Michael Dekur: Hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge



Start of the Tiger Leading Gorge





During the middle of the semester a couple of my friends from university (Arianne, Bruno, and Chen) and I decided to go on a 3 day hiking adventure up into the mountains. The hike is called the Tiger Leaping Gorge and it is near the old town of Lijiang. The trail goes along the second largest Gorge in the world; with its mountain peaks reaching 6000 meters above sea level (Higher than any mountain in Canada). To get there we had to take a 3 hour flight from Guangzhou to Kunming, and then immediately take an 8 hour train north to Lijiang. I will be telling a story about a little encounter we had on the trail!

Goat

On the second day of the hike, Chen and I were on the path heading towards the grueling 28 bend climb up the mountain. We were trekking along, when we heard a slight noise on the cliff above us. Really not paying much attention, we took a few more steps. All of a sudden, something large and dark fell on the trail a few feet in front of me. It was a massive 6 foot snake! Instantly, we both did a 180 degree turn and ran the other way, yelling! I have never seen such a big snake before as we have nothing like it back in Canada. We let some time pass by, then we continued on the path walking on high alert as we expected the snake to jump out! Fifteen minutes passed, as we crossed over another ridge on a narrow path on the edge of hundred foot cliff. Once again, we heard more noises up ahead in a bush. With nowhere to run, we slowly walked around the corner of the ridge. As we took a few steps forward, we were surprised by a group of friendly looking mountain goats. The goats were everywhere! They were walking around us and chomping down on some bushes. This was a much more peaceful encounter than the snake! Finally after taking some pictures we marched on for another 30 minutes where we reached the Halfway Hut. 

Halfway Hut guesthouse was really scenic, as it’s on a cliff overlooking the whole gorge. I added a picture of it at the bottom of the blog. We ended up staying our second night there. It was really refreshing to get out of the city that is filled with so many people and to be in the fresh outdoors with nobody around. This hike has been one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in China so far. One doesn’t really think of the outdoors and nature when talking about China but the Tiger Leaping Gorge was truly amazing.

Halfway Hut

The Crew

Michael Dekur is a Bachelor of Business Administration student at Capilano University. Michael studied abroad at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China.