Tiger Leaping Gorge

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Wednesday July 26th

I took pictures of Lijiang's Old Town very early in the morning. I managed to find the square almost empty (except for enterprising taxi drivers trying to give me a ride) and got some interesting pictures of the Old Town without a density of people that would be more appropriate on Shinjuku Avenue. I had Muesli, yogurt and fruit breakfast at Well Bistro at 7:30 and made my way to the bus station by 8:30 and hopped on the minibus to Qiatou. It turns out the japanese woman/american man couple that was behind me on the bus to Lijiang were in the same bus as me for Qiatou so we talked for a while. Arriving fashionably almost late, 4 israeli girls entered the bus and one of them sat next to me. Her name is Li (I'm so butchering the spelling I'm sure, but that's how it sounds like) and she's been in China for several months with one of her friend to study chinese. She is travelling around before heading back to Israel and two of their friend joined them in the trip a few days ago. Halfway to Qiatou the bus stalled in what looked like a big traffic jam. The bus driver motioned for us to get out so we did wondering what was going on. After a while we figured that we had just reached the first bend in the river and all tour groups stopped there to take pictures. We waited in the bus and at some point the driver somehow drove through the heavy traffic and we continued to Qiatou.

We arrived in Qiatou after about 3 hours. A guy entered the bus selling tickets for the Tiger Leaping Gorge and I was a bit skeptical at first but then a wierd australian woman named Marge which owns one of the cafe mentioned in the Lonely Planet told us that he was in fact the real ticket seller and that if we had a student ID it was only 25RMB instead of 50RMB (they'll never tell you about student discount usually, you have to ask or be told by someone) so we each bought a ticket. We went in Jane's Guesthouse so that I could leave my backpack and eat/drink something before leaving. I was introduced to the rest of the israeli girls: Abas is the other who has been in Beijing for a few months and the two girls who just arrive are Mau and Hill. They were nice so we decided to hike together. They had some muesli/yogurt to eat while I had a spaghetti with yak meat which was the best spag I've had since I left home. We stocked up on water bottle and left to conquer the Gorge.

We were not too sure where to go but there was a western couple in front of us so we just followed them on the road until we found the track. I quickly found that the girls were not going as fast as me but at first it didn't bother me too much as they were not doing too bad at first. They stopped often but not for too long so I decided to stick with them. There was a local guy with a horse that was following us, hoping that one of the girl would give up and ask for a horse trek. Even though they were struggling they never gave up, which they attributed to their experience in the army. As they say: "pushing pen as a secretary really teaches you never to give up". We reached a Guesthouse about 30 minutes into the trek and we made the slight mistake of continuing on the sort of tractor road instead of turning right on the track. This meant that for about two hours more we went up the mountain along the tractor road until we hit a small village.

We weren't too sure where the right path was so we asked around and a girl told us: "Oh no you're lost, you need help. You're too far from the main road. I'll help you.". Of course we were all very skeptical and we told her we'd find the way ourselves as we thought she was just trying to lie to us to be a tour guide. We backtracked a little bit and found the red arrows which we knew would lead to the right path. When we passed the village again we asked a friendly farmer (Abas and Li speaks a little bit of chinese) if Naxi Family Guesthouse, the first guesthouse along the way at about 2 hours from the entrance, was there to which he said something which we assumed meant yes. I was happy that even though the girls were taking several breaks we were not that far behind schedule and could make it to Halfway Lodge by the evening. We followed the red arrow and it was going up pretty steep. The girls, especially Hill, were making very frequent long stop which annoyed me but at this point I figured I had been with them for too long to just leave and I was confident we could make it to Halfway before sunset anyway. The girl from the village came again and told us we shouldn't be doing that and that we might get lost. We told her we were fine, a little bit annoyed.

At some point we reached the top of the mountain and the red arrow disapeared, they only had blue arrow pointing the other way. I was a bit worried as we hadn't seen any other travellers in a while so I walked alone pretty far on the path not waiting for the girls trying to find a red arrow while the girls were resting. I came back and told them there was no red arrow but the path was going in the direction of the river along the Gorge which is where we wanted to go so we continued. After a while the path stops ascending and then descend a bit but there was still no red arrows. After about an hour we saw a little village afar and we figured it was the village just before Halfway Lodge. We made it there and walked down on a trail toward the village. We asked the farmers if they could help by telling us where was the Halfway Lodge but they only answered "Naxi Family", "Naxi Family". We were a bit confused but as we walked around the village we realized that after 5 hours of walking we were only at the 2 hours mark, something that was confirmed when we saw the Naxi Family Guesthouse sign. We sat around a bit depressed wondering what had happened. We were deciding whether to continue for the supposed 3 hours to the next Guesthouse which would bring us there at 8PM or stay here for the night. I knew that the girls walked slower than the time the guidebook says so I said it was better if we stayed and walked early the next day than get caught in the dark with them being totally exhausted. Abas was the only one who disagreed but she quickly joined the rest when it started raining. Mother Nature had chosen for us and we were to stay here for the night.

We ordered some potato, vegetable and rice along with lots of water and pepsi and had a great dinner. It was pretty cold by this point and we were all tired and a bit disapointed. We became even more tired when we realized that there was some work being done on the hot water so we couldn't take showers. It became even worse when we smelled the bathroom, the vilest bathroom I've had in China yet. The israeli girls were very distressed by the smell and the look of the washing and "evacuation" facilities. Li even "joked" that the showers reminded her of Auswitch's showers which she had visited as a teen (I didn't make that "joke", she did. Don't shoot the messenger!). This last comment sort of removed any urge to take a shower.

At around 7PM an israeli guy named Amit came and started talking with us. He had left Qiatou at 5PM as it started raining and had taken less than 2 hours to do the whole trail. We asked him where he went and eventually we found out that after the first guesthouse 30 minutes into the trail we should've turned left instead of continuing on the tractor road that goes all the way to the top of the mountain. The right path just goes around the mountain whereas we went up and down, taking more than twice the time. This meant that the girl in the village really was trying to help us out and we should've listened to her. Ah well. We couldn't really get lost anyway as we were following the Gorge. We were going in the right direction all along just going a bit higher. I was falling asleep by 8PM and since we were planning to leave by 7AM the day after I went to bed. I sort of heard music and people dancing outside but I didn't pay any attention.

Thursday July 27th

We were set to wake up by 6AM but it was still pitch dark by that time. We waited a bit until one of the owner woke up and ordered the cheapest banana pancake I've had in China (4RMB) that was good enough. We paid for everything and by 7:30 we were ready to leave. Amit told me that the Naxi women who run the Guesthouse were dancing from 8 to 9 yesterday with him and some chinese tourists and he had learned some neat Naxi dance move.

Before we left, we asked her to show us the way until the arrows so we didn't get the wrong path this time. Shortly after Naxi Family Guesthouse is the 28 bends, the part of the trek which is supposed to be the hardest, taking 2 hours. I knew I wouldn't have the patience to wait for the girls all day so me and Amit went ahead and said goodbye. The 28 bends were relatively hard but I realized I had gotten a bit more in shape in the last few weeks because I managed to do the whole ascension in about an hour, half the time written in the guidebook with only one brief stop. I even managed to make it to the top before Amit who is in pretty good shape and has done a few month-long trek before. The problem was that during all the time that we were going up we were totally in the clouds. I was a bit pissed off about doing the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek without seeing anything but Amit was confident that once the sun would appear the clouds would lift. He was right and by the time we reached the top of the bends it was starting to become clearer and 30 minutes after it was all clear. The only problem is that the sun comes in your face when you try to take picture. It is better to do this part of the trek in the afternoon if you want any decent pictures.

After the Bends the rest of the track is very easy with no major ascension. After 45 minutes you reach Teahouse Garden where I saw some people that were in my bus the day before who had slept there. We just asked for direction there and continued without stopping untill Halfway Lodge maybe 45 minutes later. We talked a lot during this part of the trek, about travel in the Middle East which Amit has done quite a lot and middle eastern food which is a very bad subject for me in China. We have a pretty large lebanese population in Montreal and as a result we have a lot of shawarma or falafel restaurant around which I've discovered about 2 years ago. Ever since I've been eating shawarma, shish taouk, falafel, hummus, pita, tabouleh and goat cheese pretty regularly and it is some of the food I miss the most from home. It is pretty much impossible to find it in China because it doesn't feature in restaurant with western food so talking about it is like talking about something you know you won't have for months but you crave for.

We stopped for about 30 minutes there having tea and just enjoying the scenery. There is about another 30-45 minutes of level track before the descent into Tina's Guesthouse. On the way we saw a pretty cool waterfall and Amit had a quick swim into the mountain cold water while I just washed my face. We also stumbled upon a group which had just finished the ascension from Tina's and they looked pretty exhausted. They seemed relieved when I told them that they were pretty much done with going up. We arrived at Tina's on the road deep into the Gorge by about 12:30, about 5 hours after leaving Naxi Family Guesthouse. We both wanted to make it to Zhongdian and we had heard that the rest of the trek along the main road after Tina's was less than impressive so we decided to make it back to Qiatou and hitchike to Zhongdian somehow.

There were a few vans so I asked if they were going to Qiatou but they just said "full" "full". We spotted a couple that was going in one of the van and asked for the price to go back to Qiatou just to know what's the average price. The girl said it was 30 each. I thanked her and we decided to walk on the road toward Qiatou and try to get on a car at some point. About 2 minutes after we started walking the driver which had told us he was full 2 minutes ago was driving toward Qiatou. It turns out he had 2 places open so he started negotiation at 30RMB. We quickly got him down to 15RMB and jumped in. It was a bit akward because I was sitting right next to the couple I had asked the price 2 minutes ago and they had seen me get in for half their price. As usual when there is an akward moment I try to hide it in talk and they were both friendly blokes so it was not hard to keep a conversation going. Kate, the girl, is an american living in Beijing working in import-export (being China it is mostly export) who speaks good chinese. She told me that her work had nothing to do with her major so I immediately guessed that she was an english litterature major. Turns out I'm correct (although anyone who has been on a campus for more than 2 minutes would've known that. You don't have to be a genius to realize that 3/4 of the english litterature people end up in business). Daniel, her boyfriend is an italian guy who came to visit her girlfriend in China and they decided to visit the country for a bit. Both very nice. They were also heading to Zhongdian so we figured maybe we'd share a van or a bus. The road we took to come back is the road where most tourist go to see the Gorge. It is a shame because the views are so much better from the trail up there but I guess that doing any form of exercice is not something chinese like to do in their vacation. Pretty much the only tourists on the high trail are westerners wereas most tourists close to the road are chinese. That doesn't mean that chinese don't do the trail, I've seen a few but it is a very low percentage

I went to get my backpack I had left at Jane's Guesthouse before the trek and when I was there I saw Geoffrey, the french guy I had met in Lijiang. He was not doing the trek as he had hurt his leg or something. He told me the girls had left only in the morning as they didn't want to start the trek yesterday since it was raining when they got to Qiatou. Guess I was right about not waiting for them, although I did feel bad about it. We couldn't talk for long as Amit was waiting for me to go to Zhongdian. I told Geoffrey maybe we'd see each other again as he was going to Zhongdian also after the girls were done. I went back to meet Amit and on the way we met a catalan couple that were also going to Zhongdian. We figured at 6 we should be able to get a van. We got past the bridge to the place where we were told vans or bus to Zhongdian pass by and we saw Kate and Daniel also waiting. One van driver wanted to drive us for an exhorbitant price and wouldn't bargain. We waited a bit but quickly a bus to Zhongdian passed by and dropped 6 people. We rushed to get the seats but some chinese made it before us and there were only 2 seats left. We let Kate and Dan have them as they had been here sooner and we figured we'd wait for the next bus.

After about 10 minutes of waiting in the shade the japanese/american couple I had been going to Lijiang and Qiatou with passed by. They were done with the Tiger Leaping Gorge and were going to Zhongdian! Looks like I'll share transport one more time with them. We were hitchiking by this point hoping to get a van since we knew we could get it for almost as cheap as the bus. A van finally stopped and we managed to bargain it down to 30RMB each as he was clearly going there anyway (he was bringing some stuff along). Travelling in van with fun and like-minded traveller is definately way more fun than bus and we had a good time in the van. The catalan man told us he visited Canada for 3 days as he had a plane going to New York on September 11 and he had to stop in New Brunswick. For 2 days he was stuck in the plane and he didn't know why. I told him he should visit my country in better circumstances, and especially in a better province (no offence to New Brunsicker, but Quebec is the best!). I practiced my limited japanese with the japanese woman (forgot the name, sorry) who was great fun. We had 2 near death experience in Zhongdian back-to-back with some of the worst driving I've ever seen. Our driver was good and somehow managed not to get us killed by the reckless drivers.

We stopped at Tibet Cafe, a place where we had read in the LP had decent rooms. It was full so we decided to go somewhere else. We sort of all split at this point as we wanted different kind of room. Me and Amit went to Shangri-La's traveller club that had decent dorm bed for a very low price. I had some fried noodle at the restaurant of the guesthouse. Amit is very religious so he cannot eat non-kosher meat. This extend to interdiction to eat in any restaurant that cooks meat or that use animal oil. This basically means that he cannot eat restaurant food and has to make his own food. He was supposed to meet 2 israeli girls in Zhongdian who "owned him a favor" and was looking forward for a good homemade dinner by them. He was quite sad when he realized they were not there yet so he didn't have a good dinner that night.

I spent a while in an internet cafe and then went in the dorm to sleep. There was a friendly russian-american anthropology major girl in our dorm and we talked for a while about travel in different countries and different cultures. She travelled in several countries I'm planning to in the Middle East so I asked her for advice. I was pretty tired so I said goodnight and went to sleep at around 11PM.

Do I recommend the Tiger Leaping Gorge? Well yeah unless you're one of those hardcore trekkers who like to be totally lost in nature. You won't see many other tourists but every hour or so you'll meet a person. The trek is pretty easy. It is 900m elevation and the highest point is 2600m so don't do it if you like really hardcore trekking (also don't do if you're really out of shape, the american/japanese couple tried to get up there and had to turn back because they couldn't do it and had to stick to the road, but the man was about 55 and was smoking. By walking fast it can all be done in 6 hours quite easily (that is if you stop at Tina's, you can continue up to Daju if you want). The scenery is truly amazing and it is very easy to reach if you're in Southwest China so I definately recommend it. If I was to redo it I'd probably continue all the way to Baishutai since I've now heard good things about the trek past Tina's.

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Photos

Me
Oh yeah there's like a gorge in the background.

Yangzi and side river
The side river (dont know the name) goes through Qiatou. The difference in color is interesting.

Naxi Family Guesthouse
Lovely place. Except the toilets, and the shower. But hey we're in China.

View from the top at 8:45AM
Yeah not too impressive but at least we were seeing something by this point. 45 minutes after everything was clear.

Tiger Leaping Gorge
Bad lightning. This part of the trek should be done in the afternoon to take better picture.

Tiger Leaping Gorge 2
Really impressive scenery

Tiger Leaping Gorge 3
Very impressive. It just sucks that the lightning is so bad.

Waterfall
Amit saw the waterfall as a gift from God so he decided to have a swim. I was happy with just washing my face with the water.

Tiger Leaping Gorge 4
The poles sort of ruin the picture but I like how it shows the road, the river and the mountain. Most tourist just see the Gorge from the road which is a shame.

Tiger Leaping Gorge 5
Same as the picture with me on it but without me hiding the beautiful mountains