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Published: August 7th 2007
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The day after we came back from LuGu Lake, we checked in NanMen Hotel. The hotel manager recommended a driver with an 8-sitter minivan. He asked for 180 Yuan for one day trip to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, we thought it was a fair deal, so we asked him to pick us up at 8:00am. The next day, the driver showed up on time, unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. It started drizzling early in the morning and then turned into rain. We've heard incidents of rock-slide in Tiger Leaping Gorge area when it's wet. The driver assured us that it will be perfectly safety even under this kind of weather, so we decided to go along with our plan.
On the way there, we stopped by a temple, supposedly from where you can get a nice view of the Yangtze River from high above. But it was so misty that we couldn't see much of the mountains nearby. We could barely make out the belt-shape river running below. The only impression I had was this kid monk dressed in traditional red rope walking in the rain with an umbrella, and he actually said hi to us. Maybe it’s the
color contrast, maybe it’s the “hi”. Somehow that image was stuck in my mind. I don’t even remember the name of that temple now, but I will always remember the red rope in the rain.
The whole journey took about 2 hrs. The road was narrow at some points and very bumpy half of the way. I got thrown off my seat several times, and yes, I did have my seat-belt on, but it didnt' help. The scenery was pretty much wet and green all the way. Judging from the houses and the way local people dressed, I could tell that this place is not as touristy as Lijiang. Half way through, we started to see the Yangtze River on our left side. It started out quite wide. Water was very muddy and running slowly. As we got closer to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, the water way gets narrower, and you start to hear the sound of the water rushing again either the banks or the rocks in the middle. In the end, we arrived at the entrance. This is what most people call the Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge, where they carved out a nice trail in the middle
of the rock cliff next to the river. From this trail you can easily walk all the way to see the famous Tiger Leaping Rock. The whole walk is pretty flat. Since there were some incidents of rock slide in this area, the park stationed some ranger like people every 100 meter or so, shouting through a macrophone asking tourists to stay away from the cliff, and walk next to the wall to avoid possible falling rocks. We didn’t see one piece of falling rock although it was raining the whole time. To us, this was a very easy walk over and back, took about 2 hours including the picture taking. If you really really don’t feel like walking, there are lots of man-powered cart waiting for tourists near the entrance. They will take you over and back for a very fair price.
On the other side of the river, there was also a trail leading to the Tiger Leaping Rock. Buses on their way to Shangri-La usually stop at that spot. Those people are less fortunate. For them, to get to the view-point from the other side, they have to walk down a narrow trail from high above.
I can tell you it was not a pleasant walk in that kind of weather, especially when everyone was holding an umbrella.
If you are really looking forward to some serious hiking, then you have to start from the lower party of the gorge and walk your way up to the upper gorge. That could turn into a good 3-day hike, which I would totally go for if we had more time.
A little detour on the way back to Lijiang took us to The First Bend in Yangtze River near ShiGuZheng (stone-drum town). We took a ride on a motor boat up and down stream of the first bend. It was nowhere close to the real white-water rafting in terms of the action, but it was no less exciting in terms of the fact that we were actually there, at the first bend in Yangtze River.
Finally, back to Lijiang, another lovely night in the ancient town.
Distance from Lijiang: ~ 70km
Ticket: 50-yuan/person
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