Blogs from Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan, China, Asia - page 10

Aamulla herättiin Lijangissa ja jätettiin toinen rinkka säilöön. Aamupala vetäistiin yhdessä matkanvarrelle eksyneistä kahviloista. Aamupalan aikana meitä käytiin häiritsemässä pariin otteeseen. Ensimmäinen kaupunkiopas-ehdokas hätistettiin hyvällä tuloksella pois, mutta sitten tuli pari naista jotka tuli tyrkyttämään meille jotain. Ei me tiedetä mitä se oli, koska he eivät puhuneet englantia ja heidän näyttämässä esitteessä luki kaikki kiinaksi. Paperilapusta saatiin vain hinta selville. Ehkäpä naiset eivät ole ihan vielä valmiita viemään ulkomaalaisia turistiretkilleen. Varsinkin kun olivat aika töykeitä vielä. Istuivat vain viereiseen pöytään ja alkoivat osoittelemaan vuoroin meitä vuoroin paperilappustaan ja hokivat kovaan ääneen ”Juu gou!!” Onneksi tajusivat lähteä lätkimään. Semi-hyvän aamiaisen jälkeen lähdettiin metsästämään taksia, joka heittäisi meidät bussi-asemalle. Kyllähän ... read more

Tiger Leaping Gorge (Chinese: 虎跳峡; Pinyin: Hǔtiào Xiá) is a canyon on the Yangtze River - locally called the Golden Sands River (金沙江; Jīnshā Jiāng) - located 60 km north of Lijiang City, Yunnan in southwestern China. Around 15 km in length, the gorge is located where the river passes between 5,596 metre Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (玉龙山; Yùlóng Shān) and 5,396 m Haba Xueshan (哈巴山; Hābā Shān) in a series of rapids under steep 2000 metre cliffs. Legend says that in order to escape from a hunter, a tiger jumped across the river at the narrowest point (still 25 metres wide), hence the name. Tiger Leaping Gorge is a contender for the world's deepest river canyon, depending on the exact definition used. The inhabitants of the gorge are primarily the indigenous Naxi people, who ... read more

There are 2 routes you can take from Qiaotou along Tiger Leaping Gorge - the high road, which is a genuine hike, and the low road, which is a surfaced road built to convey buses of tourists to various look-out points and hence doesn't really qualify as a hike. The 2 meet at a point about two thirds of the way through the gorge and there's then a single path to Daju. We decided we'd take the high road then, at the convergence point, return along the low one, as it seemed that there was no particular advantage to continuing all the way to Daju. It's almost impossible to get lost on the high road due to the profusion of coloured arrows pointing the way, not to mention the guesthouse advertisements daubed all over the rocks. ... read more

With Mary off in Toyko and Eli and Jaime in Borneo, I was forced to attack China's tiger leaping gorge with some new travel pals. Having spent my time in Dali half independent and half with my new English friends Emily and Katherine (both english teachers in Guangzhou, so there were hours of competing in memorable chinese stories....emily won with the story of rats running over her head just before going to bed). Moving on to Lijiang meant the possibility of meeting up with several CTLC teachers who were also planning on making Yunnan their favorite Chinese province. After a few days for wandering around Lijiang's crowded, twisted cobblestone streets, I met up with Megan and Jen at Mama Naxi's. Mama is guardian of all thing backpacker in Lijiang, you call her when she arrives and ... read more

Yeah this was the trek we had been looking forward to for a long time! Dali and Lijiang were both cool, well preserved old towns but now it was time to say bye to the temples and colorful costumes and see what northern Yunnan is famous for - kick arse mountains. The gorge itself is a 25km trek through some of the most amazing scenery Kako and I had ever seen in our lives, and the bonus was we got the weather! On one side sits 5500m Yulong Xueshan, the mountain we rode to from Lijiang, and on the other side sits 5400m Haba shan. Add to this the Yellow river which slices through the two snow capped peaks some thousand metres below the trekking path, and cool $3 a nite Naxi guesthouses to stay ... read more