China Day 10, 11: Tiger Leaping Gorge

Finally! Arrival at the Tiger Leaping Gorge. My whole reason for coming to China, because if I don't see it now, will I ever get the chance? In a matter of time, the Tiger Leaping Gorge may be no more -- the country has plans to build a dam which will flood more than 13,000 hectares of farmland and force between 100,000 and one million people (Naxis, mostly) out of their homes. The Tiger Leaping Gorge will be flooded and the amazing trek will cease to be anything more than a lake.

Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of those classic treks that any backpacker in China is pretty much obligated to do, but it's also a ton of fun. Guesthouses dot the trail and the hospitality is great -- green tea, Naxi sandwiches (YUM), welcoming hosts, friendly backpackers, and even apple pies for those who miss the delightful taste of mom's home cooking. (And the apple pies were pretty damn delicious.) And OH! the views! At one point the trail curved into a U-shape and you were sandwiched between two cliffs on either side, and with the view onto the other side of the gorge the effect was to really make your stomach turn (but in a fantastically good way). There was an illusion which made it seem like the two mountains on either side of the gorge were moving away from each other... it was very cool and very hypnotic. And you could feel the g-forces between the two massive mountains... maybe it was all in my head, but it was really, really cool.

The hike itself was said to be very strenuous, but after Kawa Karpo Tiger Leaping Gorge was a breeze. The only thing that killed me was my leg -- if we didn't take it pretty slow I probably would have fallen off the cliff and into the gorge. One part in particular -- "28 Bends," as they call it -- is the most difficult part. You twist and turn (yes, 28 times) up and up the mountain side until you reach the highest part of the trek at 2670 meters. We had spent the night at Naxi Family Guest House so we made it up to here pretty early in the morning.

Trek on, stop here and there for tea and apple pie, and to experience "Number One Toilet on Heaven and Earth," which, if it hadn't been so cloudy, would have given us an amazing view of YuLong Snow Mountain on the other side of the gorge as we did our business. We finally make it to Walnut Garden around 5:00 or so, throw down our bags, drink some happy tea and relax.

The beer flows, the food is good, and we talk and play cards with the other backpackers who have made it to the end of the trek. China is over, and my journey has come to its end.

Map of Meili Snow Mountain / Kawa Karpo Trek

Here's a map of the Kawa Karpo trek that we picked up at Kunming Youth Hostel. The times pretty accurate but of course it depends on how fast you hike, how long you stop for tea, how many photos you take, etc. We didn't have time to make it to the glacier or to the lake, unfortunately... I guess I'll just have to go back someday!

China Day 9: Lijiang

James and I awoke the next morning -- bright and early, as usual -- to catch the first bus back to Lijiang. We took a break at our favorite pit stop and got some more strawberries and seasoned potato kabobs. When we arrived in Lijiang we were instantly approached by a tall, thin woman of about 50 who showed us to a nice little hotel hidden in the maze of streets, where we threw down our bags for the night.

I took some time to explore Lijiang -- a serious maze of Naxi architecture and cobbled streets which will inevitably lead you to get lost. It took me 30 minutes just to find the hotel, and the whole town is probably less than a square mile in area. A UNESCO World Heritage site (for its architecture), Lijiang is FULL of Chinese tourists. I mean HORDES AND HORDES of Chinese tourists. I saw less than 10 white people the entire time I was there. Granted it was a holiday and many Chinese had a few days off, I don't doubt that on a typical day it's much less crowded.

The massive tour groups with their neon hats and the guide holding a flag takes away quite a bit of the charm of an old town, but Lijiang grows on you after a while. It certainly hasn't got the uniqueness of Dali or the serenity of Shangri-La, but it does have a quaint personality with lots of ancient influence. There are still tons of stores selling song bowls, prayer wheels, and typical Tibetan antiques and jewelery, but also several tea shops, artistry shops (and even a gallery or two), and, the most interesting, are several shops which carve personalized stamps -- square ones to use with red ink, as an artist's signature on a brush painting.

We stayed in Lijiang for one evening, and packed up the next morning to jump on a bus to Tiger Leaping Gorge...