The Yangtze River begins as a small stream on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, commencing a journey of over 6,000 km across China and ultimately emptying into the East China Sea near Shanghai. Along the way, fed by 700 tributaries, it grows ever larger into one of the world’s great rivers, directly supporting a population of 350 million people who live along its banks and floodplains. Within Yunnan province, between Lijiang to the south and Shangri-la to the north, the Yangtze has only just begun its long eastward journey when it enters a narrow gorge created by the meeting of the Haba Mountain Range with Yulong XueShan (“Jade Dragon Snow Mountain”). This is Tiger Leaping Gorge, 20km long and 13,000 feet high from the river to the snow-capped peaks above.
We had hoped to see the Gorge on our previous trip through here in September 2007 when we were on our way to Tibet via Shangri-la. But a landslide had closed the Gorge road making it inaccessible. This time though, all roads were open and last Wednesday we took a bus from Lijiang to Qiaotou at the western end of the Gorge. We spent the night at Jane’s Tibetan Guesthouse and had dinner just down the road at the Gorged Tiger Café owned by an Australian woman Margo who came here 12 years ago and never left. We set off the following morning leaving our bags at Jane’s. The earliest stage of the hike is the hardest, rising along 34 steep switchbacks over two hours to an incredible view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain on the opposite side of the Gorge, towering over the Yangtze River far below.
We were shadowed from Qiaotou by a horseman who was obviously hoping that we would hire his horse to carry one or both of us up over the steep section. He was a pleasant man which was just as well because he insisted on following us just a step behind. His horse was fitted with bells that jingled pleasantly as we sweated and strained our way up the switchbacks. Eventually it became clear to us, and to the horseman too, that we were going to make it to the top on our own legs and the horseman forlornly turned his pony and headed back down towards Qiaotou, finally leaving us to continue alone.
We stopped for an excellent lunch at the Naxi Guesthouse, and after several more hours of walking along the undulating path high up on the northern face of the Gorge, we came to the Tea-Horse Guesthouse where we hoped to find a bed for the night. Just before reaching Tea-Horse we were overtaken by a horse-train of Korean tourists rushing down the path on their ponies in a cloud of dust and crescendo of clip-clops, bell-jangling and excited chatter. We guessed they were headed for Tea-Horse too which didn’t augur well for our chances of getting a room. But we were lucky; there was one room left and what’s more it had the feature we value the most in a Chinese hotel; an English-style toilet. It also had the luxury of an electric blanket; something we never normally use but that was heavenly that night given the biting cold air. The food and company of the Koreans and the few other tourists at the Tea-Horse was pleasant and everyone was blown away by the incredible “in your face” sunset view across the Gorge to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.
We continued eastward next morning along a descending path that was sometimes little more than a metre wide carved into the sheer hard rock cliffside, and crossed by waterfalls. Mid afternoon we arrived at Sean’s Guesthouse at Walnut Garden deep in the Gorge and at the end of the trail. We checked in and ordered some food on the balcony with a mind-blowing, intimidating view across the abyss to a sheer mountain face a thousand feet high. Photography was useless here to capture the vastness and grandeur of this sight. In the visitors’ book several hikers had written that Tiger Leaping Gorge had a bigger impact on them than the Grand Canyon. It’s certainly one of the greatest sights we’ve seen and possibly the most enjoyable hike we’ve done. We stayed at Sean’s for two days soaking up the views and we hiked down to the bottom of the Gorge to stand at the edge of the Yangtze waters surging through the Middle Rapids.
Amazingly the Chinese have blasted a narrow road into the north face of the Gorge not far above the river and it’s now possible to travel through by vehicle (that is, when landslides have not made the road impassable). We used this route on Saturday to return to Qiaotou in a minibus. It was a hairy trip, more hazardous than hiking the relatively safe high trail far above. The road has no guard rails in places and is occasionally unsealed due to past landslides. But none of this stopped our driver from overtaking on bends!!
Safely back in Qiaotou we collected our bags at Jane’s and went down to Margo’s to say goodbye. We shared a minibus back to Lijiang with a Finnish man and French woman who had also just returned from stunning Tiger Leaping Gorge.
