Tiger Leaping Gorge

Day 173

Qiau tou (Tiger Leaping Gorge)

Today we are going to Qiau tou, which is 2 hours away from Shangri la, where is located one of the most famous tracks in China – Tiger Leaping Gorge.

We took taxi from our guesthouse (6 Yuan – 0.80 euro) to Shangri la bus station and for 24 Yuan more (3 euro) took a bus to Qiau tou.

In 2,5 hours we arrived to the place and went to look for Janes’s guesthouse (according to Loenly planet we can leave our bags there and then go to the track).

Fist we saw a Tiger café (also from Lonely planet), which was closed due to the death of the owner….(hmmm, my Lonely planet just 2 years old, com’on!!!)

Then we saw some construction site and people showed us an announcement that there is a construction on the lower track (road) and basically Tiger Leaping Gorge is closed and if something happens to us, it’s our responsibility.

Finally we found Jane’s guesthouse:

Tiger Leaping gorge has two tracks:

· Higher track – which takes 2 days 1 night, tracking among the hills and local villages

· Low track – a road along the gorge, where if you are lazy you can come by car, take some pictures and go back to your hotel without sweating climbing the hills :D

Finally we have decided to do the following:

Since we arrived late and after lunch at Jane’s it was already 2pm, we have decided to do just half of the track, finish everything in one day, go back to Jane’s and tomorrow leave to Lijang.

Jane was arranging transport for us – a car to half way of the track (70 Yuan – 9 euro) and then back after we finish track (150 Yuan – 19 euro).

So, after driving through the ruined road, where all the way there was a construction, stones, excavators and all kind of construction machinery, we finally arrive to the starting point. We were supposed to walk around 1 hour along the road (low track) and then hike for 1,5 hours to reach the half way of the good high track, where we can go through the local villages and finally see some nature without any construction.

The little problem of this plan was that on the point where the driver left us, just in couple of meters, there were some workers in the mountains exploding something and the stones were falling literally on the road or on our head, in case we decide to follow this road.

In couple of minutes a jeep stopped close to us, the driver called construction guys, they stopped exploding the mountain and we could finally cross, running haha

Then finally we started to see a good views....

Ok, 1 hour walking and we found the road up to the high track. The problem was that as Tommy mentioned, it was “humanly impossible” to climb this road. If for us it could probably take 1,5 -2 hours, Tommy wouldn’t finish it in 4 hours for sure haha

We saw a car going up the hill and the guy took us up to the trail, for 50 Yuan (in China nothing is for free, remember? :D

Finally we started the right track.

. Around 4 hours hiking from Half way to Tina’s, through mountains, villages and even a waterfall.

In the middle of the way you see writing on the stones promoting happy hours for beers in one of the bars at the end of the track haha

The view was nice, but after Tibet is difficult to find something that can really impress you :DD

From Tina’s (the bar and guesthouse at the end of the track) back to Jane’s and tomorrow we are leaving for Lijang (Jane arranged transport, 24 Yuan for 3 hours drive in the minivan).