🌿 Get your mind blew up by the Wangxian Valley view

Hidden in the mountains of Shangrao, Wangxian Valley feels like stepping into a real-life fantasy world. Known for its cliffside houses, glowing lanterns at night, and misty mountain views, it’s the kind of place you come for a short escape—but end up not wanting to leave. If you’re planning a weekend trip from Hangzhou or Shanghai, hope this guide will help you plan everything simply.

First, here are 5 facts you should know about this magical place: (1) the valley is man-made but designed to look like an ancient village, (2) it’s most famous at night when the lights turn on, (3) it’s a popular spot for photoshoots in traditional outfits, (4) weekends can get crowded so go early, and (5) you’ll need to walk quite a bit, so wear comfortable shoes and bring mosquitoes repellant. Oh don't forget the mini fan if its during the summer.

How to get there

To get there, from Hangzhou you can take a high-speed train (~2–3 hours) to Shangrao, then a taxi (~1 hour). From Shanghai, take a high-speed train (~3–4 hours) to Shangrao, then taxi will cost you around RMB 100 or ride-hailing. You can buy the train tickets from Trip.com or Railway12306 app. Another option is to take the shuttle from the Shangrao East station directly to the valley entrance. You can check all about bus to Wangxian Valley here. It cost around RMB30 and took around 1.5h journey. 

If you are not staying inside the valley, the entrance fee for adult is RMB 120 and RMB 60 for student/senior citizen. Or they have a package that includes shuttle or guide for RMB 150-200

Where to stay

For where to stay, you can choose between hotels near the entrance (more convenient) or budget stays in Shangrao city. Expect around RMB 200–600/night depending on your comfort level. Some hotels don't have towels so they just provide the compressed towel. I usually bring my own especially if I know i'll be staying in budget hotel. I book the stay from Trip.com and you will get the details on what they provide in your room.

Halal Spots

Unfortunately, the halal options are not as generous as in Shanghai or Hangzhou. Inside the valley, they only have 1 halal restaurant and 1 snack store (opposite the restaurant). We stayed at the homestay near the entrance and there was no halal restaurant there. So you might want to stay in Shangrao city for more options or just bring some food when you go there.

Hanfu photoshoot experience 

One of the highlights here is the photoshoot experience. You can either rent a hanfu (traditional outfit) for the day (around RMB 100–200), or go for a full photoshoot package with a photographer (RMB 300–800 depending on styling and number of photo edits). Daytime gives you soft, dreamy mountain shots, while nighttime is pure magic with glowing lights with a shining moon and a ancient vibe. 

Overall budget for a 2D1N trip: RMB 600–1200 (RM400–800) including transport, entrance ticket, food, and stay. If you’re looking for halal food, options are limited inside the valley, so it’s best to eat in Shangrao city where you can find Muslim-friendly restaurants or bring your own snacks just in case.

A simple weekend plan: Day 1 travel + explore + night photos, Day 2 morning stroll + photos + head back. It’s slow, aesthetic, and honestly… feels like living inside a story.

What we did

Homestay near the valley
For us, we fly into Hangzhou from Hong Kong and stay in Hangzhou before going to the valley then we fly out from Shanghai after spending couple days there. Especially because my friend never been to China so we tried to cover as much cities as we can in a week. For Wangxian Valley, we stayed in the homestay (If you interested to book the hotel, click here) near the entrance that cost RMB200 per night. We decided to stay outside because we arrive in Shangrao in the late afternoon to take things slow and go around the area. From Shangrao station, our homestay owner help us to find share ride so we paid RMB 35 per person. The driver send us directly to our homestay. One thing to know, because we stay at the homestay, the owner send and pick us up from the scenic spot around Shangrao for free. You just need to let them know in advance where you want to go and went. Dont worry, you use Wechat app to communicate with them. It has translate feature. 

Hotel entrance and lobby
Then the next day we go to the valley early in the morning to stay inside the valley at the hotel called Xiansu for a night at RMB1200. (If you interested to book the hotel, click here). This include the hanfu photoshoot package for 2 people with a photographer for an hour. There is another hotel with the same price for better room style (near the cliff) but without the photoshoot package. Be aware that this room (near the cliff)  is far from the lobby and meal hall. They usually have the shuttle cart to send and pick you but it can take a while if everyone request it at the same time.

For the photoshoot, you have to make the booking a day before. We ask the homestay owner to help us call and book the shoot. We decided to go for 1.5h night shoot, full makeup and hair do, 5h hanfu rental and add 8 more edits with 6 non edits. So we need to add another RMB999 for 2 people.

We decided to stay for a night inside the valley because we want to stay as long as we can for night view and we don't have to worry about getting a ride to go back home. Since the hotel is inside the valley. We just walk for 10mins from the village to our room. The Valley open from 9am to 10pm. We got to stay out till 11pm before the moon light is off.

The Hanfu studio near the hotel rooms

Cafe in the village inside the valley

We arrive at the valley around 930am and took us 30mins to check in and leave our luggages. The check in time is at 4pm. From there we walk directly to the village (its just 10mins walk) and spend couple hours to go around. The place is so big and have lots of stairs. You can skip some of the stairs if you want to but then you'll miss the view from the top. Once we got in, we bought a coffee. They have 1 cafe near the village entrance with good view. We walked around for couple hours then we had snacks and ice cream then our late lunch in the village. There is only 1 halal restaurant inside the valley, Axiya Lanzhou Beef Stretch Noodles (search this on Amap). There are literally no one in the morning. So we had so much fun taking photos (literally everywhere) and scout the location for best photo spots for later that night. The locals start coming in around 5pm. And its crowded at night. They also have dance performance and local show on wedding and praying ceremony. Its so cool to see the scenes come out to live from historical CDrama.
Bubble tea

After that, we got to check into our room (hotel room tour on my Tiktok, shared below), for me to pray and us to rest before heading out again to buy the iced tea and go to our photoshoot appointment at 530pm. The studio was near our hotel room. If you are just renting the hanfu, there are so many shops inside the village. Once we got there, the person give us an ipad to choose the hanfu style we like. It make things so much easier to be able to see the hanfu on actual person and together with makeup and hair style. They help us to wear the hanfu and did our makeup and hair. Around 7 we were ready and head out for the shoot. The photographer has lighting stand and a bag of props. the 1.5h went by so quickly. Our photographer is so chill and helpful to guide us on how to pose and where to shoot to get the best view of the valley (with no one around). After that we head into the village and go around to take photos by ourselves. The night view give such a different vibes. Im glad that we decide to go for night photoshoot package. Around 10.30 we head back to the studio to return the hanfu and choose our photos. Since the studio use iMac, he just transfer the photos using airdrop. Its done within 30mins. We got to walk around a bit then head back to our room. Thankfully we had snacks in our room cause its definitely tiring and we got hungry when we got back.
Our lunch

Our photographer
View from the hotel
The next day, we had buffet breakfast at the hotel restaurant (its included in the booking). Spend couple hours there and took shuttle to the valley entrance. We book our train back to Shanghai at 1130am. We asked our homestay owner to book share ride to the Shangrao station. And by 1pm we are already back into the big city.

Wangxian Valley at night

All links related to the trip:

Homestay link here
Xiansu Hotel link here
Halal restaurant inside the valley: Axiya Lanzhou Beef Stretch Noodles
Summarize Journey: Flight into Hangzhou. Speed train to Shangrao station, car rides to Wangxian Valley, car ride to Shangrao station. Speed train to Shanghai

Wangxian Valley on TikTok ✨