Wulong Karst: one day or two

The reason to come to Wulong: three limestone arches over 200 m high spanning two sinkholes, walked in one direction from a lift at the rim to a climb out at the far end. It is the core zone of the 2007 World Heritage listing and the film set of 'Curse of the Golden Flower' and 'Transformers 4'. The ticket is three layers — gate, compulsory shuttle from the visitor centre in Fairy Mountain town, and the lift — and the headline ¥70 is under half of what you pay (¥155 peak, ¥125 off-season, operator's table).

A 2,033 m plateau of grassland and pine — '330,000 mu of forest, 100,000 mu of natural grassland, summer average 22°C' (city 5A page) — where Chongqing goes to escape the heat in July-August and to see snow in January. Flat ¥50 all year, a 24-hour entry system, and everything inside (little train, horses, karts, sledges, camping) is paid extra; the town below is a resort of hotels, not the park. It is the second-day half of Wulong, not the first.

A show cave the city page calls one of the 'three great caves of the world': main passage 2,700 m, walkway 1,860 m, chamber floor 37,000 m², a steady 16.1°C inside (city 5A page). It is the one Wulong park in the other direction — at Jiangkou by the river, 20-30 minutes from Wulong South station and an hour from Fairy Mountain town — so it belongs to a second day or to a first day that starts here. Gate ¥80 peak / ¥65 low, plus the ¥70 cable car from the cave visitor centre (¥150 / ¥135 all-in, operator table).

Zhang Yimou's 'Impression' franchise in a U-shaped canyon outside Fairy Mountain town: 70 minutes of the Sichuan boatmen's work chants (chuanjiang haozi), a crying-bride wedding and hundreds of local performers against real cliffs, running since 2012 and past 4,000 shows. It is the evening of a two-day visit — 20:00 start from 1 September 2026, second show only when bookings justify it — and it stops in winter (suspended 2 January 2026 for ice and maintenance). Seats ¥200 / ¥300 / ¥550 / ¥800 on the operator's table (September 2026).

The bridges' twin, ten minutes away by the same shuttle system: a slot gorge 'two to five hundred metres deep and only metres wide' with waterfalls dropping past cliff walkways (operator). Same three-layer ticket (¥55 gate peak / ¥35 low, plus ¥35 shuttle and ¥15 lift = ¥105 / ¥85), same hours, a separate 4A listing, and it is the natural second half of a bridges day — but you must buy this ticket before you can board the shuttle from the bridges' exit.

Not a sight — the building every Wulong day passes through. Tickets for the bridges and the Fissure are sold here, both parks' shuttles leave from here, the resort's four bus routes and the tourist express from Wulong South station stop here, the 'Karst Geological Wonders' hall is in its basement, and the shuttle to the Impression Wulong show leaves from here in the evening. Learn its Chinese name, 游客接待中心, because it is the only address a driver in Wulong needs.

Two stations with almost the same name, on different lines, with different buses. Wulong South (武隆南) is the high-speed station on the Chongqing East-Qianjiang line opened on 27 June 2025 — 'fastest 61 minutes from Chongqing East to Qianjiang' (railway group) — and it has the tourist express to Fairy Mountain town. Wulong (武隆) is the older station on the Chongqing North line, about two hours, in the district town, with the rural bus up to the Fairy Mountain resort. Since the January 2026 timetable change Chongqing West also sends trains this way, so read the ticket, not the guidebook.

The one page to read before paying anything in Wulong. Every park is three prices stacked: a gate fee on the district's 2026 list, a compulsory shuttle, and a lift or cable car — so ¥70 becomes ¥155, ¥55 becomes ¥105, ¥80 becomes ¥150 (operator's table). On top sit the passes: most are for Chongqing residents, students or named provinces and change every month, but the 'Global PASS' (¥299, 24 Jul-31 Dec 2026, 'for whoever you are') bundles ten sites and the show, and the 'Stroll Wulong' two-park combos start at ¥180. All of it is sold real-name on a Chinese mini-program with an ID card; what a foreign passport does is not written anywhere official.