Trekking Through Tiger Leaping Gorge

                                  by Jim Goodman     

on the trail through Tiger Leaping Gorge

       Once upon an ancient time, where the River of Golden Sands rushes between the steep slopes and towering cliffs of two snow-capped mountains, a tiger came hurrying through the forest.  Guided by the clatter of snapping twigs just ahead of them, a band of Naxi hunters followed in hot pursuit.  Their prey rushed headlong downhill until it reached the bank of the turbulent river.  There was no way to swim in that current and the hunters were drawing near.  Summoning all its primordial strength, the tiger made a mighty leap of over thirty meters to the other side, scampered out of crossbow range, and successfully eluded the astonished hunters.

       After the hunters returned home to tell the tale, the local people began calling the place Tiger Leaping Gorge.  Eons later it became one of Yunnan’s most famous tourist attractions; not for the legend behind its name but for the undeniable magnificence of the tale’s setting.  Here the river has cut an 18 km-long cleft between two of the biggest mountains in the province—Yulongshan (5590 meters) on the east bank and Habashan (5396 meters) on the west bank.  Picturesque villages lie scattered on the west bank slopes.  Birds and flowers fill the forests above them.  Across on the other side the sheer cliffs of Jade Dragon (Yulong) Snow Mountain rise straight up from the rapids of the river.  No wonder then that when Lijiang first opened its doors to foreigner travelers in the 1980s, most included a trek through the gorge on their itineraries.

Walnut Grove

       It was a popular though grueling way to enjoy natural scenery.  Conventional wisdom advised two full days of hiking from Daju down to Qiaotou, or vice versa.  That was assuming you were in relatively good shape, you didn’t turn your ankle on the trail, no rockslides or rainstorms impeded you, and your travel schedule was too tight to allow for a more leisurely, less physically exacting adventure.

       With villages popping into sight every two or three hours, and guest houses set up for travelers in each of them, the slower, less exhausting, more appreciative option was always available.  But in general people followed the guidebook dictum and did it in two hard days.  It became a fitness test to cover the route in only two days.  It was something to boast about in the Lijiang and Dali cafés afterwards, until you met the inevitable maniac who did it in a single day’s dawn-to-dusk mad rush.

the trail to Daju from Walnut Grove

       Since the late 1990s another option has been open for going through the gorge—by bus or car on the new paved road that runs on the west bank side all the way to the ferry landing for Daju at the northern end.  Close to the river for the first third of the route, the road gradually climbs up the slopes and is several hundred meters above the river by the time it reaches Walnut Grove, the northernmost village in the gorge.

       This road has enabled a great many more people to see and appreciate the gorge, who would otherwise have neither the time nor ability to go on foot.  Every day tour buses bring big groups to view the scenery, while taxis and minivans shuttle visitors and villagers back and forth between Qiaotou and Walnut Grove.  Veteran trekkers from the gorge’s pre-development days might assume that the new road has spoiled the adventure.  But actually, except for improved facilities and the option of fancier accommodations at roadside villages like Walnut Grove, the new road has not interfered with the traditional trekking experience.

hulling maize near Daju

view from rural Daju

       Tour buses generally just take their passengers to the spot where the tiger allegedly made its leap.  The tourists go down to the bank to pose for pictures next to a statue of the tiger.  Across the river a newly paved road ends at a creek just opposite the tiger statue and buses drop visitors here to shoot telephoto shots of the tiger from the eastern bank.  Depending on the season the river’s width here is 30-35 meters.  It’s hard to imagine even a frog or a jackrabbit twice as big as the tiger able to make such a prodigious jump.  But for people who came to bask in the aura surrounding the site of a famous legend, scientific arguments challenging the authenticity of that legend are irrelevant.

Habashan, from the Daju plateau

       For most tourists, the gorge is just a day trip out of Lijiang.  They will take a minibus to Qiaotou, a town on the Jinshajiang—River of Golden Sand—at its confluence with the Zhongdian River just inside Shangrila County.  Also called Tiger Leaping Gorge town, it is full of tourist services, especially restaurants catering to the organized groups.  A great view of the ’teeth’ of Jade Dragon Mountain is possible just upriver from the town on the road into the gorge.  And the tiger’s alleged leaping point is just a short ride away up either the west bank or the east bank.

       A few go on to spend a night or two at Walnut Grove, a short hike up from the road and the biggest settlement in the gorge.  It has several hotels and the rooms have televisions that, if the electricity works that night, offer programs not only from all over China, but also North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.  No need to feel cut off from the world even while being in a place that looks like it’s cut off from the world. 

the gorge's northern end at Daju

hiking above the road

       Walnut Grove is a good base for short hikes to the waterfall above the settlement or the steep path through the farms to the spot on the bank known as Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge.   The narrowest part of the entire gorge is just above here, but the sheer vertical cliffs on the Jade Dragon side precluded any chance of the tiger making its leap here.  The Daju plateau rises just beyond this crevice and, on clear days, snow mountains crease the horizon further on.  With its traditional Naxi houses nestled on the hillside, a spectacular view, and the conviviality at the guest house dinner tables, a trip to Walnut Grove alone can be easier on the limbs and lungs, yet amply rewarding for the eyes, ears and nose.

Naxi mountain village in the gorge

       An option from here could be to hike to the ferry landing a few easy kilometers away and cross over to Daju.  While there is a point on this side to view the end of the gorge, the landscape around Daju is stark, with barren cliffs on the hills, few trees, a rolling plain mottled by Naxi villages and their farms and swift streams lined by mini-canyons.

       The village nearest the ferry offers accommodations for travelers and a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Minibuses take people back to Lijiang, but the scenery all but demands a day of leisurely hiking around the area, never as strenuous as through the gorge.  The snow peak of Habashan is visible at various points.

maize harvest on the drying rack

       Yet for the fullest experience of Tiger Leaping Gorge, nothing beats taking the trek.  You tread the same high, rocky footpath the local villagers have been using since the land was first settled many centuries ago.  It is well above the road and its traffic, where the air is pure and fresh, with continuously changing vistas of the lines and shapes of the slopes and peaks. 

       The trail is interspersed with villages of the Naxi minority nationality, the same people who dominate Lijiang County and spill over into adjacent areas in neighboring counties like Ninglang, Weixi and Shangrila.  (In fact, all of Tiger Leaping Gorge lies within the boundaries of Shangrila County.)  The Naxi are a Tibeto-Biurman people with a long history, including several centuries as a powerful autonomous state.  Confucian precepts govern most of their social and cultural norms and, compared to the Tibetans, they are not as religious-minded.  No monasteries or temples stand anywhere in Tiger Leaping Gorge.

       Their villages are of a moderate size, about 15-25 households.  For the trekker, every village has a place to stay the night.  A few families have converted one of the compound buildings into a boarding house with several simple bedrooms.  If none are available, local people will put up the trekker in their own home, vacating a room for the night to accommodate the visitor. 

protective fish on a Naxi house roof

Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge

       Villagers live in one- or two-story houses of wood and stone or mud-brick, with tiled roofs and often featuring carved wooden fish hanging down from each apex of the roof.  This reflects the persistent Naxi animist belief that the fish, representing water, protects the house against the fire of lightning strikes.

       Except for those settlements at a lower altitude close to the river, Naxi villages in the gorge do not cultivate rice.  Maize is the main crop instead, supplemented by buckwheat, vegetables, hemp and sunflowers.  After the maize or buckwheat harvest, people hang the crops on tall wooden racks in their courtyards to dry them before threshing or hulling.

rough gentian

colorful mountain flower

       The view is broader and constant on the northern half of the route, from Wenjia Stream to Walnut Grove.  The trekking trail runs only a couple hundred meters above the road and is relatively level, with no forests or groves to pass through, all the way to Walnut Grove.  This is an easier stretch to hike, quite in contrast to the really rugged section between the stream and Nuo Yu village at the southern end, which is where most trekkers start.  For those who are elderly, corpulent or otherwise physically not up to such a grueling ascent, they can hire a pony with a handler to lead them.

rhododendron

Jade Dragon peaks on a misty morning

       Within this part of the route the trail ascends sharply to the pass at 2670 meters altitude.  On the southern side the path zigzags up what is called the 28 Bends.  The northern side, only marginally less steep, passes through a thick forest all the way to the stream.  But though the trees block views of the mountains, flowers of various kinds, shapes and colors decorate the paths, including two of Yunnan’s prize species—the rhododendron and the bell-shaped rough gentian. 

Nuo Yu village at the south end of the gorge

       At several points along this section of the trail viewpoints devoid of obscuring trees offer a clear view of the gorge and the peaks of the eastern bank.  These are ideal spots to revel in the scenery, watch eagles glide by, chat with trekkers hiking in the opposite direction and perhaps sit and fantasize upon what the gorge might look like if, as rumor has it, it gets dammed up and a huge reservoir is created as a result.  Will future generations of tourists ride a cable car to this pass, sit in an expensive restaurant and sip cool drinks while enjoying the reflection of Jade Dragon’s peaks in the limpid waters of Tiger Leaping Lake?

       Meanwhile, the river still flows freely and in the end the dam may never be built.  For the time being at least, visitors can still marvel at a spectacle wrought by time and the elements.  And inevitably they will depart with the fervent hope that the powers-that-be will ultimately rate the value of the gorge not for its hydroelectric potential but for its positive effect on the hearts and souls of those who travel so far to bear witness to its beauty.

view from Qiaotou of the 'teeth' of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain

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for more on the Naxi and Lijiang County, see my e-book Children of the Jade Dragon

By Tractor-Trailer to the River of Golden Sand

                                                      by Jim Goodman

on the road north of Tanhua

       When I first visited Yunnan in 1992, the province had already been partially open to foreigners for several years.  They could visit established tourist destinations like Kunming, the Stone Forest, Dali, Lijiang and Jinghong, but little else.  But by then, the open-door policy was proving successful and over the next few years the government allowed foreigners into several more counties every season.

       Enough attractions existed in and around these popular sites to warrant extensive exploration and return excursions.  But once I began to make my trips to Yunnan regular, from then on as it turned out, I included at least one newly opened county every itinerary.  To guide my choices I thumbed through the coffee-table picture books on the province I bought from Kunming’s Foreign Languages Bookstore.  

       Having already had encounters with some of the Yi minority sub-groups, I decided to visit very different Yi in Dayao County, in northwest Chuxiong Prefecture.  Nobody went there because it was not en route to somewhere else.  Except for Dayao city itself, it was a Yi-dominated county, with different related sub-groups, and that was sufficient to lure me. They would show up at the Sunday market and particularly dominated the hills north of the city.

the Yi style in Guihua

        After a couple visits to Tanhua, where most Yi women dressed in traditional style and both sexes wore goatskin jackets and everything seemed pretty old-fashioned, I decided to go further north, where other Yi sub-groups lived.  Also motivating me was the fact that at the end of the road, such as it was, was a Dai district on the Upper Yangzi, in Yunnan called the River of Golden Sand (Jinshajiang).

       Back then that was certainly an off-the-beaten-track adventure.  The only public transportation was a weekly bus, several days off, so I had to pay for a ride with a logging truck going north of Guihua, the next major settlement and my destination 50 km away.  A couple foreigners had briefly been to Tanhua, so I was told, but no one went beyond, so I would be the first to visit remote ethnic minorities as well as rural provincial government officials.  As it turned out, the latter were more interesting than the former.

       Above Dayao the unpaved road zigzagged along the eastern slopes of Tanhua Mountain, at each turn providing views of mountains and distant villages perched on the ridges and just below the cliffs.  To make parts of this road, workers had to carve or blast through sheer walls of rock, with 70 degrees gradients on either side.  Aside from the views, I also appreciated the skill of Chinese road engineers.

Guihua town, Dayao County

       About an hour out of Tanhua the road crosses the last extension of Tanhuashan and the scenery changes abruptly.  The mountains are steeper, less forested, heavily terraced and rather densely populated, compared with the Tanhua area.  The road slowly winds down to the river valley below Guihua, visible nearly an hour before arrival.  The town sits on a ridge above the river, mainly comprising wide, mud-brick houses with wooden beams and tiled roofs, typical rural Yunnan style.

       I checked into a local cheap lodge, but before I could settle in and finish my coffee a representative of the local government arrived to invite me to stay in a private room in their quarters.  He also introduced the local middle school English teacher Li Hui to accompany me on my tour of Guihua.   That consisted of walking around looking for good photo angles, as this was the middle of the week and not much was happening anywhere, other than on the farms outside of town.

the 'family history' coat

       All that changes on Saturdays, when Guihua holds its market day and Yi from the hills stream into town.  I couldn’t stay that long, unfortunately, so couldn’t assess how popular traditional clothing might still be in the district.  Judging from how few Yi women wore it in Guihua and the villages nearby, and what Li Hui told me, it seemed to be less common than in other districts in the county, such as Tanhua and Santai.

       Two traditional Yi styles prevail in the district.  The more common one resembles that of the Tanhua Yi, the women wearing a side-fastened, long-sleeved jacket, embroidered apron, shoulder bag and plain black trousers.  Older women’s jackets are solid color and plain while the younger generation applies wide bands of colorful embroidery and appliqué on the sleeves and along the lapel.  Both the apron and shoulder bag feature bright red embroidered flowers.

       Very different is the outfit worn by the women of a small Yi sub-group north and west of Guihua.  Over an ankle-length black skirt trimmed with bands of bright appliquéd designs, they don a long-tailed jacket with wide bands of different cutout designs on the sleeves, front and back.  The patterns chosen for the back of the coat symbolically represent events in the wearer’s family history.  Thus, no two coats are identical and while they may only wear them on special occasions, every woman makes herself one because custom demands they be buried wearing it after they die.

the Yi 'chicken hat'

       For headgear, Guihua Yi women inclined to dress traditionally may don a simple black turban or a colored headscarf.  But a more common and striking choice in the area is the brightly embroidered ‘chicken hat.’  Shaped like a coxcomb and often worn sideways, with the head and tail above the ears, similar ‘chicken hats’ are popular with other Yi sub–groups in the province (Nisu in Yuanyang, Tuli in Weishan). 

       The origin of this hat is an ancient tale of two lovers pursued by the Prince of Devils.  First he killed the young man, then tried to capture the young woman.  She fled through the forest, with the Prince of Devils in hot pursuit, until she came to a village in a clearing.  A cock crowed, which stopped the demon in his tracks.  A witness to that, she guessed the demon was afraid of roosters.  So she grabbed it and ran back into the forest to where her lover lay.  The cock crowed again and the young man came back to life.  Ever since then Yi girls wear the hat in honor of the rooster, to symbolize good luck and happiness in love.

Yi house in Guihua

       In my engagements with the Yi women I met in Guihua I persuaded a couple of them to sell me their shoulder bags.  One featured the big embroidered flowers typical of the Guihua style.  The other was cross-stitched, like the bags in Tanhua.  Li Hui apparently mentioned this while we dined with the Party officials that evening.  After a few rounds of corn liquor one of them proposed that I set up a factory in Guihua to produce Yi embroidered shoulder bags for export.  They would allow me 70% ownership.      

       I explained that traditional handicraft work was not something done in a factory, but at home and in the field whenever time was available.  Besides, I was a petty trader, at best, and in fact more of a collector, with no idea how to market Yi shoulder bags. 

Dacun village, on the road northi of Guihua

       Undaunted, perhaps ambitious to secure a business relationship with the first foreigner in Guihua, he next proposed I build a paper factory.  My first thought was the horrific effect that would have on the clean stream that ran below the town.  But I didn’t mention that.  I told him the area didn’t have the right trees.  In fact, it didn't have hardly any trees at all, of any kind.

        The conversation soon shifted to other topics and the evening was quite convivial.  My hosts tried to arrange a jeep to take me to Wanbi.  Unfortunately, the Party was having an important meeting in Beijing at that time and Party officials in districts throughout the country had to have their own meetings to discuss the Meeting.  The jeeps were busy fetching people from remote villages to attend the meetings, both Guihua’s vehicles and those of Wanbi.

the main street of Upper Wanbi

       Wanbi lies 88 km north of Guihua and the logging trucks only went to a depot about half way.  So my hosts arranged the only available transportation—a tractor-trailer (tuolache).  I had to pay 200 yuan and Li Hui would accompany me to smooth the way with the Wanbi officials.  I was familiar with these vehicles.  I’d seen them bring people to market day in Dayao, for example.  But that was on paved city streets.  The road ahead was unpaved all the way and had been pretty bumpy riding in the relative comfort of a truck up from Tanhua.  Nevertheless, there was no other choice.

       By tractor-trailer is probably the least comfortable way to travel.  The driver sits on a small, three-wheel tractor in front and passengers sit or stand in the four-wheel trailer behind.  It was too rough to sit and even standing we were continuously jolted.  Moreover, though it was a fine spring day, the wind was fierce and blew the dust from the road all over our bodies, baggage and camera.  I often had to call for a pause, just to give my bones a chance to settle down.

Lower Wanbi and the river in the morning

       The rough and rollicking journey took most of the day. The scenery was much the same as around Guihua, with farms, pastures and villages dominating the largely deforested lower mountain slopes.  We crossed the last ridge, descended to Wanbi on the river and arrived in time to check in at the government lodge and have dinner with our gracious hosts, the local Dai government officials.

       There was no shower in the building, but they arranged basins of hot water and towels for us to wash off the dirt from the ride.  The Party was holding meetings here, too, so they would be busy until Sunday, when it would be possible for me to cross the river.  Li Hui and the driver returned to Guihua next morning and I had two days to explore the vicinity on my own.

   

Dai woman in Wanbi

the Jinshajiang near Wanbi

       Wanbi has two parts.  Upper Wanbi is the original Dai village, sited on a slope above its terraced fields, with a view of the Jinshajiang and other Dai villages.  Its main street is lined with wooden shop houses, while the residential neighborhoods feature houses of wooden frames, rammed earth and tiled roofs, occasionally thatched, like those of the Yi villages south of the ridge.   They get two crops a year, wheat in winter, rice in summer, use water buffaloes as draft animals and raise goats.

Lisu girl at the Binghai ferry port

       Wanbi Dai are animist, so no temples stand in the area.  The old folks told me they think they came up from Xishuangbanna or Myanmar many centuries ago, but they also claimed that before Wanbi they lived north of the river.  I tried out several Thai phrases, but the only similarity was kin khao (“eat rice”), which they pronounced jin khao. However, those who had been to Banna said they could understand most of the Dai dialect they heard there.

       Lower Wanbi is the administrative town, full of drab concrete buildings.  But it is on a knoll close to the river, the main attraction.  Rice fields lay beside the town all the way to the riverbanks, but on the other side the steep hills are practically barren of any kind of vegetation.  The river is in places turbulent, but at other sections placid enough for fishermen in small boats to cast nets.  Huge boulders bank the river periodically, while in other places it laps along stretches of white sand.  Colors on the river and the hills vary throughout the day and are richest in late sunny afternoons.

crossing the river at Binghai

       After breakfast noodles the district chairman drove me to Binghai, 10 km upriver, where several small boats ferried people across the river that day to attend the weekly market on the other side.  The crowd on both banks was mostly Dai, but also Han and Yi, with some Lisu from settlements high up in the hills on both sides of the river.  Except for a few older women in dark, side-fastened jackets and black turbans, the Dai wore modern clothes.  Older Lisu women dressed similarly to older Dai women, but some of the younger women wore a distinctive, brightly colored jacket. 

          The regular ferry had engine trouble at the time, so people were taking rowboats instead.  We wound up paddled across in a dinghy made from inflated tire tubes.  Beside the marketplace several tractor-trailers were parked and I fretted I’d have to ride one of those to the nearest highway.  But my host, who insisted on paying for everything, found a truck to take me instead.  I departed thanking him for his hospitality and in particular for the final service of securing me a truck to take me to the highway.  One tractor-trailer adventure was quite enough.

Jinshajiang--the River of Golden Sand

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