Feats of Amazing Ability (For a Tiger and Me)

Well I finally left Dali and it took some effort due to the holiday. (New Year's apparently lasts 15 days and so I'm going to be inconvenienced until the end of my trip) But I traveled up the mountains towards Tibet to Tiger Leaping Gorge. (one of the deepest river canyons in the world, 2000meters) A beautiful and scenic area settled by the Naxi. Note the Naxi matron above. They all where blue and are once again easily identifiable by the hats. Also, something interesting (to me) they have cut their hair short (above the shoulders) all other women and general fashion in China have hair that is long enough to extend in braids down the back. But anyway, on to the Gorge.


It's only about 20km hike done over two days with guesthouses along the road. I only did the first part and then skipped out due to time. Here is the begining with the Yangtze river flowing into the gorge.

And of course the local con. People from the area follow you from the begining of the trail offering to let you ride their mule for a fee. Here is mine. He followed me and two friends for the entire first day. We did eventually give in on the hardest part of the trail (the 28 bends) but mostly I used him as my personal guide. He showed me which berries were edible (if sour) and kept us on the right trail.

Looking down at the river.
Small hamlets are scattered along the trail. People raise animals and crops on the mountain side.
And then the sun came out.
And here is the place for which the gorge was names. Supposedly a tiger escaped its pursuers by leaping across the river (to the stone in the middle) and escaped. This part of the gorge is only 25meters wide.
As I said I slept the night on the trail at the Tea Horse guesthouse. And when the rooster wouldn't shut up at 6:00am I got up and took this picture of the Jade Snow Mountains (5,000ish meters) that run along the opposite side of the gorge.
Of course there are several waterfalls that feed down into the river. This was the best one. And remember this was taken during the dry season. This area is known for mudslides during May/June.
And a look back.
So, I got to my stopping point and had the chance to climb and hour and half down straight down to see the Middle Rapids on the river. So here are trees along the river bed.
This picture doesn't capture just how massive these rapids were. (I didn't zoom in at all)
After about 10 hours of hiking I finished the gorge (or at least 3/4 of it) and headed out along my way to Shangri-la. (Yes, it exsits, as of 2001) But more on that in the next post.