There is a particular kind of accommodation that only exists because a place became famous on the internet, and 高椅岭 Gāoyǐlǐng has produced a textbook example of it. Until about 2018 this was farmland on a ridge of red sandstone twenty-odd kilometres northeast of 郴州 Chēnzhōu city, remarkable for the way rainwater pools in the hollows between the rock ridges and turns them into a scatter of green mirrors. Then photographers found it, then video, and now there is a ticket gate, a boardwalk and a strip of farmhouses that have converted their upper floors into rooms with the ridge in view. The homestays are not luxurious and were not designed by anyone in particular. What they have is a terrace facing west across the rock, which is the whole point.
The village is 高椅岭村 Gāoyǐlǐng Cūn, in 飞天山镇 Fēitiānshān Zhèn, and it sits at the northern end of the same red-bed landscape that produced the better-known 飞天山 Fēitiānshān scenic area to the south. The rock is Cretaceous sandstone and conglomerate, laid down as river and lake deposits when this was a basin, then lifted and cut by water into the rounded ridges and gullies you see now. The pools are not lakes: they are rainwater and old quarry pits, which is why their level changes dramatically and why some of them are bright green with algae by late summer. The light is best in the last hour before sunset, when the ridges go from grey-pink to a saturated red-brown and the water turns to metal.
Most of the accommodation is within a couple of hundred metres of the western edge of the ridge, which means you can walk out at dawn without needing the ticket gate. The rooms are the standard rural-Chinese conversion: tiled floors, a firm bed, an air-conditioner that is a heat pump in winter, and a bathroom with a shower head that sometimes has a mind of its own. Some properties have added wooden panelling and a proper window; those are the ones to book.
Practicalities
Price. ¥150 to ¥300 for a standard double with a ridge view, ¥400 to ¥600 for the handful of rooms with a corner window and a private terrace. Weekend rates roughly double, and the October holiday can triple them.
Address. 湖南省郴州市苏仙区飞天山镇高椅岭村 Húnán Shěng Chēnzhōu Shì Sūxiān Qū Fēitiānshān Zhèn Gāoyǐlǐng Cūn. Properties are strung along the village lane; addresses are given as “near the west ridge viewpoint” more often than as street numbers.
Rooms. Small, plain and adequate. Ask for a west-facing room with a balcony, and check whether the property’s terrace is shared or private. A few places have installed large picture windows and charge accordingly. Almost none have good sound insulation, so if the village is busy you will hear it.
Getting there. From 郴州西站 Chēnzhōu Xī zhàn it is about 35 minutes by car or a ¥70 to ¥100 taxi; from the city centre, 40 to 50 minutes. There is no direct bus to the village. Most visitors come by hired car and park at the ticket gate, then walk in.
flowcloud would say that Gaoyiling is one of the clearest cases in China of a landscape being discovered by photographers rather than planners, and the homestays are the visible evidence of that order of events: the rooms came after the viewpoints, not before.
Where to stay: choose a property on the western side of the village so you can reach the ridge before the gate opens, and confirm that the view from your room is of the rock and not of the car park. Bring a head torch for the walk down after sunset.