tiger leaping purge

Yunnan province, in severe southwestern China, is shaped roughly like a left-handed thumbs-up. The northwestern section of the province constitutes the thumb, and it wedges itself right into a crevice created between the wild western regions of Sichuan and Tibet. Along the western ridge and the tip of the thumb, the Earth leaps towards the sky as the foothills of the Himalayas begin their march up. Not really having the time or resources to properly delve into Tibet, and Sichuan being a bit out of the way, we opted to explore this section of China to at least get a feel for the mountains. We spent several days in Kunming, the provincial capital, getting our Vietnam visas arranged before making the bus ride out to popular and picturesque Lijiang.

Lijiang is traditionally home to the Naxi ethinic minority. There is a beautiful old town, where narrow, uneven streets wind through, around, up and down among architecture that may or may not be quite old. There are waterways of fast running, clear water that vary in width from a fist-width trickled to a rushing stream. This is my favorite part of the town. There are often people scrubbing their clothes on steps leading down to the gushing channels. There are special square pools where the water rises clear and fresh out of the ground. In the larger waterways, schools of fish face upstream swimming in time to the current and feasting on the debris swiftly moving downstream. There are goldfish, some kind of white fish, but the trout are my favorite to watch. Their slender, muscular bodies seem perfectly adapted to sit suspended in the current effortlessly. Bridges over the streams range from proper stone arches to almost haphazard wooden timbers. Sometimes the water disappears completely, and you can hear it flowing beneath the very stones that constitute the street. To know the geography of the erratic organization of this cluster of buildings is the know the location, movement, beginning and confluence of these unnumberable waterways. It is fairly common to see older Naxi women with brown crinkled skin, a royal blue Mao-style cap and basket backpack. Of course, all of the buildings in old town are occupied by tourist shops, cafes and hotel/hostels.

Because we have an affinity for domestic tourism in action, we chose China's busiest holiday (Golden Week) to go to one of the most popular destinations for domestic travel. This actually turned out to not be too big of a problem.

The real reason Lijiang is on the backpacker circuit map is because it is the jumping off point for Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of those attractions that everyone you meet on the road insists is "A MUST!". After waffling back and forth about going by myself and leaving Taylor in Lijiang vs. dragging Taylor along on the two-day trek, along with lacking required gear, I had kind of resigned myself to skipping the gorge. A last minute, night before conversation and photo viewing had convinced me that I needed to go ahead and just do it.

It had rained the entire week before we arrived. It continued to rain everyday after our arrival in Lijiang. 4000 meter gorges with sparse vegetation are not known to be among the most pleasant or safe places to enjoy daily thunderstorms. To add insult to injury, I became afflicted Saturday night with sudden, swift and severe intenstinal distress that made sleeping, moving, leaving the bed, eating, enjoying life in general, not to mention gorge trekking, out of the question.

A little salty about having to give up my precious Tiger Gorge, I was not made to feel any better by my sleepless night last night on my 10-inch wide slat directly above the engine of the old Yunnan Express "Sleeper" Bus.

Vietnam here we come!