China - Yunnan, Tiger Leaping Gorge

Seven of us, keen and ready to go for the 3-day Tiger Leaping Gorge trekking. After breakfast at Qiao Tao's Jane's restaurant, we started to hike up. Photo: this is only a gentle slope. More challenging ones to come.

Well, that wasn't too bad. After the 28 bends up the gorge, we did not look too badly out of shape.

Sight of the Tea-Horse Trading Guest House, where we stayed the night. It has been a tough hike. More challenges to come. View from the guest house of the mountain on the other side of the gorge: and we marched on, eventually arriving at Tina's Guest House for lunch and a breather.

After an some rest, we started to descend the gorge to the muddy JingSha River (Yangtze River). (photo: looking down to the river) We got to the bottom (photo: looking up),and we were still smiling , but have a look up and see if you can see the "Sky Ladder" on the cliff face: (look for the ladder in the photo).

In case you can't see the Sky Ladder, here is a closer shot of it:

Well, that was how we got up (via the "Sky Ladder"), and here are a few more shots long the way: and here is a more gentle slope:

Home at last at Tina's Guest House where we stayed the night.(Photo: Le with Mr He, our guide who lives in one of the near-by villages) We left early next morning for Lijiang to re-join the rest of the fellow travellers. It has been a great experience and photos don't really show the spectacular scenery. Aug is a rainy season and not many trekkers. We were very lucky with the weather for it rained on the previous day and night before we came down.

Sadly, this is the last post from China. Next post ..... from South East Asia ... Laos

China - Yunnan- Shangri-La, Lijiang, Dali, Kuming

I'm doing a single post of these cities because the old part of these cities we visited, though different, looked similar. Kunming was the only exception as it does not have an "old city". Commercial centres with modern offices and shopping centres are located outside the old city walls and we didn't see much of them.

Some of us only stayed one night at Shangri-La (old name ZhongDian), others two. That was because 7 of us were scheduled to go trekking at the Tiger Leaping Gorge (see next post - some great photos taken there) early the following morning. Here are a couple of photos of Shangri-La's old town taken early in the morning. And, just in case if your are wondering if the people in Shangri-La ever grow old (as in the novel "Lost Horizon"), yes they do, like you and I. One interesting point though, the old people (and not so old ones) were being paid by the government (presumably in the form of a pension) to dance for an hour or so each day in this square. Some tourists joined in the fun - dancing - too:

After the excursion to Tiger Leaping Gorge, we rejoined the group in Lijiang - the number one most visited city in China. I can understand why. The old city is well preserved and tourists must pay an admission fee (80Yuan each, approx US12) to visit or stay in the old city. There were thousands of visitors each day, so there is not fear of shortage of funds for their maintenance programme.

Photos: These Lijiang streets would normally be full of visitors. The only way to beat the crowd is to get up early and get in there. Night time would be the worst time to visit the streets of old Lijiang because the crowd normally peaks at about dinner time until late. Photos: Lijiang, early in the morning. These streets were normally full of visitors.

The entrance to the Mo residence. Layout is similar to an imperial palace. In history, the Mo family were the lords of Lijiang - probably of interest to Chinese historians only.


Le and I took this picture infront of the residence of a family of scholars - the Tower of Knowledge. Two brothers and one of their siblings passed the Imperial exams - probably the only time in Chinese history.


We did not enjoyed Lijiang as much as we did Dali, probably because the crowd was much smaller in the latter. In Dali, we enjoyed the walk through the park and saw how the Chinese, particularly the older generation spent their leisure time. The oldies were singing and there was an impromptus orchestra form and played their music. The second man from the right was the foreman of this orchestra: Like Shangri-La and Lijiang (an indeed most of the Chinese cities) the oldies were out dancing in thetown square in early evenings: While we were there, there was a photographers' convention happening and many photographs were exhibited in various old buildings which made the visit well worthwhile.

A couple of shots of how they prepare ducks :

.... Next Post - Tiger Leaping Gorge ..... promising stunning photos.

China - En route to Yunnan

We left Lhasa for the second and the last time to travel to Yunnan province. It is difficult to describe the beautful scenery en route to Yunnan. Tibet and northern Yunnan are very hilly and mountainous. Beautifully green patch on top of the mountain:

Silk Route is well known, while Tea-Horse Trade route are not often talked about. China traded tea with Tibet. Tibetans who took a lot of Chinese tea to supplement their diet. Horses were used to transport the tea along difficult route on steep hills. Today, the roads through this region are a lot better but still very narrow, windy and very dangerous. Photos: It was questionable if this bridge would take the combined weight of Calypso and the passengers. For safety, we all got out and walked. Tim had to get out and inspect this overhanging cliff around a corner - so that Calypso could negotiate it safely. (Calipso under a crag) Landslips are common along the defiles. This example: Steep cliff on one side and precipice/deep ravine on the other, and a third of the road width covered with slip material - exciting stuff! This is a typical winding road we took through this region. .... and lunch break on top of the world:

This is the Lancang Jiang (river) which will eventually flow through Indochina and be called the Mekong River. Picture take at village Dengba: not obvious in the photo, the water through this gap was quite fierce

Along the way we saw scores of cyclists, pligrims ( a couple of them were posturing toward Lhasa), donkeys, etc.

Road construction we saw was still very menial and hard work. Each stone was individually shaped by hand and man-handled.