Tiger Leaping Gorge

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31.10.05 - Qiaotao

From Lijiang we travelled north about 80km to Qiaotao, the gateway to the world's deepest gorge - otherwise known as Tiger leaping Gorge after an old fable of the tiger escaping hunters by jumping from one side to another! It is approx 13,000 feet deep and China's longest river, the Yangtze, flows through the centre.

There are 2 roads along the gorge, the low road designed for tours and people who want to take a day trip to see the gorge and the high road up in the Haba mountains for stupid people like us who decide to trek along the top! It's a 2 day hike but we started late on the first day so spread it over 3 days, stopping many times along the way to marvel at the spectacular scenery. Once again, the photos just don't do it justice.

The first 4 hours of the trek from Qiaotou are fairly steep but offer the best views, not of the river but of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountains that form the other side of the gorge. Our second night was spent at the Halfway guesthouse where we could sit and enjoy a beer with the mountains as our back garden. It really was breathtaking. Day 3 was an easy stroll, aside from the parts where we passed a couple of landslides and noticed some worrying cracks in the rocks above! Fortunately we made it down to the middle rapids safely where we decided to end our journey in Tiger Leaping gorge as it was time for us to move on but for both of us it's been the highlight of China so far.

We have now carried on a bit north to Zhongdian, which is at an altitude of 3200 meters and so very cold.. unless you stand in the sun and then it's baking! I am forever taking off my coat just to put it back on again 10 minutes later! Zhongdian is one of the places in Yunnan, South West China that lays claim to the title of Shangri-La. Since from what I can gather Shangri-La is a fictional place invented by an author who had never even been to China I'm not quite sure how they get away with it but it's nice here and we will do some exploring of the surrounding area and visit the much celebrated monastry. From here we plan to travel through the mountains to Litang and then then on to the city of Chengdu, apparently the journey is very beautiful and very very cold! It is also the closest you can get to Tibet without going through the drama of organising a tour and getting permits etc.. something we are saving for another trip!

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Comments

[Mel]

Trekking
Wally, you are not going to have time for bowling when you get back, what with your new hobby of treking ;-) xxx

[Jen]

Kate in China
Hello there lovely. Think these favorite photos yet. Looks fantastic. You even suit the hat - obviously not genetic thing - how do you manage that? Message to Will - running with a back pack through a gorge????? That is just wrong. Not sure where you go from here but looking forward to the next update. If you're bringing back Lisa a monkey (small) do you think could pick me up a llama - a small fluffy one - could keep the monkey entertained on the flight home. Write soon. XXXXX