Spectacular Scenery at the Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge 上虎跳峡
The weather here are the Tiger Leaping Gorge changes really fast. One minute it was sunny, the next minute it was raining. Actually it was more cloudy than sunny, unfortunately, I was caught in rain storm with no shelter in sight. I was hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge lower road when the rain fell. There weren’t any shelters for people here, after all, who would be crazy enough to walk on the highway? The only semblance of a shelter here was the mountain nearby. There were some overhangs which provided excellent shelter, that is until you see the warnings about landslides. Indeed, the mountain side has extensive landslide prevention stuff such as metal nets to catch large rocks. It seems to have served its purpose recently, as I saw some rocks caught by the net. The heavy rain in the rainy season loosens the rocks on the mountain and causes the inevitable landslides or rockslides. In fact, the parts of the road itself has fallen into the Yangtze River in the past.
Murky Waters of the Tiger Leaping Gorge 虎跳峡
The Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge, like its name implies, is just part of the Tiger Leaping Gorge Area. I don’t think I won’t have time to visit the Middle and Lower section of the Tiger Leaping Gorge as it would require more time to hike. It might be possible to the whole hike in a day, but you really have to get here early or at least sleep in Tiger Leaping Gorge town or Qiaotou village to start as early as possible. People normally do this as part of a three day trek and I think that is the best way to do it. The gorge itself is 15 kilometers in length and it is very doable in a day. However, if you take the upper road which is much higher and trickier, it may really take the entire three days to complete. For me, just completing the Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge hike is already worth the time to come here. The scenery is just spectacular that I don’t mind visiting this place again.
[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/TigerLeapingGorge.kmz} zoom=19]