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Published: October 17th 2009
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Sunrise
At TeaHorse guesthouse - stay there if you want to witness the glory The sun had been rising ever so slowly below the mountains teasing us with its rays for the last hour and a half. We had completed a strenuous hike up to the TeaHorse Guesthouse the day before and had collapsed into our beds after too many hours of walking and a few too many beers at high altitude. Before having gone to bed, I asked the girl working at the quaint little hostel on top of a mountain when the sun rose which the simple answer came - 8:30am. “She doesn’t know anything” I replied to the rest of the group. “The sun can’t possibly rise that late, I’m waking up at 7am.” Promptly at 8:28am the spark of sunshine glinted through the first mountain and the whole scene was illuminated by bright light. I had been proven wrong with the most beautiful sight I had yet witnessed in China.
Choosing to spend one of the busiest tourist days of 2009, Chinese National Day of October 1st on top of a mountain, within a gorge, has been my best Chinese decision so far…okay, it may have been Hugo’s decision, but I was extremely agreeable with the whole idea. Alex had
Gorge Picture
Around where the Tiger Jumped..see...jusssstttt there hurt his leg with a previous battle with monkeys on Mount Emei Shan (I don’t joke about this, he really had to hit a monkey with a stick in self defense) so he took some extra encouragement to join our merry band of men. This was mainly accomplished through feeding him more beers and telling him he would be ok. With Karol in tow, we were now a set of four, awake at 6:30am ready to catch the three hour bus to Qiaotou, the town at the bottom of the Gorge. Our adventure group expanded with an English couple from Norwich who we met on the bus and we were ready for anything…except possibly bandits, or angry cows, or countless spiders. Heads held high, gallons of water in our backpacks and yak snacks close at hand, we took our first steps.
Challenges come in many shapes and sizes, Sam who seemed to have read the LP section of the Gorge and memorized it word for word told us that there would be the ’26 Bends’ ahead which would test us emotionally and physically to the max - 2 hours of vertical ascent through arid conditions. I was ready, 26
Group Photo
Somewhere in the middle of our hike bends, bah, I can do 28, or 30 if necessary. I had conquered the 8000 steps of Hua Shan, I can do a measly handful of bends. Yet, the first challenge was not in the shape of a bend, it was in the shape of a cow…with horns. Cows in America are docile creatures. They provide milk, they provide cheese, they give homely ‘mooos’ which make you go..awwww, look at that nice cow, I love you cow. Let me just say, cows on the TLG(Tiger Leaping Gorge) are bastards. Being the first in the group, I had to sacrifice myself in walking past this cow and unfortunately it sensed my fear. The 600 pound animal charged, sending me running back to the group with my tail between my legs. So much for manhood. No problem, we climb
around the cow. I’m a consultant, I find solutions to problems for a living. Putting the groups lives in peril, we scaled the rock wall making sure to give this evil animal plenty of room. As we completed our ‘cow-detour’, I turned back with interest to see a local man walking behind us with a donkey. He picked up a rock, yelled at
Corn and Chilies
Drying at a guesthouse the cow and it promptly moved off of the path giving him the easy access to walk by. *sigh*. There are many lessons to learn. Yelling at cows is one of them.
After successfully doing all 26 bends, even though I was not counting, and sweating a few buckets full, we all arrived at the TeaHorse Guesthouse. It turns out that our donkey friend was following us in the hope that somebody would not be able to make the climb and succumbed to being lugged up by donkey fashion. Well, he was deeply disappointed. Cows may instill fear into our veins, but not physical work. What our donkey friend had not thought of was that we sit at computers all day in our respective countries, so when we come to China, we climb mountains with glee. And at this little guesthouse, on top of a mountain, in the middle of a Gorge, I realized how small the world is. Enjoying my second beer of the evening, I saw a rather strange character walking up the hill. He stared at me, I stared at him. Of all people to arrive, Kerry, an Australian guy who I had met 3 weeks
Menacing Dog
Just look at this vicious creature...show no mercy I say prior on my first day in Beijing was now walking up the road for our paths to cross again. “Holy Shit Mate” he said - my thoughts exactly. Having travelled across the country of China on different paths, we now shared another beer together, this time on a beautiful mountain instead of a bustling city. China…it’s
relatively big.
Enduring the barking dog symphony all night long which required Kerry to masterfully toss a sandal 20 meters to hit a menacing dog(picture included) at 2am, we moved on the next morning. Having seen the most beautiful of sun rises, we were ready to walk more. Warm showers, a hot breakfast, plenty of water provided the feeling that we were not really at the top of any mountain, so no complaints from me. The simple choice stood before us to go
left or
right. Right suggested the shorter, weaker, nothing special walk on the road way while the way to the left claimed the path with glorious waterfalls, bamboo forests and dangerous ladders. Trying to avoid all political comparisons, one of these ways reminded me of McCain, one way of Obama, you can make your own decisions.
If you ever
Down Jinsha River
Power currents send the water rushing by at high speeds decide to go to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and if you do, you have made a fantastic choice, you will hear of a man named Sean. The way you will know of Sean is because you will read his name on every second rock on the path. Sean owns the guesthouse on the longest point of the Gorge and is proud of this. So proud as to entice you to stay there by drawing arrows to his house to make sure you do not veer into the Chinese countryside, or more importantly, someone else’s guesthouse. Truthfully, after reaching his home, and it is by all means not as easy as I am explaining, we were all quite thankful for Sean and his arrows for getting lost in the Chinese wilderness is not my idea of fun. Well, it’s a little fun, but only for a while. We stopped at Sean’s and were greeted by a Malaysian man carrying a glock in his trousers. He gave us a place to stay, provided alcohol and food. Apart from the gun - good man.
The rest of the journey provided an outlook to
‘Where The Tiger Jumped’. I gave an ‘ooooooo’. And
a vertical ladder up about 40 meters which was actually a little terrifying…don’t look down. As we neared the end of our journey, having had 3 days of only sunshine and kilometers of walking through stunning scenery, the group looked at each other as if we had really accomplished something. Another day, another mountain, tonnes of fun.
I did mention bandits before. Sam had cast fear into us to watch out for bandits who will rob you on the way. Every person and donkey we walked past, I clasped my knife in my hands in the event that I had to protect the clan but we thankfully did not bump into any such types. Thanks for the heads up though.
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