Tiger Leaping Gorge apparently got it’s name from a fable about a tiger trying to jump the gorge.
I’ve seen this gorge and I think that maybe someone has been smoking too many herbs; which can be conveniently found growing all along the hiking trails or sold by the old ladies along the route and have all your vices for sale: beer, drugs, caffeine - you name it!
About 90 miles or so from the Burmese border you could mistake yourself for being in the Swiss Alps. Surrounded by snow capped mountains and with a steep slope to your side you hike for two days around this picture postcard landscape.
The bus into the gorge from the local town, and the start of the hike, picks up some locals along the way, one of them a small boy transporting his chickens in a box. We didn’t notice at first, thinking the clucking noise is someone’s ringtone, it wasn’t until a fluffy head pokes its way out the box that we’re reminded that we’re still in China.
The first day hiking you’re warned about the dreaded '28 bends’. A steep and gruelling punishment, midway through the hike that takes you to the highest point of the gorge before you descend back down to the halfway guesthouses. You reach the part where you think the bends have started, you start counting and about 30 minutes later you collapse at a cabin with a lady selling water. You ask how many bends you’ve done, 9 or 10 maybe, and she just laughs and says "you haven’t started yet, bend number one is just up the next hill - ganja? water? beer?". I decline all three and trudge on - feeling humiliated.
I pass a lovely sign scratched into the mountain side that reads 'Wales Boyo’. You can definitely take the boy out of Wales, but not the Wales out of the Boyo - I somehow feel less homesick and slightly nostalgic but I trudge on before feeling too much at ease.
After about 6 hours of non-stop hiking we make it to the half-way guesthouse. Out of energy but luckily there are beds, showers and supplies to be had at this stop. I rest over night and enjoy the company of some fellow hikers from various corners of the world. Day two should be easier right?
Wrong. Day two is a lot shorter and, after spending the morning herding goats along the mountainside, you reach the path to the rapids where you descend to the bowels of the gorge down 2000m of rock-face. The local people charge about a dollar to use their footpath (about the only way to get the the rapids), part of which involves using a rust coloured ladder bolted to the mountain face and going down, and down into the thicket.
It’s a long way down, but worth it - as long as you don’t think too hard about the ascend.
Back in Lijiang, after the hike I enjoy the quaintness of the old-town.
I have to say that the whole trip to Tiger Leaping Gorge was the real highlight of my time in China. I love to hike, but the breathtaking scenery is unforgettable. Lijiang shows so much charm with it’s narrow streets and streams, despite it’s touristic feel and prices - I even get to enjoy a typical Naxi dance and enjoy some local cuisine before getting sick with a cough.
While I recover, look at some pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/14859193@N07/sets/72157636277659735/