This Seems to be a Tourism Center at the Start of the Tiger Leaping Gorge 虎跳峡
As my bus was following the Yangtze River in its slow march to the East China Sea, I realized that I was getting closer and closer to my destination, Tiger Leaping Gorge Town. Now, it seems that towns in Yunnan province have this habit of changing their names to suit their purposes. It is much like the town of Shangrila who’s previous name was Zhongdian, which itself is a replacement for the older Tibetan name of Gyalthang. It seems that the local authorities know how one of the basics of marketing – branding and name recall. This will be quite obvious from the progression of names in my previous example. I didn’t know I was yet to visit another one of these places.
Yangtze River Flows Onward to the Tiger Leaping Gorge 虎跳峡
Tiger Leaping Gorge Town is sort of a new name to my destination. It’s original name is Qiaotou 桥头 which name can still be found in numerous guidebooks. In fact, most locals still call this place by that name. However, the lure of tourism has affected this town and they have been renamed after their most famous attraction, the Tiger Leaping Gorge. This is actually quite confusing since people would use the name interchangeably which can be a problem when taking local transportation. Fortunately, the name Qiaotou was in the list of destinations of the bus which made me confident of where I was going.
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