Dan's Adventure

With a name like Tiger Leaping Gorge you would expect there to be some elaborate story behind it, and there is. Legend has it that a tiger leapt across the Yangtze river at the narrowest point of the gorge in order to escape from a hunter. At 25 metres wide, thats a pretty ambitious claim.

A friend from back home visited China a couple of years ago and told me that the highlight of his trip was trekking along Tiger Leaping Gorge and after seeing the pictures I was determined that I too would make it there one day.

Most people head to Lijiang before Tiger Leaping Gorge which is around 2 hours away from the start point of Qiaotou. It took me a total of 24 hours to make it to Lijiang from Chengdu (14 hour train from Chengdu to Panzihua, 8 hour bus from Panzihua to Lijiang and a bit of waiting about in between) so when I called Mama Naxi’s from the bus station and was told “stay there, Mama find you” I was relieved that I would soon be able to rest. The bus ride from Panzihua to Lijiang was stunning, it was the first time I had seen the blue skies and the sun since Jaisalmer and as we drove around the hills and down into the valleys I started to like China again.

Lots of guest houses in Lijiang offer a daily shuttle to Qiaotou and Mama Naxi’s is no exception. Sometimes the guest houses where the hosts are crazy are the best ones, that certainly held true here. In Naxi culture the woman are the dominate ones in the relationship, Mama Naxi certainly has her husband whipped. Shouting at him at every opportunity. Mama Naxi’s had a real homely feel to it, on arrival I was asked “you hungry? sit down, eat” which was my invitation to join the large communal meal that she had prepared for all her guests. For only 15rmb its a great deal. Every night Mama cooks 7 or 8 dishes for everyone to share and plentiful supplies of rice. No one goes hungry. If you are sitting around during the day you will constantly be offered bananas, oranges and pancakes by Mama and her family. Over dinner it was decided that Mama would arrange to take us to Tiger Leaping Gorge the following morning at 8.30am.

9am arrived and the shout of “you go tiger now” indicated that Mama Naxi was ready to depart. The two hour journey was painful. The mini bus had no suspension so we felt every bump on the pot hole filled road. Five of us were jammed in the back whilst the front was reserved for the driver and people she decided to pick up and give lifts to on the way. Glad to be out of the van we set off down the road in search of the start of the high road trail.

Tiger Leaping Gorge has 2 paths that you can walk. The first is the low road which is concrete all of the way and has view points dotted along it. The low road is plied by tour buses. The high road begins life as a farmer’s road but soon becomes a winding trail that hugs the mountains as you go up and over them. It is used daily by the Naxi people living in the area who make their living from grain production and tourism. Only the high road is worth walking.

Tour buses stop off at various scenic points along the low road, packs of Chinese tourists get off, take a couple of pictures and get straight back onto the bus for the next scenic point. Along the high road you will be lucky to see any other tourists apart from when you stop for lunch at one of the many guest houses along the trail and stop at the end of the day. Local woman have set up huts along the trail selling water, snacks and fresh fruit, so if you don’t mind the slightly inflated prices, its a lot easier than carrying lots of supplies with you.

In total, the high road is 22km long, at times narrow, and at times a bit dodgy as one American I was with will testify to. He somehow lost his footing and ended up falling over the edge, luckily managing to hold on as he couldn’t reach anything with his feet. Cut, bruised and understandably shaken, he still managed to solider on and finish the trek. It really made me glad that we had good weather for walking it as in the rain it would be even more risky.

Getting to the middle point where the tiger supposedly leapt across is quite an adventure. The path down is very steep and at times there is a chain attached to the rock to aid your descent. The fact that the chain feels like its coming away from the rock didn’t inspire any confidence that it could support my body weight should I slip. The way back up was even more treacherous. A 20 metre vertical ladder awaited me. No safety gear, just the hope that it was properly maintained and secured to the cliff is what I had to believe as I made my way up it. Legs shaking on every rung of the ladder and sweat pouring off of my head. I may have been able to do a bungee jump, but at least then I knew there was some kind of safety device. If I fell here I would be screwed.

Two days is more than enough to complete the walk, but it would be very easy to linger for a day or two more as the scenery is spectacular. Around every corner it just gets more beautiful. Jade Dragon Snow Mountain is visible throughout and provides quite a contrast to the luscious green vegetation that we were walking through in the baking sun. Guest houses are dotted all the way along the trail so there are plenty of options for sleeping and eating.

Getting back to Lijiang can be quite costly. There are essentially 3 options. The first is the local bus which runs once daily along the low road back to Qiaotou, stopping at Walnut Garden at around 12, followed by the local bus from Qiaotou to Lijiang which costs around 25rmb. The second option is to hire a mini van for 80rmb to take you to Qiaotou where you would again need to take the local bus to Lijiang. The third option is to take the tourist mini bus run by Lisa’s guest house for 50rmb which goes all the way to Lijiang. The convenience factor swung it for me and I was on that tourist bus sleeping all the way back to Lijiang, arriving just in time for another meal at Mama Naxi’s.

Like my friend who went years before, Tiger Leaping Gorge was without doubt the highlight of my time in China. Being out in the country and being able to forget about the noise and filth of the cities was fantastic.