Tiger Leaping Gorge hike and Old Town Lijiang

Lijiang has an old town that is only a few years old. It is a small old town only accessible on foot with lots of narrow streets and canals. These are lined with souvenir shops and food stalls as usual. Much more exciting and worth visiting is the Tiger Leaping Gorge. It is supposed to be the largest and deepest gorge in the world. It is beeing said that a tiger jumped from one side to the other to escape the hunters. I expected the Tiger Leaping Gorge to be very touristic and in the same style as Taishan. But to my surprise it wasn’t and there are real hiking paths and the hike is demanding. Also the absence of souvenir shops and food stores every other kilometer is pleasant.

Mama Naxi Hostel is the place I stayed at in Lijiang and they helped arrange a bus ride to the Gorge. We were a group of about 20 people – over half of them from Israel. We set off around 9am on a 2 hours long drive. There is a new highway and tunnels being built at the moment that will speed up the journey once it is opened. Although we weren’t allowed we drove on parts of the new road. A scarry part was when we entered a tunnel that still had some construction work going on. There was no light and we had no clue if we would come out at the other end. Our driver managed to get us to the Gorge eventually.

Entrance fee is 65RMB. I left my bag at the first Guesthouse just after the entrance to the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Costs only 5RMB. I hiked the first day with a Korean group. Our goal was to reach the Halfway Guesthouse to stay overnight. Along the way there are many guesthouses offering food and accommodation. At Naxis Guesthouse we had lunch and met the rest of people, who started with us in the morning. The food was good and the view magnificient. On the other side are the 4000m high Snow Mountains. We walked on unpaved small paths. The 28 Bends after the Naxi Guesthouse are a steep climb up the mountain. On top the view is great so we had a rest. The only annoyance was that local people tried to charge us for taking a picture of the scenery.

We reached the Halfway Guesthouse around 6pm. We were very lucky to get the last beds. The Guesthouse is very popular. We had food on the terrace and some beers. There I have met a Family from Germany, they travelled for three weeks in China. After some beers and home-brewn rice wine we went to bed. The next day I started around 10am after breakfast with the German’s. The path got even more spectacular than on the first day. There is a waterfall soon after the Halfway Guesthouse. Later we chose to take the high trail, which was a narrow steep path that suffered several landslides. So it was a nice challenge climbing up.

Last stop was Sean’s Guesthouse were we had food and booked an ovepriced taxi. (The stereotype is true, German’s don’t haggle 😉 They went back to Lijiang and I picked up my bag at Qiatao (Entrance gate). My original plan was to go up to Shangri-La. But I decided to give it a miss and continue south to Guilin. I took the bus to Lijiang from were I took a night train on the same day to Kunming. I stayed one night in Kunming to take another night train to Guilin the following day.

Below is a picture of Mahjong players in a park in Lijiang. Typicall sight in China. However men usually play chess and women Mahjong.