The five days we spent around Zhangjiajie in May did not stay inside one park. The same trip took us to a town that is built over water rather than beside it — Furong Town, where the houses sit on cliffs and the waterfall runs through the middle of the postcard.
It is the least "outdoorsy" place in this series and, in one way, the most useful: because Furong is walked rather than camped, it strips a pack down to what you will actually carry for eight hours on wet stone.
The place, in facts
Furong is a town in Yongshun County, inside the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Hunan (Wikipedia). It sits roughly halfway between Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang, which is why it fits naturally onto the same itinerary. The town is built on cliffs above a waterfall that drops into the You River, and it was originally called Wangcun — the name changed after the success of the film Hibiscus Town, which was shot here. The Tujia were the original inhabitants, and today the town is a mix of Tujia and Han residents. Since late 2021 it has had its own stop on the Zhangjiajie–Jishou–Huaihua high-speed railway.
That last detail changes how you pack. You do not need a vehicle, and you do not need a pack you would take up a mountain. You need hands free for a railing.
Furong Town camping gear: what earned its place in one small bag
1. Light, because the interesting hours are wet and dark. Rain moves through western Hunan constantly, and the lanes between the stilt houses go dark long before the shops close. Our multifunctional rechargeable LED flashlight (SG33) is the one thing we would not walk that town without: it is IP44-rated for rain and wet snow, its magnetic base sticks to a metal railing or a table leg so both hands stay free on the steps, and the colour temperature adjusts from 1800 K to 5500 K with stepless dimming.
2. One bag, not three. The single most useful habit we took off those five days was refusing to split our kit. Our 40 L EVA camping kitchen storage bag is foldable, handheld, and swallows the stove, the cups and the food in one lift — which matters when the alternative is three trips up a staircase.
3. A cup that disappears. Water here is everywhere and drinking water is not. A 150 ml foldable aluminium cup (SG7B) weighs 58 grams and folds into its own bag, so it lives in a jacket pocket rather than a pack. Ours was refilled at every stop.
4. Fire that does not care about damp. Spray from the falls hangs in the air, and matches in a humid pocket are a waste of weight. We carry the classic square aluminium alloy windproof lighter (SG45) instead: refillable, metal, and stable in exactly the conditions that kill a paper match.
From our shop: the four items above are the ones that survived that week. For a longer trip we add the folding 430 stainless steel cutlery set (SG7C) and the 450 ml stainless steel hiking cup (SG7D), which doubles as a small bowl.
Furong Town camping gear: what stayed behind
Most of it, and that is the honest headline of this article. Furong is a town: you sleep indoors, you eat in restaurants, and the steps are the only climb. The tent, the three-layer mat, the chimney stove, the charcoal grill and the four-wheel trolley all stayed in the car — we would have carried them up a staircase for no reason.
What that leaves is a useful test. If a piece of kit cannot justify itself on a day when you have a bed waiting at the end, it is probably not the piece you should be carrying on the day when you don't.
Two things we would tell a friend before they go
Wet stone is the whole risk. Every photograph you have seen of Furong was taken from a dry day. On a wet one, the stone steps and the wooden walkways near the falls are genuinely slippery, and there is no lift to save you. Flat, grippy soles matter more here than on any trail in this series.
The waterfall is loud, and it is also a landmark. It runs beside and below the houses rather than somewhere you hike to, so you will pass it several times a day. That is also the fastest way to navigate the town: the sound tells you which way is down.
FAQ
Is Furong Town the same as Wangcun?
Yes. Wangcun was the town's original name; it was renamed after the film Hibiscus Town made the location famous (Wikipedia).
Do you camp in Furong Town?
No — and we would not pretend otherwise. It is a town with hotels and guesthouses, not a campsite. We carried the four items above in one small bag and left the camp kit in the car.
How do you get to Furong Town?
It has a station on the Zhangjiajie–Jishou–Huaihua high-speed railway, which opened in late 2021, and it sits roughly midway between Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang — which makes it an easy stop between the two.
Shop the one-bag kit
Everything in the four-item list is in the Kochav store:
- Storage & Gear Transport — the 40 L bag and the trolley we left in the car.
- Cooking, Dining & Hydration — cups, cutlery, stove and cookware.
- Camping Furniture and Shelter — the tent and the mat that stayed behind.
The rest of this series
- Best camping gear for weekend trips: what Zhangjiajie taught us
- Northern Xinjiang camping gear: what a 12-day summer loop taught us
- Jiuzhaigou camping gear: altitude, blackout nights and one-bag days
- Fenghuang Ancient Town camping gear: stilt houses, rain and a river you walk beside
About the authors
Axel and Hayley travel and camp together. This series comes from their own trips — the sandstone pillars of Zhangjiajie, a 12-day loop through northern Xinjiang, and the lakes of Jiuzhaigou at altitude. Here they write about the gear they pack for one night out, and what they leave behind.
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