Second Day on the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trail


Between two of the guesthouses is a new trail of sorts.  It goes about 3,000 meters down the mountain to the Yangtzi River.  The paths aren't marked well and get pretty perilous in places.  Of course that didn't even slow me down.  I was doing fine until I got lost.  I eventually came upon some horses grazing and decided to wait until the owner showed up.  Finally I saw an old man sitting atop a hill so I began to climb toward him.  When I crested the hill he, genie-like, had appeared atop another hill.  When I finally reached him I tried to show him where I was going on my map but he said he couldn't read.  He was wearing a home made leather vest with a leather pouch around his waist.  Inside was a wood pipe that looked like it came from a tourist shop.  I tried asking him where I was.  I didn't come up any better but he did show me how to go back up the mountain.  I knew if I kept climbing up I would eventually come to the road.  The further up I got, the steeper it became.  At one point the rocks became so loose and brittle I was sure I was going to go sliding back down, way down, and over the edge into a free fall.  I shifted left into a briar patch where at least the rocks were firmer.  Keep in mind this was with NO ROPES!!!  For everyone thinking it I'd like to agree that 'Yes, this was a very stupid thing to do.'  I saw two farm houses off to the left and made my way toward them.  The fields were terraced going up hill as you can see in the pictures below, so I used this to get futher up.  From there I made it to the road.  I flagged down a passing car and asked them how to get to Walnut Grove.  I should have just kept going a little further, it was only 1 km away!

  

An old bridge crossing the river.  No telling how old this is.  This is when I had climbed down to the Yangtzi.  I had crossed this to get where I was going.
What I risked my life to see.  I just got it into my head that I wanted to stick my hand in the Yangtzi.  Here the water is clean and emerald green.
This was along the second , lower path.  A man and his wife were building a house in the middle of no where.  There were no other buildings or villages anywhere nearby.  They were very friendly people, when I was skipping over rocks trying to cross a branch of the river she showed me where to go.  In front of the house you can see the river flowing by.
An old man looks over the edge of the mountain.  This was near the place I had just crawled up.
Walnut Grove.  Suposedly the highlight of the train, to me it looked like any other part of it.  It was still nice, though.  I stayed in a guesthouse up near the top.
A family of goats that held me up for a while along the road.  The big fellow with the horns was threatening to charge.

DaJu Village
China's Wild West

    I missed the last bus back to LiJiang and after unsucsessfuly negotiating for a hitched ride, I stayed the night in DaJu Village.  This was a nice little place to be stuck in overnight.  The village had a sort of Wild West feel to it.  The shops lined dusty streets, some people rode around on horses, and livestock wondered through the couryard houses.
 
 
A hugh hog eats corn husks as the sun sets above this village home.
There was some contruction here as well.  Here a group of men are putting together the frame for either a home or a barn.  You can see behind them the storage barns have an open face.  There is often a low wall surrounding the home and barn forming a courtyard, but it looks like these people haven't finshed putting theirs up.

 

    After I left here I went back to LiJiang, then directly to DaLi where I called in sick to work and spent a few days recovering.  Then I went to Kunming and bought a ticket for Beijing.  The next day I got to the station 45 minutes early.  Unfortunatly, my watch was an hour late.  That's what I get for buying a knock-off G-Shock for US$3.  After panicing for a few minutes I got it refunded with a 10% fine and got the next train going along the same line.  There was one going to WuHan and, 40 minutes later, another to Beijing.  In WuHan's railway station there was the largest mass of human beings crammed into one room that I have ever seen.  I couldn't get a ticket so I decided to take my chances sneaking aboard the train.  Once it was moving I could buy a bo piao, an on-train ticket, which is more expensive but, what could I do?  Using the confusion of the crowds I got aboard, but not before getting collared by a ticket checker.  I played dumb and jumped inside.  I found myself in the second class section and the door to third class, where bo piao tickets are sold, was locked.  I didn't want to get thrown off but I had no where to go, so I lit a cigarette and went into the smoking section until we were moving.  I got to Beijing around midnight and took the train to Anshan the next day.  I barley moved for the rest of the week.

    Well, that was my Spring Festival vacation.  If I go ahead with my plans my next trip with be into China's Northwestern XinJiang Province.  That will wrap up my China Adventure.  My contract is up in July so I'm comming home.  I'll be in the States for about a month and then, if nothing changes, I've got a job teaching in Mexico.  The adventure continues.  Check back for more photos later. 

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