Formed by the Yangtze River in the Himalayan foothills, Tiger Leaping Gorge is wedged between two massive snow-capped mountains and is one of the deepest gorges in the world, about 6,560 ft. (2000m) from the river to the peak of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Xueshan), which is 18,354 ft. high (5596m). I walked along the path that winds its way along the gorge and gets quite high up, giving some great views of the gorge and the mountains surrounding it. The trail is called 24 Bends Trail for it's long set of switchbacks up to the highest point on the trail. In addition to the evolving scenery of the gorge, little villages, farmland terraces, and guesthouses dot the path, giving it a little an extra charm. While not as pristine as the national parks in New Zealand or the US (due to a wire running along the path and a road far below along the river), it is nonetheless one of the most spectacular sights I've experienced and an awesome way to spend a few days. One oddity I found quite enjoyable was that the bathrooms at the guesthouse I stayed at had open walls looking out over the gorge. A pretty nice view for a toilet. Anyways, here are the pictures, divided by the day that I took them and comments on the weather (because I have no other means of dividing them up), which you will see changed a lot. 
At the start it was cloudy:
Then it started raining:
Suddenly, it got clear:
Then it started raining:
Then it was sunny again:
Then once again it got cloudy:
Interesting, huh? Well, the pictures are cool, at least.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Details:
I booked my transportation to Qiaotou, the starting point, through my hostel, Mama Naxi's ($3/20¥). They drop you off at Jane's Guesthouse after buying tickets ($6.50/50¥ or $3.50/25¥ for students). Keep going on the road for another 150m or so and to your left will be a little trail with a red arrow on the wall next to it pointing you to Naxi Guesthouse. Just keep following the red arrows pointing you to the next guesthouse along the way. They'll be painted on rocks, trees, signs, buildings, whatever, it isn't too hard to find the right way. Leaving from Lijiang at 8:30 will get you to the gorge around 11:00. The first part is a gradual uphill and after a few hours you will get to the base of the 24 Bends, which is a tough hour worth of hiking. Before this point, the scenery is decidedly unspectacular. But from here out, it is amazing and a rather easy hike. It took me 3.5 hours to get to Tea Horse Guesthouse, reportedly the best and roughly halfway, but I felt like hiking more so I kept on to Halfway House, about a 5 hour hike, though I do walk faster than most. I stayed the night at Halfway House ($3/20¥) though it is only about 1 hour to the end from here, if you choose to end at Tina's Guesthouse, like I did. The trail does go a litle further to Walnut Garden but I just decided to end there so I could carpool back to Qiaotou with some people I met. You can go down to the waterside at Tina's, though I didn't. It is also possible to get back to Lijiang by continuing on across the river to Daju, though the bus service is less frequent than from Qiaotou (which is along the Shangri La - Lijiang road). Anyways, once at Tina's, which is alongside the road paralleling the river, you can either wait for 6 people to come and call a taxi ($3/20¥ per person), or just sit alongside the road and a local may pick you up and drive you back to Qiaotou for a small fare ($1.50/10¥). This trip takes about an hour. Once in Qiaotou, either jump in a minivan and wait for it to fill up ($3.50/25¥) or wait for the local bus to pass through and flag it down from the main road ($3/20¥). This takes about 3 hours but be prepared for people smoking on the bus. Once back in Lijiang, you may be able to walk back into Old Town, depending on the bus station they leave you at, use the hills as landmarks, or just call Mama.
No comments:
Post a Comment