alipay: the park gate ticket, the shuttle bus to the trailhead and each cableway ride are billed separately, and the park ticket then stays valid for three days from first check-in.

What you need to know

  • Two seasons, published by the park's own management committee: the winter season 20 December–20 January, and the normal/peak season 21 January–19 December. For 2026 the park ticket is CNY 190 full / CNY 95 half in peak season and CNY 150 full / CNY 75 half in winter.
  • Cableways are always extra: one way CNY 80 on Yungu and Taiping, CNY 90 on Yuping and CNY 100 on the West Sea Grand Canyon funicular in peak season; CNY 65 / CNY 65 / CNY 75 / CNY 80 in winter. The East Sea cableway (the lower section of Yungu, opened 11 June 2026) costs CNY 125 one way in peak season and CNY 100 in winter under the provincial price approval.
  • One ticket, three days: validity starts on the day you first check in, and the park allows unlimited entries and exits within three consecutive days. You must check in at a ticket office on the first day — Yun Gu Temple, Ciguang Pavilion or Songgu'an — because a booking that is never checked in does not activate the three-day right. Further entries are booked online as a 'repeat entry' ticket before you go back up.
  • Book by gate direction as well as by time slot, and enter through the gate you booked: South Gate, North Gate, West Gate or East Gate. Arrive in a different slot and you have to cancel and rebook a slot with remaining tickets the same day.
  • Opening hours in the normal/peak season: park 07:00–17:00 Monday to Friday and 06:30–17:30 at weekends and on minor holidays; the three main cableways 07:00–17:10 Monday to Friday and 06:30–17:40 at weekends. The South Gate shuttle buses run up 06:40–16:40 and down 07:10–17:40 on weekdays, and up 06:10–17:10 / down 06:40–18:10 at weekends. Hours for the Labour Day, National Day and Spring Festival golden weeks are announced separately.
  • December runs to its own timetable: on the free-admission Wednesdays and on Saturdays the shuttles run 06:40–16:10 up and 07:10–17:40 down with cableways 07:00–17:10, while on other December weekdays and Sundays the shuttles run 07:40–16:10 / 08:10–17:10 and the cableways 08:00–16:40.
  • The shuttle bus is not optional: cars park at the transfer centre (340 spaces at the South Gate centre and Xiaoyaoxi) and everyone continues by park bus to the cableway or trailhead stations. Round-trip fares are CNY 11 from the South Gate centre or Xiaoyaoxi to Wenquan, CNY 8 from Wenquan to Yungu Temple or Ciguang Pavilion, and CNY 19 from the South Gate centre or Xiaoyaoxi all the way to Ciguang Pavilion or Yungu Temple.
  • Shuttle logic works around the cableways: the first morning bus leaves about 30 minutes before the cableway opens and the last afternoon bus leaves when the cableways stop, so a late descent means calling the transfer centre on 0559-5572605. Buses leave when full, or every 20 minutes in summer and 30 minutes in winter.
  • Refunds are generous but dated: an unused park or cableway ticket can be refunded within 7 days after the visit date, while an unused shuttle bus ticket can only be refunded up to and including the day of use.
  • Weather and maintenance close cableways without much warning — the Taiping cableway, for example, shut for a full day on 16 September 2026 for a power-line rebuild. Mountain weather also stops cableways at short notice, so keep half a day of slack and check the platform announcements.
  • East Gate is a cableway-only entrance: there is no walking trail between the East Gate and the East Sea upper station, so plan your exit as carefully as your entry. It opened on 11 June 2026 and runs 07:00–17:10 on weekdays and 06:30–17:40 at weekends from June to November, and 08:00–16:40 through December.
  • Official telephone numbers: Huangshan Tourism Platform and park enquiries 0559-2590999, tourism complaints 0559-5562222, emergency rescue 0559-5563333, medical first aid 0559-5580120, transfer centre 0559-5572602.
  • Tickets are checked by swiping a second-generation Chinese ID card or by the QR code issued by the platform, with no paper ticket to collect. The booking system is built around Chinese ID infrastructure, so if the mini program will not accept your passport number, use the official ticket offices and the enquiry line rather than a third-party reseller.

How to book

  • 黄山旅游官方平台 — Huangshan Tourism Official Platform, as a mini program inside WeChat or Alipay (the English web mirror is www.huangshan.com.cn) Passport accepted

    Choose the park, then the ticket type (park ticket, shuttle bus, each cableway are separate line items), then the gate direction and the entry time slot, and pay inside the mini program. The platform shows a QR code 'to scan and buy'; the booking is then checked by swiping an ID card or by the platform QR code. Hotline 0559-2590999.

  • On-site ticket offices and service windows Passport accepted

    The fallback when online booking will not take a foreign document: the park's ticket offices at the gates and the service windows handle first check-in and repeat-entry formalities in person.

Sources

🏘️ Hongcun, Xidi, Huizhou Ancient City and Tunxi Old Street

The Huizhou villages are separate tickets, not one pass, and the two World Heritage villages are priced identically at CNY 104. Huizhou Ancient City has gone the other way and scrapped its gate: the walled town is free to walk, and only the old government office and the night show are ticketed.

What you need to know

  • Hongcun and Xidi are CNY 104 per adult each, according to the price list published by the operator, Yixian Huihuang Tourism Development Group. They are sold as two separate products on the official Huangshan Tourism Platform, with no combined village pass in the official list.
  • Both villages sell by real name with one ticket per identity document, and both allow booking up to 23:59 on the day of the visit with immediate use. Entry is by swiping an identity card or by the platform QR code.
  • Refunds differ from the mountain's: an unused village ticket can be refunded within 7 days after the visit date, but Hongcun does not allow same-day refunds, and a date change means cancelling at least one day ahead and rebooking from the second day after the cancellation — the same identity document cannot book Hongcun twice on one day.
  • Free entry at both villages covers children aged 6 and under or 1.2 m and under, visitors aged 65 and over, disabled visitors, serving and retired military personnel and their bereaved families, provincial-level and above photographers' association members, journalists, firefighters, tour-company general managers and licensed guides, all with original documents. Half price covers ages 6–18, full-time undergraduates and below, and ages 60–65.
  • Huizhou Ancient City in Shexian has removed its main gate, so visitors walk in and out freely. Inside, the Huizhou Prefectural Office (with the city wall) is CNY 48 and the evening show 'Huizhou Fu You Xi' is CNY 98; the free and half-price concession list applies to the prefectural office ticket only and not to the night show or transport.
  • The prefectural office keeps two seasons: 08:00–16:30 from 1 October to 30 April (cleared at 16:30, closed 17:00) and 08:00–17:00 from 1 May to 30 September (cleared at 17:00, closed 17:30).
  • Huizhou Ancient City is reached from Huangshan North station by the 'You 1' tourist bus or the Huangshan Tourism Coach Centre–Huizhou Ancient City–Shendu/Yangchan line, from Shexian North station by city bus 702, and from the airport by taxi. Bus and taxi aside, the scenic cluster also links Wuxi, Chengkan and Huizhou Ancient City on weekend-only 'You 2' services.
  • Tunxi Old Street, the Song-dynasty lane of shops and restaurants in downtown Tunxi, is the practical first and last stop of any Huangshan trip: it is a working public street with no gate and no ticket, an hour by road from the mountain and ten minutes from the airport.
  • Watch the calendar: the prefectural office and the villages keep Chinese public-holiday crowds, and the mountain's high-season shuttle and cableway times are announced separately for the golden weeks, so check the platform again in the week before you travel.

How to book

  • 黄山旅游官方平台 — Huangshan Tourism Official Platform (WeChat / Alipay mini program), which also sells Hongcun and Xidi Passport accepted

    Hongcun and Xidi are separate real-name products on the same platform used for the mountain; the Xidi operator's own site links its ticket button straight to the platform's Xidi ticket page. Enter with your identity document or the platform QR code.

  • Ticket offices at the village gates Passport accepted

    Hongcun and Xidi both keep staffed ticket windows at the entrance, which is the practical route when an online real-name form insists on a Chinese ID number.

Sources

🚌 Getting to Huangshan and booking around the traps

Huangshan is a rail-and-bus destination, not a drive-up one. High-speed trains land at Huangshan North on the edge of Tunxi, buses run from there to the South Gate and to Hongcun, and the last connection up the mountain is always the park's own shuttle. Book the mountain first, then the transport that feeds it.

What you need to know

  • Huangshan Tunxi International Airport (TXN) sits about 5 km from downtown Tunxi, so the Old Street is minutes away; taxis from the airport reach Huizhou Ancient City, and the city's travel platform covers the airport, five high-speed rail stations and twelve coach hubs.
  • From Huangshan North station, the bus to the South Gate runs 06:55–19:00 with 33 departures a day at roughly 20-minute intervals, the bus to the North Gate is a single 12:40 departure, and the bus to Hongcun runs 08:05–17:05 with 11 departures at roughly 40-minute intervals. Tickets are bought through the Huangshan Tourism Platform's transport section, the Huangshan Changyun travel account, or the station windows.
  • The mountain's own bus station at the South Gate transfer centre also runs coaches onward to Hangzhou, Nanjing, Hefei, Tongling, Huangshan North station, Hongcun, downtown Tunxi, Huangshan West station and Huizhou Ancient City; the live timetable is on the 'Huangshan Scenic Area Bus Station' WeChat account or 0559-5572602.
  • From downtown Tunxi's main coach station there are 10 daily departures to the scenic area between 06:20 and 16:05, 12 to Hongcun between 06:20 and 17:00, and four to Xidi at 07:10, 09:20, 12:40 and 16:00. From Yixian East high-speed rail station, buses to Hongcun and Xidi run 08:30–20:50 at roughly 40-minute intervals.
  • Build the day around the shuttles, not the cableways: shuttles start about 30 minutes before the cableways and finish when the cableways finish, so the realistic last ascent is mid-afternoon and the realistic last descent is the last bus. Anyone still on the mountain after that calls 0559-5572605 for the evening transfer.
  • For foreign visitors the friction is almost always the same three things: the official mini program lives inside WeChat and Alipay and wants a Chinese ID number, on-mountain hotels sell out weeks ahead in autumn, and everything from park entry to shuttle buses is checked by swiping an ID card rather than showing a booking. Carry your passport, screenshot the booking QR, and treat 0559-2590999 and the gate windows as the fallback rather than a hotline of last resort.
  • Winter is not closed: the park stays open through the winter season at the lower price, and December adds free-admission days on Wednesdays, but cableways can stop for snow, ice or wind and the West Sea Grand Canyon sections close in bad weather. Keep one spare day if you are chasing the cloud sea in winter.

How to book

  • 黄山旅游官方平台 — Huangshan Tourism Official Platform, 'transport booking' section (WeChat / Alipay mini program) Passport accepted

    Used for the high-speed-rail-station shuttle links to the South Gate, North Gate and Hongcun, alongside the park ticket and cableways. Coach tickets out of the South Gate centre are also sold through the 'Huangshan Scenic Area Bus Station' and 'Huangshan Changyun Travel' WeChat accounts.

  • 畅行黄山 — 'Travel Huangshan' WeChat mini program, run by the city transport bureau Passport accepted

    A one-stop query for onward travel between 46 A-level scenic areas, 9 headline non-ticketed spots, the airport, five rail stations and twelve coach hubs, covering 140 tourist routes. Useful for working out how to chain Huangshan with Hongcun, Xidi or Huizhou Ancient City.

Sources

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