Shanghai'd

Lijiang to Tiger Leaping Gorge

I love how the Chinese plan the holidays so that 3 times a year, you get a full 7 days break. The last of these national holidays was May 1, or Labor Day. This time it fell on a Monday and after working the previous Saturday and Sunday, most of China enjoyed May 1-7 for a holiday. Unfortunately, this means that all of China was traveling last week. But that's the way it works. We planned to visit Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province in South West China.

We flew into Lijiang Monday morning. There was no indication that the whole country was on the move. We had no issue getting a taxi and the airport was a breeze. We had a short connection in Kunming and were in Lijiang by midday. Our plan for this trip was to spend 1 night in Lijiang's Old town followed by 2 nights in the gorge then back to Lijiang. Lijiang's old town has traditional Naxi style construction, is completely pedestrian (no motor bikes even!) and is surrounded by a more typical new town. Our first task was to get bus tickets to Qiaotou. For this effort we had a helpful university English major guide, who was overjoyed at the English name Charlie we gave him. We planned a bus for the next morning at 8:30, and then went in for a nap. The real shock came that night, when we went out for dinner and found the streets PACKED with people. Like Nanjing Lu on New Years packed. But there was no shortage of restaurants to serve us and we had dinner to some softball style cheers going on across the river. Every shop front was selling souvenirs. There were speakers blaring a traditional song to which hundreds of tourists mimicked a Naxi circular dance - for hours. We really had to get out.


The next morning dawned and we were out in the now empty streets. This town is really beautiful without the million people. We made it onto the bus and had a typical ride 2 hours (drive along construction laden street through ditch to find gas, stop at side of road to fill radiator with hose, visit side of road souvenir stand with 1000 other buses, request 30 yuan bribery money from each passenger to avoid the 50 yuan park fee - that saved us 20 yuan and prevented any money from getting to the people who actually take care of the trail!) to reach the start of the hike.

We set off with about 15 Chinese and 4 other foreigners. A far cry from the million people in Lijiang. The truth is, this place is gorgeous. We had clear skies, a view of the Yulong Shan (Jade Dragon Mountain), the muddy Yangzi Jiang below us, a pack on our back, and miles of trail before us. This is a holiday. There are, of course, lots of ways to see this and avoid hiking. You can ride a horse the length of the trail (wearing high heels and carrying a leather bag - no less!). You can take a low road bus and view it from the parking lots. Up on the high trail there are guesthouses along the way to feed you and provide a bed and shower. A little posh, but hey this is vacation.


The hike starts out climbing until a middle high point of ~2500m, then descends to the 'end' a small gathering of guesthouses called Walnut Garden, and is about 25km in length. Our plan was to get to the end the first day, then day hike the next before getting back to the action in Lijiang! However, the erratic bus ride that took 4 hours instead of 2 and the terrible heat slowed us down a bit and we were convinced to stop after 4 hours at the Cha Ma (Tea Horse) guesthouse along the way. We made friends with the 4 other waiguoren on our trek, 2 Americans and 2 British, enjoyed some beer and, eventually, dinner. The next day was downhill mostly. We arrived with the 2 British to Walnut Garden around 2pm, realized that the owner, Sean, at the guest house we had planned on staying at (Seans, you'll see it in every China travel book) was kind of a prick and moved to this gorgeous new place, the Tibet guesthouse for the night. Our window showed a view of the mountains, and we were within walking distance of the "cause of the story" - the actual place where the Tiger Leaped! Or is it Leapt!

In any case, we were convinced by the friendly guesthouse family, the view and the 1 million tourists awaiting us in Lijiang to stay another day. We made it out down to the rock and got to check out some awesome rapids in a spot where the gorge narrows to just a few meters. A 'dangerous' sky ladder leads out of the gorge and we planned returning to Lijiang. But the weather was cooperating, and the clear mountain air was reviving us after a few months in Shanghai. We were in no hurry to get back. At this point we barely saw anyone else on the trail, and we were getting used to it. We decided to take 2 more days. We traveled back along the trail, stopping over night in a small family run guesthouse with only a few other hikers. By the fifth day, we had to get back to Lijiang to catch our flight. And so we hiked out to Qiaotou.


The bus back to Lijiang was not quite as eventful as the one out. We ended up on a minibus with 5 smoking Chinese men that were hauling huge nylon bags back filled with who knows what. We made it back actually in 2 hours! and found a place to stay at the top of the hill in Lijiang. We spent the last day eating and visiting the not to be missed tourist attractions and photo shoots of Lijiang - a recently built massive pagoda and the photo op of the east, the Black Dragon Pool. Less than 24 hours in Lijiang completed our vacation in Yunnan and we were off to Shanghai.

But the trip was not over yet! Awaiting us in Shanghai were the crowds we had missed on the way out of town. There was the 45-minute serpentine line for a taxi ("That's a 10k!", Tim commented), there were the drivers targeting foreigners, with a $10 mark-up for an immediate ride home. The air was not clear, but not cloudy. We did end up in a cab that stopped for gas and where the cabbie was on her mobile the whole ride and the bloody transportation card wouldn't work... But there was neon, and noise. We were home.