Clare's Research Trip 2010-2011: Tiger Leaping Gorge

I arrived in Lijiang after a rough nights sleep on the train (not feeling well) and thanks to Gang Zhao, was driven by a friend of his to the bus station where she bought me a ticket, thanks Lili! At the bus station I met Anne and Leticia (Germany and Spain) who said they were off trekking too. On the bus we met Mirko and Yannik (Germany) so we had quite a good group of trekkers by the time we arrived in Qioutou to begin the trek. After dumping our things at Jane's Guesthouse and stopping for a pot noodle (breakfast) it was about 12pm by the time we set off. We were obviously not going to make it to Walnut Garden today. The trek was extremely beautiful but also all up hill so quite strenuous and we had a rather scary incident with a lady who after we had taken photos, demanded we pay her 3 yen each. We paid her 3 yen between us and she tried to block our path and attempted to throw stones at us, fortunately she didn't hit us. Then after yet more uphill climbing we came across another lady, this time selling snacks and marijuana (they grow it quite openly here). We thought at first it was some Chinese word 'Ganga' but realised quickly that it was the real thing. On we went and reached the 28 switch backs which absolutely killed any energy I had left in my legs. We all collapsed in a heap at the top and admired the view. Thankfully after that it was a fairly easy walk to the Tea Horse Guest House where starving and tired we decided to stop for the night. It can get dark quickly up here and we did not want to get caught between guesthouses. We shared a delicious Chinese meal (chicken and peanuts, beef curry, soup) and had a surprisingly hot shower before bed at 9.30pm (it's freezing up there!). The next day after a breakfast of muesli with fruit (heaven after a month of Asian food) we set off again on a much easier terrain of mostly flat and down hill. We passed people with donkeys, people fitting water pipes, goats and through a waterfall. We arrived at Tina's guesthouse for lunch where Anne headed off further along the gorge with another group and Leticia and I decided to head back to Lijiang (only one month in China, too much to do, too little time!). While waiting for the bus back to Jane's guesthouse and Lijiang, Leticia, a few stragglers from the other group and I went for a walk down to the gorge. It was beautiful. Then we all headed back to Lijiang on a gorgeous and sometimes hairy bus ride.