Trekking in Yunnan

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I left Lijang at 8am on on a special bus to Tiger Leaping Gorge which stops in Qiaotou, the town where the trek starts. Unfortunately it takes almost 3 hours so after storing my big pack at a guest house in town it was 11 am before I could start and quite a hot day. There were a few other westerners who also got off at the same place including a Canadian couple I spoke to breifly at the guest house. I caught up with them after about an hour of quite easy walking and we did the rest of the trek together. I found out the girl, Jenni, will also be starting her phd in engineering at Cambridge this October. Crazy coincidence but really cool! The walk got quite hard from here and for once the descriptions didn't exagerate the difficulty that extremely. The section before 28 bends and that part also are quite steep and in full sun and my cold it was quite tough. Unfortunately you don't get to enjoy the height for long as you descend as soon as you stop climbing. The rest of the trek was flat and downhill with very nice views of the snowy mountains on the other side of the gorge. The best photo spots were generally guarded by a Chinese woman who would demand money per photo taken for the hard work they put into maintaining the trail but there are other places just around the corner which are almost as good. We also met some goats, horses, and cows on the trail. The only thing we did wrong was miss the continuation of the upper trail leading to Walnut Garden and ended up on the main road by Tina's guest house. We walked along the road for the last few km to Seans guest house which was very nice and had some good views. My knees where sore and I had some impressive blisters so was relieved when we arrived around 7 pm. I stayed in a dormitory which turned out to be a room with only 2 beds that I got all to myself.

The following morning I shared a minivan back to Qiaotou with two English guys straight after breakfast. I would have liked to walk back to Tina's and down to the Tiger Leaping Stone but was worried I'd have trouble getting a ride back later in the day and also hoped to make it to Shangri La before nightfall. I sort of regretted this after hearing the English guys talking about this part of the walk but changed my mind as soon as I stepped out of the van - I could hardly walk in my shoes from the blisters. Technically the walk continued past Seans, down to the river and across to a road leading back to Lijang but since I was headed North I skipped this part. I picked up my backpack and stood on the side of the road waiting for a bus to Shangri La but only had to wait a few minutes as I was the last person needed to fill up a minivan charging the same as a regular bus ticket. Apart from the drugged rooster at my feet and the group smoking going on it was a nice ride and very quick taking only 2 hours. I thought it took 3 hours so might take 4 or 5 so this was a nice surprise and I got dropped off outside of Shangri La old town before midday. Once you get past one set of hills after Qiaotou you really start to feel the Tibetanness of the area. For a start there are prayer flags EVERYWHERE!

Shangri La was abit of a dissapointment. After reading the towns name was changed because the surroundings were so similar to those described in the book 'Lost Horizons' I was expecting something pretty impressive but instead I was in a massive basin with some brown barren hills in the distance. These are actually mountains but since we're already at about 3500m they just look like hills. There is no hiking nearby and anything worth seeing has an out of control entry fee. I met a group of bicycle tourists from the US on the roof of my hostel and spent the rest of the day with them. We went to lunch which turned into a 4 hour mission all over town looking for this one particular place which we never found. We ended up at a Tibetan place where we ordered by pointing at what other tables were eating. They got it mostly right. This place had massive tables and people left the biggest mess I have ever seen. Half the dishes were left untouched and there was food and shredded napkins all over the floor. We tried to be culturally sensitive by also throwing unwanted food pieces on the floor (mainly chilis) but I felt so guilty after just one chili that I made a neat pile on the table instead. After walking back to the old town I went on a supermarket and bus station mission which was another 4 hour epic since I walked to the wrong main road and started walking in the opposite direction. I eventually made it though, bought a bus ticket to Deqin for the next morning and stocked up on food since I heard it was really expensive in the mountains. I met the Americans when I got back and we had beers on the roof then went out for dinner. They were alot of fun and shared my love of cabbage.

Five minutes out of Shangri La on the bus we hit the dirt partially constructed roads I've become familiar with. China really is like one massive construction site at the moment. It was cold, wet, and very foggy so although we were going through some amazing mountain scenery all I saw was a grey wall wherever I looked. On a good day the bus can make it in 6 hours but it took us 9 hours which is still not so bad. It depends on how long you get stuck at one of the road blocks while they literally finish making part of the road and we only had to wait 1 and a half hours. Deqin is in a valley and not very nice so I took a minivan with a man from Taiwan up the mountain to a hostel close to Feilai Si. I met two Swiss girls at the hostel, Amandi and Marianne, who were planning a big hiking trip so we decided to go together and planned as much as we could. We had a communal dinner at the hostel which was really nice (both the food and the atmosphere) and spent alot of time standing round the fire place in the common room.

So at 8 the next morning I left for a high altitude hike with a cold that had well and truely worked its way down into my chest and I was abit worried this would make me suffer from altitude sickness. We hiked down over 1000m to the Mekong and across the footbridge. From here it should have been a simple climb up to Xidang village but we wasted almost 2 hours here since we ended up on a partially constructed road with many trails starting to go up and then ending at a cliff face. We had a quick lunch when we made it to the village then hiked up to the hot springs, 500m above the village. By this point it was 3pm but we decided to push on and climb up to the mountain pass which was another 1000m up and took us 4 hours. It could be done much faster but we were walking very slowly and had a few snack breaks. The hike up is pretty uninteresting and the rubbish baskets that count down from over 60 to 1 (at the top) just made it feel longer. We got to the top (3820m) at 7 pm and decided to sleep there rather than in the village on the other side. We had nice beds with mattresses and doonas made up for us and cooked our own food with their fire and pots. The Tibetan man who lived there didn't speak much English but we were able to communicate quite well and he taught us some Tibetan words. We also refined our pronounciation of 'hello' in Tibetan. That night I went to bed wearing all my clothes including my jacket, beanie, scarf, and gloves inside my sleeping bag and under a doona and blanket. Not suprisingly I woke up a few hours later completely overheating. It was cold (actually it snowed abit when I was brushing my teeth) but not that cold.

We slept late the next morning and had a very slow start eating breakfast and spending some time at the lookout. The clouds obscured most of the view but occasionally some snowy mountain peaks would come through. We walked down to Upper Yubeng village and started towards the Ice lake at 3980m which is past the base camp for Kawa Karpo (or Meili in Chinese) which no human has made it to the top of but were stopped by a villager who wanted an unreasonable entry fee. We had already paid 2 separate entry fees for the area and this was definitely an unofficial one so we decided to skip this and save a day. We wanted to find the trail to Ninong village but missed it and ended up going down to the river (significantly lower than both upper and lower Yubeng) and back up to lower Yubeng where we couldn't find the trail or anyone to ask. We then had to go back down, across the river, up the other side, and onto the trail we saw from the other side. In doing this we wasted another few hours of good hiking time. Once on this trail it was easy enough to follow and we followed the river and past 3 very small villages (just a few houses and some terraces) and then down a gorge we all thought was more impressive than Tiger Leaping Gorge. The trail goes down with the river about another 1000m then stays flat and you end up on a narrow ledge between a steep drop to the river and a canal system leading to Ninong. Once we made it back to the Mekong though the scenery was less interesting and we were all exhausted so this last part wasn't so fun. We also got stuck behind a man and his 100 or so goats keeping an agonisingly slow pace and the novelty definitely wore off quickly.

We got to the village at 8pm and found someone who would let us stay at their house for the night. Luckily Amandi and Marianne know a few more Chinese words than me and are good at reading hand signals so communication wasn't so hard. Our phrase books were useless though since they couldn't read and we couldn't pronounce the words properly. They made up some beds for us and we had a much needed stretching session while they made us dinner. My feet were basically just 2 massive blisters on the bottom of my legs by this point and walking was painful.

We had a slightly better start the next day and had decided to cross the Mekong and hitch to the village where the Kawa Karpo pilgrimage walk starts. The people we stayed with arranged a car for us for what we thought was 25 Yuan which is a very good price so the woman proudly marched us through the fields past all the other villagers harvesting the wheat (by hand) to the river. After meeting the driver we found out the price was actually 250 Yuan so we started to walk instead. We made it up to the road and to the next village without a single car passing us (this was one of those 'still being constructed' roads). We continued up to the next pass and after about 3 hours we hopped in a taxi that came past. We payed too much but couldn't bargain him down and the walk was not very interesting and very very dusty. The taxi dropped us in the biggest of the string of villages along this road where we had lunch and bought abit more food before taking a minivan to Yongzi at the start of the trail. We had a huge audience of curious locals when we arrived here, all staring and spinning their prayer wheels. This village has a proper guest house which was real luxury and the people were so friendly. They even had running water and a toilet! At the place we stayed the night before we could go to the toilet in the barn with the animals or on the side of the house with the horses which was a little awkward.

The guest house owners had friends coming from Deqin that night so it was a party atmosphere and although we ate separately from them, they came down later and there was music, singing, and traditional dancing. I could pick up the easy step dance but was hopeless at the more fun and fast one which involved a lot of stomping and spinning. One of the visitors was the man who had drawn the map we had (not exactly detailed but still quite useful) and he spoke English and gave us alot of extra information about the trip. The whole trip takes 7 to 12 days (depending on how fast you walk) but we were only going 1.5 days in to make it a 3 day hike. The whole trip also involves entering Tibet for a few days which you need a permit for.

We left at 10am the next day and followed the trail along the river. We were told we should take a guide because the trail isn't well marked but actually all the prayer flags are way more extreme than regular trail markings. Also when there are no flags there is plenty of clothing and rubbish to let you know your going the right way. This was an easy 6 hour day climbing 1000m to 3340m but very gradually. We stopped for lunch and also when we got to the first open meadow with animals and people where we sat in a mans hut with him for a while admiring his yak produce and fire. The huts at the first 'camp' were in very poor condition. They were half collapsed and only one had a (partial and leaking) roof. We collected fire wood and completely failed at starting a fire since it was all wet. We had collected some dry moss on the way instead of paper but even this was useless. In our attempts we also broke both our lighters. I tried pouring the rest of the lighter fuel onto a stick in hopes we could use this but most of it sprayed all over my hands so I was sent outside to start preparing dinner, well away from any potential fire.

Luckily we were not completely alone - there was a Chinese family living between 2 rocks and building another hut who gave us some special wood to start the fire. This worked but not for long since the rest was still so wet. After about 4 hours of producing nothing much more than smoke we ate and went to bed. It was absolutely freezing even with all my clothes on. It also rained and leaked all over Marianne. Since we didn't get much sleep we slept through the alarm and had yet another late morning. The Chinese people came to check on us and started a fire for us, we had breakfast (porridge thick enough to eat with chopsticks) and started to walk up to the Dogela pass at 4479m. It was quite easy and didn't take too long (until we hit the snow at least). We were probably only 100m in altitude from the top when we decided to turn back. We had seen and heard about 5 small avalanches and just when we were saying it was probably safe to keep going there was the scary crack of more snow and rocks breaking off somewhere we couldn't see. It was probably ok to keep going but my Swiss companions, much more experienced in avalanches than me were very concerned so I went with their decision on this. We sat safely behind some rocks and had lunch before going back to our camp.

We managed to start a fire using just the embers from the mornings fire which we could also use to light my gas stove and cook. The sun was out and it was quite warm sitting outside until it dissapeared behind the mountain. We successfully kept the fire going and were slightly warmer that night. Since we didn't need help with the fire this time our Chinese friends bought us a candle. We got an early(ish) start the next morning, said goodbye to our neighbours and gave them some excess food we had and hiked back to Yongzi and the extra hour to the main road. From here we took a minivan back to Feilai Si and being such a clear day had really amazing views of the mountains! This trip has probably been the best, most authentic, and memorable of my entire trip and if I had to come back to one place it would be this area of China. Unfortunately when all the roads are finished it will be so much more accessible and probably destroyed by this.

We caught the bus back to Shangri La the next morning which only took 7 hours and bought tickets to Xiangcheng for the next day. My detour to Deqin took a little longer than expected and the slow road through the mountains to Chengdu takes at least 4 days so I will probably have to hop straight on a train to Beijing from there which is sad because there is so much more I want to see and do.

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Photos

The finish line - Tibetan style
(top of the pass)