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.

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