Tiger Leaping Gorge
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2006
1
16
32
Trip End
Jun 28, 2007
Qiau Tou,
China
Thursday, September 21, 2006
As I was checking out of the hostel, a Chinese guy (Jimmy) overheard me telling the receptionist that I was going to Tiger Leaping Gorge and that I wanted to leave my big rucksack at the hostel. He spoke very good English and as it happened he was heading to the gorge to, so we headed for the bus together. He sorted my ticket out for me, and after a brief wait we were on the bus. As usual I headed straight for the middle back seat so that I could stretch out my long legs, but as the bus was full, I was squashed between a big fat Chinese guy and a small Chinese lady. The bus climbed up through the surrounding mountains, overtaking on blind corners and veering all over the road, but that's just the way the Chinese drive. Perhaps they have some kind of 6th sense for driving? Who knows? I made it to Qiau Tou in one piece and that's all that counts really, feeling like I just ridden the Nemesis in Alton Towers!
We bought our ticket from the ticket booth and headed up to the path to begin the trek. Jimmy had intended on leaving his big rucksack in a hotel in Qiau Tou but as we got a taken to the ticket booth by a free shuttle bus (pointless really as it was only about 200m), he didn't have chance.
It was a pretty easy to start with, winding up through the corn plantations, all the while being followed by a young lad on a donkey.
Almost at the bottom
He was a 'Sherpa', but neither myself of Jimmy wanted to use him, but he continued to follow us regardless. I'm sure he'd done the walk hundreds of times and was just waiting for one of us to give in and let him carry our bag, but me and Jimmy were motoring up the hill, surrounded by some of the most dramatic views I've seen in China; shear rock faces climbing high out of the gorge, the tops of the mountains dusted with snow. The view was breathtaking, and it simply got better the further up we climbed.We stopped for lunch at the Naxi Guesthouse, about 2 hours into the trek. After a big feed on some really good, home cooked food, including my favourite- Eggplant, we continued the trek upwards. Jimmy gave into the kid with the donkey and gave him his rucksack to carry to the top, which was still a long way off and a very steep climb.
The sun was beating down and the temperature was roasting, suffice to say sweat was pouring off me. It didn't get any easier when we reached the "28 bends" which twist there way up a incredibly steep part of the mountain. We stopped several times on the way up as it was just too exhausting; I was panting like a dog in the midday sun! But when we reached the top it was all worth it as the views down into and across the gorge were amazing, like nothing I'd seen before. We'd actually caught up with all the people who we met at the Naxi Guesthouse, even though they had left way before us, and we continued on the trek with them. The rest of the day was gentle downhill and uphill slopes, nothing too taxing, and we eventually turned up at the halfway guesthouse about 6ish, where we stopped the night to recover from the grueling day of walking.
The following day we continued our descent down to the road through the gorge, passing through woodlands, waterfalls and along cliff edges, eventually arriving at Tina's Guesthouse around lunchtime.
Check out the road bridge hundreds of feet above
The Israeli couple we were with headed back to Lijiang from here, but me and the Aussie+NZ couple climbed down the remaining few hundred metres to the rapids below. This proved to be more difficult than the trekking the day before; a small path weaving its way down with steps cut into the rock, and vertical drops into the rapids at some points. It was tiring getting down there, and the views were cool, but the climb back up was yet again grueling as ever.We headed on down the road to spend another night in the gorge, stopping at Sean's guesthouse, where I bagged the cheapest dorm bed to date - a mere Y10 (about 70p!). We grabbed some food, drank a few beers, but then this really weird American guy, who looked like a woman with long dyed hair, big earrings and tight fitting clothes joined us. He was some writer who had written several books on China, and he wouldn't shut up. The couple who I was with quickly retreated to their room and left me to humour him. I didn't last long before needing an afternoon kip, so I did one to my dorm! After food later that evening he joined us again and there was no escape, so we just sat there and put up with his stories.
The following morning we took a minibus back to Qiau Tou, before jumping on the local bus back to Lijiang.
