Great Firewall of China Part 12: Tiger Leaping Gorge

9/15 Took a minibus to Qiaotou where the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trek
starts and in the Shangri-La area (this area is originally named
shangri-la after the mythical place in some englishmen's book;
however, china now has many places called shangri-la as they bring in
the tourists bills). Clare and Kim had done this trek a couple of
winters ago and recommended it to me. It did not disappoint. There
were quite a few westerners in the minibus (about 16) so we had to
take two.: me, richard and sally, and the rest were Israelis. The
Israelis were all over Lijiang. Apparently this is a big time for
Jewish holidays, so many of the students and young people take off,
and that is why there are so many. Sally and Richard orginally got
into my bus, but sally was arguing and complaining and yelling at
Richard for something to switch into another bus, so they did. I
wasn't too sad about this b/c I didn't want to be around whiney and
complaining and moaning sally for the trek. This meant that I trekked
with a group of 4 Israelis (2 couples all from Tel Aviv, but had met
randomly at Emei Shan mountain). So the group I trekked with were
Itamar, Ayelet, Ehud, and Miriam. Though at different lunch and
dinner spots it was a big Israeli affair with about 14 of us. I
always love travelling with the Israelis bc they are always less shy
and more outgoing and are a lot of fun. And possibly the closest to
Americans (other than canadians) that you find, so it always seems
quite familiar. And now that I know a bit more about Israel and it's
foods and nuances and such it's even more fun bc I can join in on the
jokes.

Tiger Leaping gorge is carved out by the Yangtze river. It claims to
be the deepest gorge in the world; however, I read a book on the great
canyons in which it is the 3rd deepest behind one in tibet and one in
nepal. And for these the deepest part refers not to what the river
has carved (then the grand canyon would be) but to the distance
between the highest point and the deepest part of the gorge. Tiger
Leaping gorge is flanked on both side by 18,000 foot mountains, and
the bottom of the gorge is at 7000 feet, so it is quite the drop.
During the trek; however, you are obviously not on top of the
mountains, but about 2 to 3,000 feet above the river at your highest
point. The first day we hiked about 8 hours, gaining lots of
elevation (from river level to 3000 feet above) to arrive at a Tibetan
tea house in the village of Bendiwan (I am now getting close to tibet
so there is a lot of tibetan influence and tibetan people here). It
had rained all night in Lijiang and the whole 3 hour bus ride there,
so it was looking bleak; however, the rain held off for all of the 8
hours except for a bit of a rain for 1 hour that wasn't too heavy.
Unfortunately bc it was cloudy I couldn't see the top of the "snow"
mountains as they are called here, which was disappointing to me bc
they would be the 2nd highest mountains I had ever seen in my life
behind kilimanjaro. However, the rain wasn't without it's benefits.
Looking across the gorge to the mountain through the clouds and mist
you could see lots and lots of waterfalls just falling from the rocks
and some seemingly falling from the clouds onto clouds. It was
gorgeous and truly breathtaking. You've seen those drawings where
large waterfalls tumble from nearly the tops of mountains and you
think it is impossible bc the water table or enough snow can't be up
there, but here it was (or so it seemed, actually since several
thousand feet of the mountain were hidden, it looked like the falls
were falling from the top, but instead from about a quarter of the way
down; however, it still had the sweet effect! The river itself was
raging far below, and instead of the clear that is often is, it was a
roliing muddy brown river, making lots of noise. The canyon itself
was quite picturesque. The walls were incredibly steep, and the
mountain continued straight up. And of course all the waterfalls you
could see across the canyon and the watefalls coming in on the side we
were hiking. The mountains in china seem to have an overall much
greater steepness than the rockies back home. They are steep like the
continental divide and longs peak are when you get to 11,000 feet, but
here they are that crazy steepness, if we are to keep using longs as
an example, as if longs was as steep as it is from 11,000 to 14,000
feet now, it would be that steep from 7500 feet to 14,000ft. or from
estes to the peak instead of the gradual build it has now. So these
incredibly steep mountains really add to the beauty. Of course along
the trek there were cool tiny villages using only mules for transport
and looking down on the gorge. That night our guesthouse had the
sweetest view of the big mountain and perhaps one of the top 10 toilet
views I have ever had. You were looking out over the big mountains
and feeling like you were peeing down into the river from 2000 feet
up. That night we had a fun meal with all the Israelis and there was
a bit of moaning and desiring for some good humus, pita, and schwarma!
I, however, have no complaints about the chinese food. It is so
tasty! Don't know how I'll ever eat chinese back home again!

9/16 Relaxed a bit in the morning and waited for all the mist to rise
before setting out for the last several hours to the "end" of the
tiger leaping gorge trek. At this village, everyone was taking a
minibus back to Qiaotao and then on to Lijiang. As I would much
rather be out in the wild than back in the city, I had planned an
extra day in the gorge. The trek to the endpoint, was very nice and
scenic as well with several more waterfalls falling down to the trail.
So after a lunch with the Israelis, I said goodbye, and then did a
hike that went the remaining 1000+ feet to the bottom of the gorge to
the river itself. Of course more sweet views and waterfalls and some
quite fun, long and blood pumping ladders you needed to descend to
get to the bottom. At the bottom was a huge rock in the middle of the
river that is called tiger leaping stone where the tiger apparently
had escaped some hounds to make it to safety across the river. The
tiger is one incredible leaper if it was able to do it with this much
water coming through. Needless to say the rapids down there at the
bottom were exhilerating. You could go right up on some huge boulders
next to them and really feel there power. It was quite a rush to just
stand there and here the water and see it churn. Actually gave me
quite a chill it was so powerful, and even made me nervous (all though
it was totally safe) to be so close, though I have a bit of a fear of
big rapids in water. I then continued on a path, now in the a
drizzle, that went along the water and a cliff edge for a while to
reach the village of walnut garden where I found a guesthouse. I of
course was the only westerner in the village as everyone else had
headed back to Lijiang. After checking in I walked several more km's
to the true end of the gorge. The weather was clearing a bit and I
could see quite a ways higher up the big mountains now. And I even
saw the moon! I had missed the moon and stars.

9/17 Instead of taking the minvan back to Qioutou, I decided to walk
the 27kms back via the lower road, which is a tiny road (often closed
due to landslides and mudslides (which I did see recent remnants of
everywhere) that the minivans use to bring the tourists back. First I
took something called the ancient path to go from walnut garden back
to the place where I had said goodbye to the Israelis. This was a
sweet hike that went up really high in the gorge on a trail that was
difficult to follow. At times I lost it, which made me a bit nervous,
not because I was lost, but bc I was on a bit of a time constraint as
I had to get to Q-tou by 4:30 at the latest to catch a bus so that I
could get my already booked night bus to kunming to catch my already
booked train to chengdu. But I managed to make my way following and
not following the trail, going by some more sweet waterfalls, past
orchards of tasty apples, and into bamboo forests. At one point I was
descending into a steep side canyon where I could hear the water
rushing below. I saw a washed out bridge and thought I was in trouble
and would have to turn back, but it had apparently been washed out
last year and there was a new one. From there it wasn't far back to
where I had said goodbye to the isrealis the previous day. Had a
breakfast there, then continued on along the low road. The low road
was also nice, with closer views of the river and with waterfalls
crashing down from above. At the entrance of the gorge is a monstrous
rapid. I took the trail to make it the 700 or so feet down to the
bottom to the viewing platform. The stairs were a bit sketchy as all
the wood had been taken out, so you had to monkeybar your way down.
But eventually the stairs disappeared as they had been taken out by a
landslide. I went back up but noticed a bit further down some
construction workers. They were working on the new trail, and though
it was officially closed, they didn't say anything to the foreigner
going down. So again, I got to make it down to the viewing platform
that sat right up against the huge rapids. These rapids made the last
ones seem like a ripple!! They were so intense!! And the platform
was right on them, so the spray was in your face, the noise deafening.
I couldn't imagine even trying to raft these. It really got my heart
racing. But at the same time they were so cool, to see that kind of
power, feel that force. Like water force I had never seen. So I sad
down and had my lunch of Yak jerkey. Even with that detour I made it
back to Qi-tou by 3:30. Had a quick shower and dinner in Lijiang and
then caught the sleeper bus (bed was about 5 ft. 5, so not too bad in
the end) to Kunming.

9-18 We (richard, sally, and I) arrived in Kunming around 6am and
caught the train (hard sleeper) to Chengdu around 11am. China is, I
think, one of the most beautiful countries I have travelled in (right
up there with Canada and the US), so train and bus rides are never
boring. I love mountains and rivers and canyons and these are not in
short supply in China. It's also nice to pass by the rural village
life of china and see how life carries on there. Most of the
attractions in China are away from the village and rural areas and
have been built up, so you don't get to see it much unless you are on
the train or bus. Today was the first day I had seen unadultered sun
since Mongolia. Although it was till half cloudy, it still felt
great. It was sunny in Bejing, but the sun was hidden behind smog and
since then it has been cloudy everyday. In fact it has rained
everyday since I left Beijing. I am hoping for more sun in Tibet as
it's a high altitude desert where I will be visiting, but the climate
seems to be crazy across asia right now with massive flooding all
around and droughts in other areas.

9-19 Arrived into Chengdu in the province of Sichuan around 7am.
Checked into my hostel and did some errands around smoggy Chengdu (15
million people live here). My trusty japanese umbrella broke, so I
need to get a new, probably poor quality chinese one (the japanese one
which I bought in 2008 survived a whole year in SE asia). I consider
the umbrella to be one of the most underrated travel accessories.
Most of the westerners tromp around in their fancy goretex, but get
just as wet as if they didn't have anything bc they sweat so much in
them. The umbrella keeps you and your bag dry, and allows for
airflow. Keep it in mind if you ever go to a wet and tropical clime.
Also going to the guesthouse today to make sure my tibet trip is all
properly planned out. Tonight I will likely have some of the infamous
spicy (very spicy) hotpots of Sichuan.

Tomorrow I will leave for jiuzhaigou national park and then on to
Huanglong np for a 4 day trip to northern Sichuan before coming back