Photographing Zhangjiajie’s Famous ‘One Step to Heaven’
Home / Travel Blog / Blog Details
Home / Travel Blog / Blog Details
The human spirit has an innate longing for the summit, for the place where the earth seems to meet the sky. In Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, a place that feels more like a dreamscape than a geographical location, that longing finds its ultimate expression at a spot called ‘Yi Bu Deng Tian,’ or ‘One Step to Heaven.’ The name itself is a promise, a whisper of the transcendent. For a photographer, it is not merely a destination; it is a pilgrimage. The journey to capture its essence is as much about navigating light, shadow, and patience as it is about climbing its ancient, mossy steps.
My own pilgrimage began in the pre-dawn darkness, the air thick with the scent of damp earth and vegetation. The only sounds were the chorus of unseen insects and the determined crunch of my boots on the path. Headlamp cutting a solitary beam through the mist, I joined a small, silent procession of other photographers and early risers, all drawn by the same siren call. The forest at this hour is a different world—alive, breathing, and shrouded in mystery. The famous quartz-sandstone pillars, which by day stand as majestic sentinels, were now just deeper shades of black against a slightly less black sky, their silhouettes hinting at the grandeur to come.
The climb to ‘One Step to Heaven’ is a physical narrative. It prepares you, step by step, for the spectacle ahead.
The final approach is a masterpiece of human ingenuity intertwined with nature. A narrow, steep staircase has been carved and built directly into the side of the pillar. It is a vertiginous climb, with iron railings cool to the touch offering the only sense of security. As you ascend, you are literally rising through layers of time, the 380-million-year-old rock face just an arm's length away. You feel the history in the stone, the slow, patient work of erosion that created this masterpiece. With each step, the world below begins to fall away, and the horizon expands. The mist swirls around your legs, and for a moment, you feel untethered from the earth, climbing not to a viewpoint, but into the clouds themselves.
And then, you are there. The ‘One Step to Heaven’ is a small, flat-topped pinnacle, isolated from the main pillar by a narrow, heart-stopping crevice. A small, man-made bridge crosses this gap. Taking that final step onto the summit platform is the culmination of the journey’s metaphor. The world opens up in a 360-degree panorama that defies adequate description. It is a moment of pure, unadulterated awe. The countless pillars of Zhangjiajie rise from a sea of cloud and mist like the spines of a mythical dragon, their peaks piercing the soft, morning light. This is the view that inspired the floating Hallelujah Mountains in the movie Avatar, and standing here, you understand why no fictional world could truly surpass this reality.
On the summit, the quiet camaraderie of the hike transforms into a focused, almost meditative silence. Tripods are extended, lenses are mounted, and the waiting game begins. Photographing ‘One Step to Heaven’ is an exercise in patience and adaptability. You are at the mercy of the elements, and the elements here are famously mercurial.
As the sun begins to crest the distant mountains, the scene undergoes a magical transformation. The first rays of light, soft and golden, kiss the tips of the highest pillars. This is the ‘alpenglow’ that landscape photographers dream of. The mist, which moments before was a uniform grey, now glows with an internal fire. It parts in ethereal tendrils, revealing and then concealing deep ravines and forested valleys. The key here is to work quickly. This light is fleeting, lasting perhaps only ten or fifteen minutes. I used a telephoto lens to isolate individual pillars, creating intimate portraits of these stone giants as they emerged from the mist. A wide-angle lens captured the sheer scale and drama of the entire scene, with a fellow photographer silhouetted against the rising sun, providing a powerful sense of scale and human wonder.
Not every morning offers a clear, golden sunrise. Often, the fog is so dense that the sun is completely obscured. A novice might pack up in disappointment, but an experienced photographer sees this as a different kind of opportunity. This is when ‘One Step to Heaven’ becomes a classic Chinese ink wash painting. The world reduces to a monochrome palette of varying grey tones. The pillars become soft, blurred forms, their bases disappearing into the void. This minimalist aesthetic is profoundly beautiful. It forces you to focus on composition, on the balance of light and shadow (a concept the Chinese call ‘liubai,’ or ‘leaving blank’), and on the mood of profound tranquility. Long exposures in this soft light can render the moving mist as a silky, flowing river, smoothing the scene into an abstract work of art.
While ‘One Step to Heaven’ is the crown jewel, a photography trip to Zhangjiajie is about weaving this iconic shot into a broader tapestry of experiences. The park is vast, and its beauty is multifaceted.
No visit is complete without seeing the pillar officially named the ‘Avatar Hallelujah Mountain’ (Qianjia Ping). While ‘One Step to Heaven’ gives you a view of the pillars, this area puts you among them. The viewing platforms here are often crowded, but for good reason. The density and height of the formations are staggering. Using a drone (where permitted) or a wide-angle lens from a strategic vantage point can capture the overwhelming, otherworldly nature of this landscape. The interplay of light as it filters through the pillars creates dramatic scenes throughout the day.
A marvel of modern engineering, the Bailong Elevator, or "Hundred Dragons Sky Lift," is a tourist hotspot in its own right. It is built onto the side of a colossal cliff face and is famously one of the tallest outdoor elevators in the world. From a photography standpoint, it offers a unique perspective. Riding the elevator down provides a stunning, descending view of the pillar forest. Conversely, photographing the elevator itself, a sleek glass structure clinging to the ancient rock, creates a compelling narrative about the intersection of the natural world and human ambition.
A short distance from the national park, Tianmen Mountain offers a different but equally spectacular photographic opportunity. The highlight is the Tianmen Cave, a natural archway through the mountain that seems to be a gateway to heaven itself. The 99-Bend Road snaking its way up the mountain is a spectacular subject for aerial photography. Capturing the long lines of visitors walking across the cliff-hanging glass walkway also tells a story of modern adventure tourism in an ancient setting.
To truly do justice to Zhangjiajie, preparation is key.
Standing on ‘One Step to Heaven’ with a camera is a humbling experience. You are a witness to a geological epic that has been unfolding for hundreds of millions of years. The camera becomes more than a tool; it is an instrument of translation, attempting to capture not just light, but a feeling—the cool mist on your skin, the profound silence broken only by the wind, the dizzying perspective, and the overwhelming sense that you are standing on the roof of the world. The photograph you take home is more than a picture; it is a portal, a tangible piece of that sky-high magic, a permanent reminder of the day you took that one step.
Copyright Statement:
Author: Zhangjiajie Travel
Source: Zhangjiajie Travel
The copyright of this article belongs to the author. Reproduction is not allowed without permission.