Yunnan Catch-up Part 2: The Tiger Leaping Gorge

Squeezing between the two 5,500+ meter peaks that rise majestically north of Lijiang, the Yangzi River has dug a trench 3,000 meters deep called the Tiger Leaping Gorge (an English translation, of course). A myth says that a tiger leapt across the raging river to escape a hunter, thus the name. This was my next destination and I was blessed to join up with the three people named at the end of the last post.

The four of us plus two others from Mama Naxi's loaded into a van on the morning of April 8 and drove a rough road for four hours to Qiaotao, the village at one end of the gorge. It was there that we got some lunch and I dropped my main backpack, before Mary, Nadya, Sasha and I joined forces for the hike of the gorge.

The high trail ascends from the village and winds its way up and along the western side of the chasm, heading north for about 15 km until the other end. Not far into the hike, one gets their first glimse of the powerful, jagged, snow-capped Jade Dragon Snow Mountain rising high above the opposite side of the gorge. The view along this trail is so unfailingly beautiful that it becomes monotonous (in the best possible way), as the mountain is always in sight.

Periodically we would pass through a small village built into the mountainside and get some tea, but mostly we just hiked and got to know each other.

The premier member of our trail gang was Mary, a 69 year-old Irish woman with five children and seven grandchildren (with an eighth on the way). For the past several years she has set out solo for at least six weeks per year to travel to various places around the world. She is no package tourist, riding the tour bus, but a real, hardy backpacker as true as, or perhaps truer than, the rest of us. Last year she summited Kilimanjaro, so this trek was no problem for her. We came to call her our Irish mother.

Nadya is a solo Russian traveler and she has been traveling in China for several weeks (or months?). She was a quiet yet integral part of our trek and her laughter was contagious. I hope to see her again when I pass through Moscow in a couple weeks.

My fellow American from NYC, Sasha and I became close and had endless trail coversations about youthful escapades and life stories. She has been the first American I have really gotten to know on this trip. I can't say enough about Sasha but I won't say too much. It truly was a great group we had.

Underestimating the time it would take us to complete the rugged 12-km hike to the Halfway Guesthouse (including the crux of the trek, the 28, or 26, or 29 Bends, depending on whom you ask), we watched the apenglow of sunset cast its orange hue onto the Jade Dragon Mountain, and in turn as the shadows of Mt. Haba on our side of the gorge slowly engulfed it, and us, in darkness. We arrived at our trail guesthouse just as total darkness set in. We checked into a dorm room before getting dinner and a bundle of Dali beers (almost as drinkable as Beerlao). Sasha, Nadya and I stayed up late, after the lights of the mountain guesthouse were shut off, and stretched our limbs while admiring the bright constellations above us.

The next morning our gang of four was made five with the addition of Barak, a relatively chill Israeli dude. Together we hiked the remaining 4km or so down to the road, then decided to hike from there all the way down to the river, which turned out to be a lot more arduous than we expected (think: inner gorge of the Grand Canyon).

The amazing part of this portion of the hike is that once we were at the river, we were literally looking at the base of the mountain which rises 3,000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet) directly to the summits of the Jade Dragon Mountain. We spent too long at the river hanging out on boulders and soaking our feet, but it was for the better, because it gave me an excuse to return to Lijiang with my new friends rather than try to move on to Shangri-La as I had planned.

After braving the hike back up to the road and enjoying some food and Dali beer, we had a lovely and relaxing ride back to the old town.

The landscapes we witnessed at the Tiger Leaping Gorge were some of the most beautiful I have ever seen (maybe second after Thousand Island Lake in CA), and the friendships made were some of the strongest and fastest growing of my life. They were friendships that due to my shrewd decision to forego Shangri-La (yes, that is an invented name), continued to grow over the next week.

And this is another act break.