Tiger Leaping Gorge

The Yunnan province is one of the most diverse provinces in China, with beautiful landscapes and picturesque ancient towns. In other blogs we will talk more about other places we visited in this province, but in this one we will tell you about how we hiked the Tiger Leaping Gorge. This hike is known as one of the most beautiful hikes of China, and we definitely agree.

Massive mountains along the hike!

The Gorge is about 15 km in length and has a maximum depth of 3790 at is its highest point, giving you extraordinary views while hiking along the river on different levels. You could hike on a high level (“upper trail”) or a lower level (“lower trail”) along the river, but also admire the the gorge all the way down from the river. We walked the upper trail, because we always prefer views from above!

Waterfalls on the way!

The starting point of the lower and upper trail is in a town called Qiaotao. Most people travel to this place from either Lijiang or Shangri-La. The trails are both easily accessible, with clear marked signs. The upper trail will treat you with various viewpoints over the gorge and surrounding mountains. The full trek can be done in one day, but there are also people who stretch it out to a five day trek (or something in between of course). There are different clean and friendly lodges along the way to take a rest, to eat something or stay the night. We walked the upper trail in 2 days, with a break half way, in a very nice lodge with amazing views (and cold beer!).

The 'upper trail'

Most people end their hike at Tina’s Guesthouse, at the middle-part of the gorge, where it is possible to descend all the way down to the river. Various paths lead you up or down; more steep or going down gradually. We went down taking a path descending slowly, giving fantastic views of the gorge on different levels.

A path down to the river!

All the way down it's possible to visit the “legendary middle Tiger Leaping stone”; the stone where the gorge gets its name from. Yes, the myth says a tiger jumped over the river, running for its hunter! Going up we took a very steep, long iron staircase. Back up we enjoyed some lovely food at Tina’s Guesthouse, a famous hikers meeting point, and the place where everyone leaves for their next destination. As did we!

Wild River at the Tiger Leap Gorge