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  • Day 22

    Tiger Leaping Gorge & Shangri-la

    March 20, 2016 in China ⋅ 🌫 10 °C

    After 2 days in touristy Lijiang we hopped on the first of many early bus journeys, on this occasion for the 2 hour trip to Qiaotou, the start of the Tiger Leaping Gorge hike. After leaving our rucksacks at Janes' Guesthouse, we began the trek. After walking for a few kilometres up a road, we got to the start of the High Trail of the gorge and the first of our magnificent views of the gorge, carved by the Yellow River and named for the mythical Tiger that leapt across the rapids. The trail quickly became incredibly steep, more suited to the yaks dotting the hillside, with the hard slog only interrupted by the occasional old lady who sold anything from water to snickers to ganja. We got over the first major hill and reached the first village, which was slightly blighted by the sight and sound of a giant dam building project nearby. We pressed on, eventually reaching the 28 bends which the guidebook had labelled the most challenging part of the trek. The steep winding bends were unrelenting, but the view at the top - the highest point in the gorge, was amazing. After contemplating the stunning mountain scenery, while enjoying the solitude - we only encountered 5 other walkers during our whole trip to the gorge - we made our way down further into the gorge, where we stopped at the Halfway Hostel in Bending for the night. After eating a delicious Naxi vegetable sandwich, we did a bit of stargazing on the roof terrace, surely one of the only places in China not blighted by light pollution before heading to sleep, knowing we had a trek to the bottom of the gorge ahead of us in the morning.

    We got up fairly early and carried on walking, until after a fairly tricky descent we reached Tina's Guesthouse, the hostel closest to the bottom of the gorge, from where we took about an hour to reach the Tiger Leaping Stone. After admiring the rapids for a while, we chambered up the sides of the gorge, with the help of a couple of rickety and vertigo inducing ladders, ready to catch our bus from Tina's to Shangri-la. I was exhausted by this point so slept for most of the 3 hour bus journey, but the landscape was clearly becoming more arid and mountainous and the police presence more palpable as we headed into the historic Kham province of Tibet. We arrived into town in the early evening, with it noticeably colder here at 3200m than in the gorge, purchased our bus ticket to Xiangcheng for the day after next and then got a taxi to our hostel. On our arrival, we were surprised to learn that the police had imposed an 11pm curfew on foreigners, apparently due to a number of assaults. Trying to make the most of our curtailed evening, we headed into the refreshingly quiet wooden old town, which had largely been destroyed by a fire in 2014. We quickly arrived at the town square, where locals in Tibetan dress and cowboy hats were doing mass public dancing to Tibetan folk songs. After watching for a while, we went on a search for a restaurant, and were quickly asked by an intriguing Tibetan family who we had heard speaking English among themselves if we needed any help, so we asked for a restaurant recommendation. They directed us down a dark alley, at the end of which was a street largely under construction except for one second floor restaurant. We were warmly welcomed by the owner Dashi up into the cosy wood panelled dining area where he made us feel at home warming up the stove and chatting, telling us the curfew was an attempt to portray Tibetans as rough and dissuade independent tourism in the region and suggesting a cycle route for the next day. He and his wife then cooked us an amazing dinner, including a pasta dish made of barley flour, yak cheese and honey and a huge pile of Yak Momo (Tibetan dumplings). After a hundreds of cups of tea, we strolled back to the hostel, tired from the incredible amount of exercise we'd done in the gorge.

    We woke up late and headed to the nearest bike rental place, where we paid £2 each for bike that turned out to be pretty sketchy - Theo was stuck in 1st gear all day. We cycled out of town uphill, which was fairly tricky due to the altitude and then emerged onto an arid plateau dominated by a dried up lake which was barren aside from the occasional grazing yak. We cycled around the pristine but almost deserted lake road, stopping to climb a hill covered in prayer flags. We had no map so were unsure whether to attempt a loop of the whole lake or head back. In the end we went for the loop, a decision rewarded by our eventual arrival at a bit of the lake that hadn't dried up, which was inhabited by beautiful swallows and cranes. We were fairly exhausted by this point and still had to cycle up the hilly motorway into town. David and Theo were too exhausted, but to avoid spending too long among the trucks on the main road me and Freddie decided to take a dirt track down from the motorway towards the gleaming Songzanpilan tMonastery. We couldn't get many good photos of the monastery as it is bad luck to photograph Buddhas and the light wasn't great as it was already around 6pm, but it was extremely beautiful, particularly one hall which contained an especially serene looking giant silver Buddha. Having covered nearly 50km by this point, we were grateful that the ride back into town was mostly downhill, but it was made a bit more difficult by Freddie having a puncture. We eventually made it back into town and were glad to be able to return to Dashi's for some more delicious Tibetan food and interesting conversation, before heading back to the hostel for an early night in preparation for our super early bus ride to Tibet...
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