Imagine the Grand Canyon with lots of trees and with lots of small streams and you have Zhangjiejia. The strange shapes are limestone hills just like Guilin but Guilin is much softer. The peaks in Guilin are rounded and gentle looking where the ones in Zhangjiejia are sort of “in your face”. Also Guilin is much gentler on the body. Not much climbing just sitting around in a boat and/or a raft, whereas the Zhangjiejia Park has lots of stairs, hills and walking. (My trusty pedometer counted 28,000 steps one day and 18,000 the next – and unfortunately it doesn’t give you any extra credit for the steps being climbing steps and not walking steps)
