Halfway Guesthouse Shangri-La

Our last adventure in China was had about a week and a half ago at Tiger Leaping Gorge. It was a two day hike that came very highly recommended from every traveller who has come through this area. It was so hyped that Mike even blessed us with his company on the scenic mountain trail. I really didn't expect much because anything that makes Lonely Planet is usually crawling with tourists. I imagined we would be walking up carved stone stairs past vendors selling comemorative T-shirts and Red B...

After playing 'musical chairs' for a while in the bus to Qiaotou while people argued over whose seats were which (it hardly made much difference because the bus was clearly way too small for all of us to fit in comfortably) we set out for yet another bouncy bus ride to the start of the gorge. On arrival we were instatly mobbed by guys offering themselves and their horses for guides and rides, and more helpfully, Margo the Aussie owner of the 'Gorged Tiger Cafe', where we could dump our heavy...

Ali and I made our way to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, about three hours away from Li Jiang. We stopped at a lookout point en route to see the mighty Yu Long Mountain range (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain) and Haba Xueshan (Haba Shan) range and the gorge shrouded in the morning mist. It was a mythical image and got us quite excited. The Tiger Leaping Gorge is a 20km or so long canyon cut deep by the mighty and roaring Yangtze River (Golden Sands River or Jinsha Jiang as is locally known). While inviti...

well in china no body at all speaks English which made it interesting. also my lonely planet is illegal in china so they took that off me at. the boarder. so i a boarded a bus to Kunming and arrived at 1am then. booked in to a hostel. the next day i just checked out the town and. then got a night bus to lijiang. lijang was the base for my trek to tiger leaping gorge one of the deepest In the world. so i got of the bus in lijaing then to a guest house where i dropped of my bags and then got on...

tiger leaping gorge: we set off for the village of Qiatou the morning after from Shangri-la on a two hour bus ride south to begin our trek through the tiger leaping gorge. we left the israeli couple in Shangri-la (doesn't sound like a bad place to be left behind, huh?) as the wife was not feeling well. i think it was a combination of a cold and altitude sickness as even eunice and the canadian girl were having headaches the night before (after all, we were at 5500m above sea level ( i think t...

"You were right about one thing, Master - the negotiations were short" -- Phantom Menace We finished our lovely two day trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the most beautiful places on earth. I won't harp on about it, as the pictures speak for themselves but this was definitely one of the highlights of China. We had left our big bags in the last guesthouse at the start of the trek so each had a smaller bag with a change of clothes and a toothbrush. Some people do do this with their big b...

Everyone I met told me I had to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge. They were so right. I planned to stay 2 or 3 days and instead stayed for 4. As soon as you round the first corner into one of the world's deepest gorges, the volume of the water and the incredible height of the peaks on both sides (about 5300 m) blew me away. Timo, who I had met in Dali, and a German couple and I enjoyed clear skies and no rain, a real treat for Tiger Leaping Gorge this time of year. Along the hike I chatted with a S...

Although I said in yesterday's blog that we were off to see Lugu Lake today it seems that nature decided to conspire against us and wash away the road so, as we were on our way to breakfast, our guide Jack told us we were going to Tiger Leaping Gorge. We had a quick breakfast and then repacked as we now could only take along what we could carry. After a drive of around 2 hours we arrived at our destination town of Qiaotou and the starting point of the hike. Earlier on in our trip I spoke abou...

Dana's story...

We got up early to catch a van from our hostel to Qiatou where we were going to start our 2 day trek though Tiger Leaping Gorge. The van ride went pretty smoothly although it was hard to sleep because the driver honked his horn anytime we made a turn or he saw another vehicle or person on the road. After about 2.5 hours in the van, we made it to Qiatou and started the hike. It seemed as if we were alone on the trail. The trail is pretty well maintained but very remote s...

Our last province in China, the Yunnan, and we are back in the mountains (hardly anywhere is below 1800m) and feeling the cold winter air along with a fierce sun. The Yunnan is the only place in China where they make coffee and we're taking full advantage of it before trying the black nectar in Vietnam. The Yunnan is on every westerners tourism map and for that reason we've met loads of fellow travellers, the good thing though is that the Chinese masses stay away from the natural places in th...