China Day 6-8 Tiger Leaping Gorge

After a short bus ride from Lijiang to Qiatou (small town near the Gorge) we travelled to the start of our 3 day trek through the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

This Gorge is approx 15km in length and is a contender for the worlds deepest river canyon. It is located where the Yangtze river passes between the 5,596m Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (which still had lots of snow on it) and the 5,396m Haba Xueshan (which also was still snow capped)... making it quite chilly.

It is named such because legend says that to escape from a hunter, a tiger jumped across the river at its narrowest point (which is still 25m).

We took the high road which entails walking up and down a series of peaks, most of which were on Day 1. This route is approx 22km. 

Along the way we stayed at the “Halfway House” and “Tina’s Guest house” which are trekking huts owned and run by the Naxi people (the local minority group). The Halfway house is famous for its views, especially from the toilet! Although it has to be said that this view makes for a very cold toilet encouter :-)!!

On Day 2, after quite a short 2h walk between guest houses, we took a little side track down into the Gorge to the river’s edge. This was a very steep descent but well worth it! The views were amazing! The Yangtze at this time of year is also stunning. Apparently in summer it is a lot deeper and turns quite a muddy colour. The ascent was also an experience to say the least! To get back up the climb included 2 cliff face ladders. Yes, steel ladders somehow attached to the rock without any safety rails - the idea was slightly concerning. The first ladder was about 20-30m long and the 2nd only about 10m. However we made it and were grateful to reach the road back to the guest house after the 1.5h steep climb back up.

Unfortunately to leave the gorge we had to go by bus due to construction and subsequent landslides which made it to dangerous to walk.

We then changed buses and travelled back to Lijiang for another night.

China Day 5 Lijiang

This morning we took the bus from Dali to Lijiang, still within the Yunnan Province.

Lijiang is a very popular tourist destination for Chinese tourists so the old town itself is very well kept and obviously continually refurbished. In saying that it is still very pleasant to walk around.

China Day 4 Dali

Most of today was spent bike riding through Dali and a little fishing village on the lake. We stopped for lunch at a friend of our tour guides home - this was the best meal so far!!

Oh and Dali Beer is the best beer in China!

China Day 3 Dali

We arrived in Dali at 0430, 2h ahead of schedule. Thankfully we were able to go straight to our guest house and climb into bed for a couple of hours of warmth and rest.

Our guest house was situated a short walk from the old town walls. Our street was lined with little alcove shops which were predominantly woodworking shops... so as you can imagine... Jack was in heaven! Each shop appeared to be slightly different in its function. There were chair makers, then carvers, then polishers etc.

The old town was touristy but still quaint with cobbled streets lined with shops.

The afternoon was spent horseriding up into the mountains that surround Dali - the poor horses were exhausted by the time we reached the top! We climbed to an altitude of ~2300m to a temple. Interestingly on the way up the mountain we noticed lots of graves/ headstones. This is apparently a common practice because of Chinese fengshui - it is good fengshui to have a mountain to your back and to look out over water. (The other side of Dali is an extremely large [100km dam] inland lake). It was a great afternoon but our bottoms were very happy to be off the horses by the time the day was over.

China Day 2 Kunming

We looked around Kunming over the following day and tried our first street stall food - Meat skewers - which were meant to be beef but we were not convinced.... they tasted great though and we have lived to tell the story :-).

Our second night in China was spent on the infamous Chinese Sleeper trains in a 6 Berth Cabin (bunks 3 high on each wall). I think the poor chinese people who were in our cabin were wondering what they had done wrong to score 4 very large backpacks + 4 Day packs in the tiny cramped cabin.

China Day 1 Kunming

We arrived at our hotel in Kunming after a long but relatively pleasant journey to discover that we could not access our blog site or Facebook due to government restrictions on internet use.

We met our group for the next 22days which consisted of 7 Aussies and 2 Poms, plus our chinese Tour guide, so there was no chance of being homesick!

No Access In China

Unfortunately due to incredibly strict communication restrictions here in The Peoples Republic of China, we are unable to update our page until after the 22nd March. We are still contactable via email, however we cannot access Facebook at this time. Talk to you all in 3 weeks, have fun.