I didn’t want to leave Yunnan province without seeing the scenic area of Tiger Leaping Gorge. I went to the bus station and got on a bus to the nearest town. The bus ride was an experience since one has to go over a mountain range in order to get there. So it was up some mountains and then descended for what seemed like over an hour. The road wasn’t perfect, but very bumpy for this bus. I was sitting in the back seat and I was flying up out of the seat at times! I couldn’t find a seatbelt, so I held on to my camera, computer, and myself. I was scared, since many stretches of the road had no guard rails.
Nearing the town, I noticed a lot of army soldiers, and this was not a military base. I’m getting close to Tibet here and these look like some of the reserve troops incase some riots start occurring farther up the mountains.
I got dropped off in town, while most of the people on the bus continued to Shangra-la. All my guidebooks said I have to bargain for a taxi or van to take me into the gorge unless I wanted to walk the whole way (2 days walk). There only seemed to be one taxi driver who spoke English running things. So much for choices. I was also the only person looking for a taxi, so much for sharing and splitting the cost. So I had to try my bargaining skills. First rule is to be willing to walk away. In this case, take the bus back to Lijiang and miss out seeing one of the most beautiful places in the world. After an hour of walking around trying to get him to go lower, he wouldn’t budge because he knew I had no other choices. I was prepared to leave. I almost got on one bus but decided I should really see this place, so I took him up on his offer.
So for about $21 he would drive me in, skip the ticket office, let me walk around for a couple hours and drive me back. When we started, he pointed to the back seat and said “sleep 5 minutes.” I didn’t understand, I wasn’t tired. But then we started driving and I understood I had to get down low as we passed the ticket checkpoint to show he wasn’t carrying a customer. And it worked!
We drove past the main sightseeing place where the big buses stop (Upper Gorge) and then the road got worse to just dirt and stones, no guardrails, places where waterfalls ran over the road. But unbelievable scenery, being the deepest gorge in the world! When we got to the Middle Gorge area, I got out and then walked down to the river below. There were a few spots with old ladies asking for “path fees” and I paid $2.50 of these in total. The sun came out and I was able to take some good photos. The driver said it takes 3 hours to walk down and up, but I think I did it in 1.5 hours. I was really tired though. It was similar to the walk down the Grand Canyon, but not quite as far, but more dangerous. At one point there was a ladder that went straight up the cliff face. It was an adventure.