Baofeng Lake, Zhangjiajie

The lake that villagers made by accident

Baofeng Lake looks primeval, a sheet of jade water walled in by forested sandstone deep in Wulingyuan. It is actually man-made. In the 1970s, villagers in Suoxiyu dammed a gorge for hydropower and, more or less by accident, backed up the lake you cruise today. It runs deep, averaging around 70 metres, and stretches roughly 2.5 km, which is part of why the water stays glass-still and green. After days of clifftop trails and glass bridges elsewhere in Zhangjiajie, this is the stretch of the trip where you finally sit down, once you're on the water.

Getting from the gate to the dock

The lake itself sits above the entrance, so reaching the boat means climbing first. Most visitors take the eco-shuttle bus laid on for the ticket, which covers the gate-to-dock run in about ten minutes. Skip it and you're looking at a walking route with a stretch of steep stairs and a short hill, more like forty minutes to an hour depending on your pace, so save that option for a day when your legs still have something left after Zhangjiajie's other trails. Either way, the climb happens before the water, not after, so once you're aboard the boat the rest of the visit really is the easy half of the day.

The boat, and the singing

The visit is a boat cruise of about 20 to 30 minutes, gliding past small islets and sheer green walls. What lifts it above an ordinary lake tour is the Tujia call-and-response singing: performers in traditional dress trade folk love-songs from the banks and from little wooden boats, a living echo of the courtship duets the Tujia still hold at their annual Mountain Song Festival in the third lunar month. The cruise usually pauses where a lone singer waits on the water to start the exchange, and if a passenger sings back or answers a call, it tends to draw the loudest laughs on the boat. Sit toward the front for the clearest view and the closest reply. A short shore trail and a couple of viewpoints let you photograph the lake from above, before or after the ride.

Getting in, and what it costs

One thing to plan for: Baofeng is its own scenic area with its own ticket, not covered by the multi-day Wulingyuan forest-park pass, so you buy it separately, and the price takes in the boat cruise (whether the shuttle is bundled in or billed on top depends on how you book, so check the fine print). Ticket checks are real-name, tied to the passport you booked with, same as most Zhangjiajie sites now. Advance booking is rarely essential outside national holidays, when the lake and the boats do fill up. It sits just outside Wulingyuan town, a 10 to 15 minute taxi from most Wulingyuan hotels, which makes it one of the easiest half-day add-ons around. It pairs naturally with Huanglong Cave nearby, another standalone-ticket site, if you want to fill the rest of the day. Gates open around 7am and close in the early evening in the main season, earlier through winter, with boats running through the day, more often when it is busy.

When to come

Spring and autumn, especially April to May and September to October, give the clearest reflections and the kindest boating weather. Go early, when the water is mirror-flat before the breeze picks up and ripples the images of the cliffs. The lake still looks good under light cloud, so a grey morning is no reason to skip it. Bring sun cover, there is little shade out on the open water, and keep the visit to a couple of hours so you can pair it with another Wulingyuan site the same day.