Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Tiger Leaping Gorge


Tiger Leaping Gorge
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

From Lijiang, I took a bus (13 RMB) to Qiaotao, about 80 minutes north, on the other side of the snowy peaks.
Qiaotao serves as the trailhead for the Tiger Leaping Gorge trek, a three to four-day trek along one of the deepest gorges in the world. There are two trails, one low and one high one. I took the high one. I hiked downstream above the Yangtze River. There weren't too many hikers on the trail. The views were breathtaking and the guesthouses on the way were the most genuinely hospitable guesthouses I have encountered in China. There are guesthouses every few kilometers from where you can buy drinks or snacks. It costs 30 RMB to enter the gorge, but a student id card gets you half off. There are several places at the beginning of the trek that have hand-drawn maps to lead you astray, I mean, on your way.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now THIS sounds like another thing we'd love to do someday... when the kid is old enough to carry his own stuff. How much Chinese do you need to know to get by with the guesthouses?

PJK Wells