Tiger Leaping Gorge travel photography – China

 

The Tiger Leaping Gorge is a scenic and gorgeous canyon in the Northern part of the Yunnan province. It is one of the deepest gorge in the world with a maximum depth of around 3790m from the river to the highest mountain peak! Most of the people living there belongs to the Naxi ethnic minority. If you are heading from Lijiang, it is a short 2.5-hour bus journey to Qiaotou (Qiaotou displays as Hutiaoxia on maps.me). Qiaotou is located at above 1900m above sea level and the highest point of the ‘High Trail’ is located at 2650m above sea level.

It is a 20km hike starting from Qiaotou. There are only 2 sections that are quite steep but it is an easy hike overall. It can be split into two sections. The first section is a 16km hike with a positive 797m from Qiaotou to the Halfway point which is at 3 quarters of the hike. The second section is a 4.3km hike with a mainly negative 412m from the Halfway point to Tina’s Guesthouse. The path is labeled as ‘High Trail’ on maps.me. Expect an incredible hike with gorgeous views: rocks, river, waterfalls, stunning mountain peaks covered with snow and pretty villages.

In case the weather gets extremely bad or that you are running late you can stop alongside the trek as there are many guesthouses. However, If the weather is just bad and by that I mean if there is no strom then I would recommend you to keep going up to Tina’s Guesthouse. I decided to stop at the Halfway point as it was raining but it got way worse the following day. The weather was extremely bad: heavy rain and a visibility reduced to less than 5 meters. It was slightly dangerous due to potential landslides. The probability for landslides should not be underestimated. You can see loads of them along the way! Once at the end, you can try some yak cheese dumplings which is one of the food special of the area.