Mudslide Season at Tiger Leaping Gorge

From Yading, it was back to Daocheng, then another ten hour bus ride to the tourist town of Shangrila, and then to Qiaotou. Qiaotou is the starting point for hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the world's deepest gorges.

I'd been hearing stories about Tiger Leaping Gorge from other travellers since I'd arrived in Chengdu and while travelling through Sichuan and Yunnan. The peaks of the mountains on either side of the gorge hover as high as 5000m above the Jinsha River. The hiking trail itself is thousands of meters above the river along the side of the mountain. At times, the trail is only a couple meters wide, with a sheer cliff to one side dropping thousands of meters below.

Additionally, it was mudslide season. It has been a year of record rainfall here in China, with major flooding in a number of provinces and water levels at historic highs. Earlier this summer, Yunnan had been swamped with rainstorms. As a result, many of the roads we had been traveling had been obstructed with debris or blocked by some kind of mudslide despite Chinese conctruction crews working continuously to clear the roads.

The hiking trails of Tiger Leaping Gorge would be muddy and in disrepair at the very least, and I had heard stories of people having to precariously climb over mudslide debris thousands of meters above the river.

Furthermore, the leader of our group and chief navigator had already trekked through Tiger Leaping Gorge before and would be staying behind.

The plan was to set off early on day 1 and arrive at Halfway Lodge, a guest house about halfway through the trek, in the early evening. We would stay there for the night and then complete the trek on day 2, returning to Qiaotou by car to rejoin our friend. Easy... What could go wrong?

We arrived in Qiaotou an hour ahead of schedule and almost immediately got ourselves lost. We missed the cutoff point for the hiking trail and hiked for hours along a mountain path through the mud being harrassed by insects. You would think that the biggest gorge in the world would be an easiest enough landmark to follow, but apparently we really are that clueless. After wandering around and backtracking for what seemed like ages, we finally hired a local guy we ran into for 20 yuan to lead us back to the main trail. When we arrived at the Naxi's guest house, which we were supposed to have arrived at 11:30AM, it was already 4:30PM!

Already exhausted, but not wanting to fall too far behind schedule, we journeyed onward. We took on the treacherous 24 bend trail to the top of the hiking trail, where we once again foolishly declined to ride a horse to the top. By the time we reached Tea Horse guest house to retire for the evening, still a couple hours behind schedule, we had hiked a total of 9 hours through the mud and at high altitude.

Looking back, I suppose the views at times were pretty spectacular, but at the time I couldn't care less as I was so exhausted. Thank goodness for the Tea Horse guest house. I was expecting the worst, but they had hot showers, a clean room, and even a massage parlor. I guess those are some of the perks of a place becoming "too touristic", as my friends would say. I got a massage at the guest house and collapsed into bed. If I can take anything of value away from the day 1 experience, it was the best night's sleep I have ever had.

Day 2 started off uneventfully enough. We set off early and hiked the well defined trail at a steady pace, stopping at Halfway Lodge to check out the "world's most scenic toilet". After the Halfway Lodge, the trail narrowed at times and the cliffs got more and more dramatic. We ran into a herd of goats at one of the particularly narrow points of the trail, but they didn't seem too affected by the heights. The views were indeed amazing, though to be honest, I preferred the scenery at the Longji rice terraces and at Yading Nature Reserve. We finished the hike with plenty of time to catch a car back to Qiaotou.

Little did we know that the ride back to Qiaotou would be even more treacherous than the hike itself. The road was littered with debris from the mudslides and was completely blocked off at two points. We would have to take one shuttle to the first mudslide, somehow cross the blocked off road on foot, then board the next shuttle, and so on.


Climbing along the side of a steep and muddy cliff with an avalanche of loose debris ready to fall down on you at any minute is not something I do on a regular basis back in Irvine. But it's amazing the things you are willing to do without hesitation once you are out in the world and filled with the spirit of adventure.


We traversed the mudslides without incident and returned safely to Qiaotou to hop on yet another minibus to the next town.

Yading

Another week and another host of uncomfortable minibus rides brought us from Litang to Daocheng and then to the Yading Nature Reserve

One of my friends, always in search of the most spectacular and seemingly most remote places in China, had been talking up the Yading Nature Reserve. It's a relatively new nature reserve and she wanted to get a look at it before it eventually gets overrun by the hordes of Chinese tourists like so many other Chinese tourist sites.

Arriving in the village outside Yading, we certainly seemed to have arrived before the crowds (and the accompanying material comforts that come with them). Our guesthouse was certainly "rustic" enough.

We stayed in what was essentially a converted barn. We were told that it was the only one in town that had running water. At night, we could hear small animals crawling though the wallspace, cats and mice we were told. I keep mental tabs on the worst accommodations to date and I think I can safely say Yading is the new title holder.

Our payoff was the opportunity to hike the spectacular nature reserve. With scenic lakes, snowcapped mountains, and a hiking trail that rises to as high as 4800m above sea level, the views were at times breathtaking.



At other times, the steep inclines and thin mountain air just left you gasping for breath. There is an option to ride a horse to the top of the trail for 300 yuan, an option that the intelligent one among us (not me) decided to take. For anyone planning on making the trek out to Western Sichuan anytime soon, take the horse!


In the end, the views were amazing and the tourists were few and far between. Only a week prior, I had never even heard of Yading, never slept in a barn, and my only notion of mountain lakes came from pictures or television. Thanks to my friend, I can now check all three off the list.

Litang

A lot of the larger Chinese cities look so much alike that they start to blend together over time.

The same cannot be said of Litang. As a center of Tibetan culture and the birthplace of several Dalai Lamas, the town has a distinctly Tibetan character that is hard to put into words.


In my short time there, some of the things I saw included:

• A kid herding yaks down the main street in and out of traffic.
• A snake oil salesman selling homemade remedies on the street.
• Young Tibetan Buddhist monks wearing Kobe Bryant jerseys.
• Merchants peddling huge blocks of yak butter along the side of the street.
• Countless young Tibetan men playing pool and riding motorcycles.
• And the annual Tibetan horse festival.

One event that I chose NOT to view was a Tibetan sky burial, though a few tourists we ran into said they were able to watch it from afar.

My plans to visit Tibet didn't materialize this time around, but in Western Sichuan I did get to try the obligatory Tibetan yak butter tea (it's awful) and visit my share of Tibetan Buddhist temples, not to mention viewing the amazing mountain landscapes.

Next stop: Yading Nature Reserve.

Danba

Altough I've been traveling around China off and on for the past year, before this little sidetrip through Western Sichuan, I considered "roughing it" to be dealing with a spotty internet connection or (gasp!) having to do my own laundry.

So I was a little hesitant when my new friends suggested we venture even further off the beaten path to spend a night at a rural Tibetan village near the town of Danba. The village was a 6 hour bus trip off the tourist path through bumpy, narrow, mountainous paths. There would be no proper hotels, we would have to bargain for accommodation at the home of a local Tibetan family. There would certainly be no internet connection. The bathroom would almost assuredly be an unspeakable horror.

Danba is small mountain town located at the base of a gorge along the Dadu River. 7km further up the mountain path, there is village called Jiaju Zangzhai where about 150 Tibetan families call home. After an uncomfortable 6 hour drive, the distinctive stone houses of the village set against the picturesque mountain landscape were a welcome sight to behold.



Our "hotel" would be a makeshift guesthouse with 5 beds crammed into one room. The "bathroom" would be a dimly lit shack outside.


We asked our porter, a 6 year old Tibetan boy, about the local recreational activities in Jiaju Zangzhai. He told us that he could take us to a nearby mountain, at the top of which were lots and lots of flags. Seeing as though we didn't have HBO in our room, we decided to go along for the hike.


He took us on a winding path through streams and hills and past a number of cows, goats, insects, and rather large snake. We arrived at a small shrine perched atop a hilltop adorned with Tibetan prayer flags.


After the hike, we went back to the village for a homecooked meal and I practiced my Mandarin with the locals (though their native tongue is actually one of a number of Tibetan dialects) until sundown. After nightfall, the stars were as bright and clear as I have ever seen.

When the next day rolled around and we were on board the bus out of town, it scarcely occurred to me that I hadn't been able to check yesterday's stock prices or emails.

The Sichuan-Tibetan Highway

About a week ago, on the spur of the moment, I joined up with two other travelers to journey around the small towns of Western Sichuan.

Located in the remote mountain plains of Western Sichuan, these towns are not served by airplane or train. So we’ve been hopping from minibus to minibus for the past week, cruising along the southern stretch of the Sichuan-Tibetan highway.

I know that spending 6 hours a day in a cramped minibus driving down treacherous, poorly maintained Chinese roads in the middle of nowhere sounds like an uncomfortable way to travel. And some of the bathrooms I have had to use along the way have been horrific. But the spectacular mountain scenery and mountain towns we have visited have been very rewarding.


So far, our journey has taken us from Chengdu to Kangding to Danba to Xingduqiao to Litang. It’s my first time journeying this far off the beaten path.

In Kangding, I tried yak butter tea for the first (and last) time. In Danba, our 6-year-old tour guide led us to the top of a holy mountain. And just outside Xingduqiao, we got hustled out of 10 yuan by a young Tibetan girl that insisted we pay her for taking photos of her.

We are currently stationed in Litang, an ethnically Tibetan town, which at approximately 4100m above sea level, has the highest elevation of any town in the world.

I will post more detailed entries and pictures when I get the chance.

Snack Food at Jinli Ancient Street

I have traveled through China long enough that a lot of the touristy things that once fascinated me have lost a lot of their novelty. But one thing I have yet to tire of when visiting a new Chinese city is visiting the local "snack street".


A Chinese "snack street" a basically pedestrian street lined entirely with street food vendors.

As a rule, the snack streets tend to very touristy. In some cities, a lot of the stalls are selling stuff like insects or sheep penis, which are more to get a rise out of the tourists than they are actual local food.

But for the most part, the street food is delicious, dirt cheap, and one of my favorite parts of traveling through China.

I took a visit to Jinli Ancient Street earlier this week to sample some of the local street food. I tried some spicy grilled mutton, spicy grilled rabbit meat, a spicy beef and pepper dish wrapped in a banana leaf, some glutinous rice balls, and a few other things that I couldn't readily identify. Here are a few pics: