Day 9 (June 28, 2014): Old Town in Lijiang City and Departure Fail

The Quick Facts

* Spent the morning touring the home of Joseph Rock, an Austrian botanist-turned-explorer that is credited with uncovering a lot of the Yunnan province to western eyes (mostly through a
series of articles in National Geographic)

* In the afternoon we toured the “old town” of Lijiang City, which is not old at all but something created in the past 15 years to spur tourism in the city

* Got to the airport for our flight back to Hong Kong – one completely mismanaged, frustrating 18 hour delay later on the part of sh*tty China East Airlines, we missed our flight to the United States and got a “bonus” day of vacation

The Good:

* Learning about the life of Joseph Rock

The Bad:

* Lijiang Old Town – it’s nice, but completely fabricated.  And, to create this old town, they pushed the local Naxi people out of their homes to the outskirts of town and cement buildings; the Naxi people still own their land in the Old Town and now act as landlords to the various shops and restaurants – they are apparently content with this situation because it’s lucrative but I do find it a shame the town could only be restored by forcing these people out of their homes

* 18 hour flight delay and China Eastern Airlines (never fly them!)

Our last day (or so we thought).  Not too many pictures but here
are a few of the “old town” of Lijiang.  Definitely neat to visit, but you only need a couple hours (which is all Frank smartly budgeted).

 

The visit done, our goodbyes to Frank and Mr. Yung said, we headed into the airport for what was yet another adventure to come.

Here was the original plan:

Saturday 6 PM: Fly to Hong Kong

Saturday 8:30 PM: Arrive in Hong Kong; dinner, drinks, stay overnight

Sunday 11:30 AM: Fly back to US

Sunday 9 PM: Arrive at home in Denver

Here’s what actually happened:

Saturday 6PM: Flight is “slightly” delayed

Saturday 8PM: Flight still delayed; no announcement whatsoever from airline

Saturday 9PM: Flight may be cancelled, or it may happen, getting mixed messages
from airline

Saturday 11PM: Flight definitely cancelled

Sunday 12AM: Flight may not be cancelled

Sunday 2:00AM: Flight cancelled; they are going to bus us to hotel may or may
not give us back our passports

Sunday 2:10AM: minor revolt by a lot of the passengers – picture 15 Chinese
ladies all yelling in Mandarin at some poor low-level airline representative
(wish I weren’t so tired to have thought to capture this moment on video)

Sunday 2:30AM: get on bus to hotel, with passports in hand, and flight
scheduled for next day at 12:10PM

Sunday 3:00AM: get to hotel; nobody tells us when the bus leaves for airport
the next day

Sunday 7AM: get up to take a quick shower and then go downstairs (where there
is wifi) to make alternate flight arrangements home and ensure we don’t miss
the shuttle bus back to the airport

Sunday 12:30PM: flight leaves for Hong Kong

Sunday 3:30PM Arrive Hong Kong

Monday 11:30AM: Depart Hong Kong, 24 hours late

Big difference eh?  Here’s a picture of the airport hall where we sat, helpless, for about 10 hours.  We couldn’t get wifi to search for other options out of Lijiang (which, it turns
out, there are none) and didn’t speak the language so getting any information
was difficult.  Luckily a lot of the Chinese people on the flight spoke English, and were kind enough to tell us what they knew.

Here’s something you never want to see in your passport:

 

That’s a “cancelled” stamp, meaning your attempted exit from a country was not successful.  I hope I never have another one of these in my passport!

 On the bright side for Carrie, we ate McDonald’s at the Hong Kong airport.

 

By the time we got to SFO, someone was pooped…

 

So that’s that folks.  Thanks to everyone who followed along.  Western China is worth the visit – it really is a completely different experience than what you get in the cities on the
east coast (much like in the US, I suppose).  There are lots of options – Sichuan province, Tibet among them – but Yunnan province has some stunning scenery and truly warm people.  And, Frank Hitman of Zouba Tours is as good a tour guide as you will find.  Not only is he a safe pair of hands, but he goes out of his way to make sure your experience is authentic and enjoyable.  Can’t
recommend him highly enough.  Thanks Frank!

Until next time, it’s a big world out there…get out and see it!

Follow me on Twitter at @adonaldson1214

Day 8 (June 27, 2014): Hike Tiger Leaping Gorge

The Quick Facts

* All day hike along Tiger Leaping Gorge

The Good:

* Gorgeous views along the trail

* Trails sparsely populated, felt like we had the place to ourselves

* Hiking down to the river and onto Tiger Leaping Stone

The Bad:

* Nothing, although it was a long day!


Tiger Leaping Gorge is one of the most famous hiking trails in China.  The gorge sits between the majestic and imposing Jade Dragon Mountain and the Haba Snow Mountain, with the Yangtze River powering through the bottom.  It is absolutely stunning.  Unfortunately there is little information about the genesis of the name, only that legend holds a tiger was able to cross the river by jumping on this stone.  Of course, there are two stones: the one frequented by tourists and a lesser
known, harder to get to stone.  I’ll leave it to you to guess which one we visited.

6AM wake up call for our most ambitious day of the trip.  After eating a traditional Chinese breakfast of noodles and egg in chicken broth (accompanied by some awesome mangoes we picked up at the market the previous day), we set out on the first of three distinct phases to our day of hiking.

The first phase was a ~500 meter ascent up the “28 bends”.  The top was denoted by traditional prayer flags and had a lookout spot that did not disappoint.

 

 

After getting to the top of the 28 bends, the next phase of the hike was fairly flat.  With the gorge always in sight, we walked through a few towns still inhabited and farmed.
This corn has one hell of a view!

 

We also saw a goat herder and his sheep way up on the hill (notice the small dots at the top of the picture, those are the sheep).

 

And eventually ran into some goats for some up-close and personal action.
This guy is really cute.

 

It may be hard to tell, but this goat is on almost an 80 degree incline…the balance and climbing ability of these animals is remarkable.

 

We also saw the “tourist” tiger leaping stone (see the rock in the water, accompanied by parking lot for tourist buses).  We bypassed this and the tourists at a safe elevation (from the parking lot) of about 400 meters.

 

The path along the rim was tricky at times, sometimes requiring semi-vertical negotiation and other times not affording much margin for error!

 

Finally, we did see some other hikers, including these two people.  That is one fancy hat!

 

This part of the hike ended when we arrived at the entrance point to the downhill trail to the “other” Tiger Leaping Stone.  We had to walk along a road for a bit, which included a bridge with a big drop to the bottom!

 

 

After a rest of tea and some snacks, we began our descent into the gorge to the Tiger Leaping Stone.  The descent was fairly steep, requiring some more semi-vertical climbing as well as the use of a couple ladders.

 

Eventually, we made it to the bottom and the Tiger Leaping Stone.

 

The only way to stone is this footbridge, that can support one person at time.  Gulp!  This woman who "works" at the stone seems to have no problem with it.

Once on the stone, there are breathtaking views of the gorge.  But the most striking part is the sheer power of the Yangtze River.  Loud, relentless, and menacing, the water is so strong it is actually moving this gigantic stone (which we could feel as we sat on it).  Granted we were there during rainy season so the water was stronger than in other seasons, but sitting on that stone watching the water rush through was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.  Definitely worth all the physical effort to get down and something I would recommend to anyone who likes to hike.

Frank got a good video of me down on one of the stones...listen to how loud the water is!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our long day, we make our way to the big city of Lijiang, where we managed to summon the energy to go out for a couple beers.  Frank even treated us to a Chinese karaoke song.

Follow me on Twitter at @adonaldson1214

Day 7 (June 26, 2014): Traditional Market, Jinchuan, and the beginning of Tiger Leaping Gorge

The Quick Facts

* Visited a market in a town near Jinchuan

* Had lunch in the old town of Jinchuan – Frank found a traditional noodle shop that serves fresh rice noodles in a chicken broth – yum!

* Continued our way north to the town of Qiaotao (or Hutiaoxia Town which the call it now for some reason) where we hiked for ~2.5 hours into the mountains to our guesthouse for the night

* Stayed at Naxi Family Guest House, which is north of Qiaotao and on the north/northeast
trail that leads through Tiger Leaping Gorge

The Good:

* The market was cool to see – it occurs every Thursday with vendors selling everything from shorts to honey to tobacco to livestock to super glue

* The fresh rice noodles in Jinchuan were really delicious

* The first part of our Tiger Leaping Gorge hike – some beautiful vistas and a precursor of what’s to come

The Bad:

* Nothing

After another delicious breakfast at Laomadian Inn, we got in our van and headed north to a town near Jinchuan for their weekly market.  Unlike other markets that have various stalls set up in a square or rectangle, this market extends up and down the main streets of the town for a few kilometers.  This provided more of an open air feeling to the market, which was nice, but brought with it the need to contend with the few cars that would need to wind their way down the road.

Frank stopped along the way to speak with some of the vendors.  Our favorites were these two guys selling fresh tobacco leaves…Frank convinced them to let us try a bit, pretty good! (Note the woman who photo-bombed me!)

 

We also really enjoyed talking to an old women selling fresh honey….seeing as how honey never spoils, Frank bought a 3kg jar of it!

 

And here are some pigs and piglets for sale…oink oink!

 

After the market we toured the old town of Jinchuan, which is largely unremarkable but does have a nice old town section:

 

From Jinchuan we made our way to Qiaotao, which is the town that contains the start of the trail along Tiger Leaping Gorge.  All we needed to do was hike to our guesthouse for the night, which took about 2 hours and included a climb of about 400 meters.  Along the climb, we ran into some local guys bringing horses back to town after they were used by other tourists:

 

Once we got the majority of the climbing out of the way, we came upon a beautiful lookout spot with great views of Tiger Leaping Gorge, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, as well as the trail we were about to walk along.

 

 

 

 

Before we got to our guesthouse, we came upon a traditional Naxi house.
The Naxi people are the most prevalent in the Tiger Leaping Gorge
area.  The Naxi culture is unique in that it is predominantly matriarchal.  The
Naxi people practice Buddhism or Taoism, and rely heavily on shamans (both male
and female) to interact with the spirit world.  They are also quite friendly!

 

Eventually, we got to our guesthouse which had a wonderful setting with the rugged peaks of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background.  It was early to bed to prepare for our ~12 hours of hiking the next day!

 

Follow me on Twitter at @adonaldson1214