The Emerald Gallery is the most celebrated path in the park — a paved sandstone walkway several hundred metres long that runs through a tunnel of towering bamboo whose canopy closes overhead to create a green, filtered light. The effect on a sunny day is striking enough that it has been photographed to the point of becoming a cliché, but the cliché is earned.
Walking it in the early morning before the tour groups arrive, when dew is still on the stems and the light is lateral rather than overhead, is a different and better experience. On windy days the movement of the canopy — individual stems bending and recovering, the sound of bamboo clicking against bamboo — adds something the photographs cannot capture. The gallery connects several of the park's main walking routes and is unavoidable on any full circuit.