四海为家

A hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峡) is one of the must-dos for Western backpackers in Yunnan, and with the lure of fresh air and beautiful views, we were no exception. In China, these kinds of places tend to be fairly developed, with stone paths, stairs up the steeper parts, elegantly disguised trash cans, railings to protect careless tourists from falling into the ravine, and entrance fees to pay for the upkeep.

The trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge is different. It’s a popular trek (especially with Western tourists), so villagers have responded by setting up guest houses and ticket booths along the way (the main ticket booth pops up more than an hour into the trek, when there’s no turning back, very sneaky). But other than that, the trek just follows a narrow dirt path through the hills and mountains along the gorge, connecting small farming villages. We shared the path with adorable goats grazing in the hills and local people herding donkeys and cows. The views were beautiful, and it was nice to get away from carefully crafted tourist spots. Yunnan is in the midst of rapid touristification, and given how popular this trek is, more development of the trail is sure to come, but for now, it’s still a wonderful two-day break from civilization.

Gorgeous

Following the mountain path

Green fields

Like parent, like child

A waterfall flows across the trail

Some logistics, for anyone else interested in doing the trek:

We took the afternoon bus from Lijiang to Qiaotou (桥头, which takes around 2h), and spent the first night at Jane’s Guest House in Qiaotou. After a night at Jane’s Guest House, we set off at around 9 am (although an hour earlier would have been better, the sun gets quite strong around mid-day). There were five of us in total who were on the same bus from Lijiang, so we did the trek together, which was a good call — there are lots of spots on the trail where if anything were to happen, you’re at least an hour away from the nearest village, and there’s safety in numbers (and our French trekking companions were wonderful company). We reached Tea Horse Guest House at around 2 pm, and had lunch there (there are only a handful of spots along the way to buy water, so bring enough to last through the morning — the first few hours of the trek are by far the toughest). Then we continued on to Halfway Guest House, which took another 1-2 hours, and spent the night there (I highly recommend their beef sandwich!).

The next day, we started out a little earlier, and reached the low road and Tina’s guest house after around 2 hours of easy walking. From near Tina’s, the path continues down to the river and Tiger Leaping Stone. The path down to Tiger Leaping Stone is very steep, very narrow, and on wet/windy days, potentially quite dangerous — when we were there, it was fairly windy, so only a part of our group was brave enough to climb down, and it took them about two hours to go down and return back to the same spot (although had we had more time, it makes the most sense to walk down to the stone, follow the path along the river, and then come up along the longer path further downstream). There’s a 10 rmb entrance fee at the top of the path, and then another 50 rmb fee about 15 minutes down — another group ahead of us had turned back because they thought it was too expensive, but when our group went down, the door was open and there was no one at the ticket booth, so they didn’t have to pay. Down by Tiger Leaping Stone, there’s apparently a sign warning travellers not to climb out onto the stone, since tourists have died there in the past, so when the water is high, beware.

The easiest way to get to Lijiang back to or Shangri-la is to first return to Qiaotou, and since the road back has been blocked by landslides at two points between Tina’s and Jane’s, getting back requires booking a minibus through one of the guest houses, which for us cost 150 rmb per bus (seating 6 people) for the whole stretch (one bus to the first landslide, where we got off and climbed over the rocks, then another to the second landslide, and a third for the final stretch). To get from Qiaotou to Lijiang or Shangri-la, you can either wait for a bus by the side of the road in Qiaotou (they pass by roughly once an hour), or, if you have enough people going in the same direction, Jane can organize a minibus (which is how we made our way back to Lijiang).