Off to the Gorge!
Today was the day to head to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. We all turned in a little bit early last night, so that we could wake up early this morning and get a nice start on the gorge. We woke up before the sun was out because our plan was to leave Lijiang by 7 in the morning. Our first task was to find a place to eat breakfast. This was easy because the little alley in front of our hotel lead to a main road. On side of the road practically all of the shops were selling food and even though it was six in morning everyone had already started their work day. They were all ready to server everyone else going to work or school.
After we each had eaten our breakfasts it was time to catch a cab out to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Because of the great Chinese economy it was no more than $5 American for all of us to take a one hour cab ride into the mountains. Eventually we flagged down a cab and haggled for a reasonable fare and it was time to leave. The first thing I noticed as I stepped into the cab was the driver's accent. I thought he had a British accent at first, but later I learned that his accent was one that a lot of locals had. I still find it odd how they can end with a British accent while speaking Chinese. I can understand if they have a British or more standard accent while speaking English, but not Mandarin.
On the way to the gorge everyone took naps at one point or another. The cab driver wa s not too talkative, so it was hard to hold a long conversation with him.
At just before 9 in the morning we arrived at Qiao Tou. This is a small town at the west end of the gorge. Right now it does not even look like a town. There is a lot of construction going on. I am sure they are preparing for all the potential tourists that will come and visit the gorge in the future. We were not concerned with much other than getting on the trail, so we did not spend any time in Qiao Tou, which is really what I would recommend from the looks of things. We did concern ourselves with the map of the gorge that our cab driver had. He kept using it to help explain to us where we wanted to stay that night. We all liked the map and we almost plotted to pilfer the map, but after Aaron offered the driver money for it he ended up giving it to us.
Once we were dropped off by the school we were ready to go. The school is apparently where the trail starts. The trail head is not clearly marked and since there was no one else around to guide us we just started walking in the general direction we wanted to go. We ended up walking through a schoolyard. As we passed the school building children got up, ran to the windows and got as close to the windows as they could, so they could watch us go by and say 'Hi' to us in English. At the same time we were passing the school's basketball court. I considered challenging the kids to a game, but it probably would not have happened even if I did ask.
The walk out of Qiao Tou gave us a lot of ideas of what the trail was going to be like later on. We ended walking past people's houses and through their farms. I figure the people were either really tolerant or enjoyed all of the people walking through where they lived. On the other hand, I learned that besides the new road that was built, the trail is the main thoroughfare for people who live in the gorge to go to Qiao Tou.
One of the things that stood out for me was one of the buildings we passed. On the side somone had written 实行计划生育是基本国策. This means 'Implementing Family Planning is Basic National Policy'. This just goes to show how well the cover has been able to spread propaganda no matter how far from the capital this place is.
The walk into the gorge was by far the hardest part of the hike. We basically started at the level of the water in Qiao Tou. As we walked around the edge of the hill and into the gorge we wound our way through a few villages and past some farms. We even stayed for a few minutes at the Old Tea Horse Guest House. The woman their was very welcoming and she gabe us some pears, so we could have energy for the next part of the hike. Maybe we should have eaten them because the next part was tough. In a matter of a couple hours we had already had a vertical elevation change of a few thousand feet and most of it was in the latter half. The section containing most of the change is called 26 bends, or 29 bends or something like that. The name doesn't really matter because there are a lot more bends, maybe about 40. I am proud of everyone for making it up, especially because this was the first hike ever for everyone. MCK had an advantage because he runs cross country. I am jealous of them for picking such a great hike to be their first ever.
Once we had reached the top of 28 bends we did not have to do anymore rigorous hill climbs anymore. This was nice because we were all tired at this point. For the next couple hours we kept a pretty constant pace. We often to took breaks to enjoy the view and take photos. This part of the hike was amazing. As we worked our way further into the gorge the foliage changed. Also, the view of the opposite wall of the gorge got better and better because we were able to see more of it in either direction. The opposite wall of the gorge is almost a sheer cliff in a lot of places, so the views of it are amazing and it seems a lot large and steeper than it actually is.
In the middle of the afternoon we made it to another home on the trail. This home had been 'converted' into a place where people could stop and eat. Since we did not know where we would be stopping in the evening and since we were all hungry we decided to stop and eat lunch. I forget the name of the place, but it is easy to find. It is between the Old Tea Horse and The Halfway House. The service is good and the views are great. The menus are made of bamboo sticks, which adds to the atmosphere, but I am not sure whether that was intentional. Also, according to a fellow hiker we met with later in the trip, there is pot plant growing on the premises as well. Maybe that is why the green tea is soo good.
After a nice lunch that filled us all up, but was not too greasy we decided to head out. We would have liked to have stayed and chatted with another group of Chinese people who had chatted with us during lunch, but we were not so excited about the prospects after she had told us to meet her and her female friends next we were in town.
After a few hours of navigating the trail we ended up at the Halfway House. This was not before we got lost a couple times trying to find the right path. Even though there are painted signs a long the trail. When we reached a critical point in the trail it always seemed as if the painted rocks we needed to look for were always smalled than the rest and that you had to choose a path before you knew if it was right. Only after seeing a few more painted rocks did we know the path we chose was right. Another comfort were the suddens booms were heard every once in a while. Just like the rest of China even the Tiger Leaping Gorge is undergoing amazing fast development. While we were hiking there were workers blowing off sides of the hill, so they could dig up big rocks and use them to build other things. What those other things were I have no idea. It was nice to see those workers on the hill above the trail trying to work rocks free with sticks and other tools, but we didn't realize what they were doing until we walked around the bend and saw all the boulders on the trail. This made me a little scared because it did not look like they were taking any safety precautions. It make the hike exciting right?
In the late afternoon we reached The Halfway House and decided to stay there for the evening. It was quite an evening.
After we each had eaten our breakfasts it was time to catch a cab out to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Because of the great Chinese economy it was no more than $5 American for all of us to take a one hour cab ride into the mountains. Eventually we flagged down a cab and haggled for a reasonable fare and it was time to leave. The first thing I noticed as I stepped into the cab was the driver's accent. I thought he had a British accent at first, but later I learned that his accent was one that a lot of locals had. I still find it odd how they can end with a British accent while speaking Chinese. I can understand if they have a British or more standard accent while speaking English, but not Mandarin.
On the way to the gorge everyone took naps at one point or another. The cab driver wa s not too talkative, so it was hard to hold a long conversation with him.
At just before 9 in the morning we arrived at Qiao Tou. This is a small town at the west end of the gorge. Right now it does not even look like a town. There is a lot of construction going on. I am sure they are preparing for all the potential tourists that will come and visit the gorge in the future. We were not concerned with much other than getting on the trail, so we did not spend any time in Qiao Tou, which is really what I would recommend from the looks of things. We did concern ourselves with the map of the gorge that our cab driver had. He kept using it to help explain to us where we wanted to stay that night. We all liked the map and we almost plotted to pilfer the map, but after Aaron offered the driver money for it he ended up giving it to us.
Once we were dropped off by the school we were ready to go. The school is apparently where the trail starts. The trail head is not clearly marked and since there was no one else around to guide us we just started walking in the general direction we wanted to go. We ended up walking through a schoolyard. As we passed the school building children got up, ran to the windows and got as close to the windows as they could, so they could watch us go by and say 'Hi' to us in English. At the same time we were passing the school's basketball court. I considered challenging the kids to a game, but it probably would not have happened even if I did ask.
The walk out of Qiao Tou gave us a lot of ideas of what the trail was going to be like later on. We ended walking past people's houses and through their farms. I figure the people were either really tolerant or enjoyed all of the people walking through where they lived. On the other hand, I learned that besides the new road that was built, the trail is the main thoroughfare for people who live in the gorge to go to Qiao Tou.
One of the things that stood out for me was one of the buildings we passed. On the side somone had written 实行计划生育是基本国策. This means 'Implementing Family Planning is Basic National Policy'. This just goes to show how well the cover has been able to spread propaganda no matter how far from the capital this place is.
The walk into the gorge was by far the hardest part of the hike. We basically started at the level of the water in Qiao Tou. As we walked around the edge of the hill and into the gorge we wound our way through a few villages and past some farms. We even stayed for a few minutes at the Old Tea Horse Guest House. The woman their was very welcoming and she gabe us some pears, so we could have energy for the next part of the hike. Maybe we should have eaten them because the next part was tough. In a matter of a couple hours we had already had a vertical elevation change of a few thousand feet and most of it was in the latter half. The section containing most of the change is called 26 bends, or 29 bends or something like that. The name doesn't really matter because there are a lot more bends, maybe about 40. I am proud of everyone for making it up, especially because this was the first hike ever for everyone. MCK had an advantage because he runs cross country. I am jealous of them for picking such a great hike to be their first ever.
Once we had reached the top of 28 bends we did not have to do anymore rigorous hill climbs anymore. This was nice because we were all tired at this point. For the next couple hours we kept a pretty constant pace. We often to took breaks to enjoy the view and take photos. This part of the hike was amazing. As we worked our way further into the gorge the foliage changed. Also, the view of the opposite wall of the gorge got better and better because we were able to see more of it in either direction. The opposite wall of the gorge is almost a sheer cliff in a lot of places, so the views of it are amazing and it seems a lot large and steeper than it actually is.
In the middle of the afternoon we made it to another home on the trail. This home had been 'converted' into a place where people could stop and eat. Since we did not know where we would be stopping in the evening and since we were all hungry we decided to stop and eat lunch. I forget the name of the place, but it is easy to find. It is between the Old Tea Horse and The Halfway House. The service is good and the views are great. The menus are made of bamboo sticks, which adds to the atmosphere, but I am not sure whether that was intentional. Also, according to a fellow hiker we met with later in the trip, there is pot plant growing on the premises as well. Maybe that is why the green tea is soo good.
After a nice lunch that filled us all up, but was not too greasy we decided to head out. We would have liked to have stayed and chatted with another group of Chinese people who had chatted with us during lunch, but we were not so excited about the prospects after she had told us to meet her and her female friends next we were in town.
After a few hours of navigating the trail we ended up at the Halfway House. This was not before we got lost a couple times trying to find the right path. Even though there are painted signs a long the trail. When we reached a critical point in the trail it always seemed as if the painted rocks we needed to look for were always smalled than the rest and that you had to choose a path before you knew if it was right. Only after seeing a few more painted rocks did we know the path we chose was right. Another comfort were the suddens booms were heard every once in a while. Just like the rest of China even the Tiger Leaping Gorge is undergoing amazing fast development. While we were hiking there were workers blowing off sides of the hill, so they could dig up big rocks and use them to build other things. What those other things were I have no idea. It was nice to see those workers on the hill above the trail trying to work rocks free with sticks and other tools, but we didn't realize what they were doing until we walked around the bend and saw all the boulders on the trail. This made me a little scared because it did not look like they were taking any safety precautions. It make the hike exciting right?
In the late afternoon we reached The Halfway House and decided to stay there for the evening. It was quite an evening.
posted by Jon Keto at
10:28 PM
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