Not very many travelers, particularly backpackers, make it to this region of China and miss the pilgrimage to Tiger Leaping Gorge (TLG). Reason number one: its gorgeous. And number two: the handful of delightful guest houses that are sprinkled along the path provide pleasant places to stop for tea, lunch, or the night during your multi-day hike. We did the trek over three days (dumping our larger packs at the start of the trail) and meandering (ok, huffing and puffing at points) our way along the path above the gorge.
Our hike was mostly up above on the high path, but on our last day we walked down to the lower section, near the river to the point where an old legend claims that a tiger jumped across the gorge in order to evade a hunter. This point is still a hearty 80+ feet across and shown below (the tiger purportedly jumped from about where I am standing).
On our way down to the river and the leaping point, we were greeted with the following sign. Sometimes the simplicity of English-Chinese translations in signs are brilliant, and this one has to be one of my favorites so far (outside of my growing collection of instructional signs in bathrooms).
The "dangerous ladder" is shown on the left, and for those of you who might be wondering: we split the difference. We took the "safe path" on the down and the "dangerous ladder" on the way up. Moderation in all things.
1 comment:
As they say in Ithaca: "gorges!"
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