City's tend to temporarily suck the life out of me if I'm not careful, and getting a bit sick in Kunming didn't help much. But that's all over now! Mountains have the opposite effect on me.
Since KunMing, we have spent time the backpacker center of DaLi, the Chinese tourist Mecca LiJiang, Tiger Leaping Gorge, and a backroad over a 3800 meter pass to get here.
Now we are in ZhongDian, a.k.a. Xiang Ge Li La, a.k.a. Shangri-La. Shangri-La is a bit of a stretch - a ploy to bring in tourists no doubt - but it's a beautiful area none the less. On the edge of the Tibetan plateau, this has apparently been a centre where Tibetans met with YunNanese and others to trade for the last thousand years.
I don't really have anything good to say about DaLi and LiJiang, so I won't. Onto Tiger Leaping Gorge. Located about ten kilometers after the "first bend" of the Yangtze River (where the Yangtze essentially turns back on it's self, therefore flowing out into central China rather than Southeast Asia - you understand the significance), the gorge is flanked by 4000 meter peaks on both sides, while the Yangtze flows at 1900 meters. It's big. It's so big that it was really difficult to take a decent picture of it. You had to be there.
Roadside house.
There's even farming in a few more open spots along the gorge.
We waited here for a couple of hours after we came upon a little landslide that injured three road workers. It seems that while they were clearing the rocks from an earlier landslide, more rocks came down and broke a few arms. It was a little scary for a while, as those with the "authoritah" were panicking. Eventually a van was commandeered to shuttle these boys to the hospital. After the authoritah left, some locals took to clearing the rocks that blocked the road themselves. They would sprint into the red zone, grab or push a rock of the edge and sprint out. Then another guy would take his turn. I can attest that at least two more fair sized rocks fell during this operation. After it was suitably clear, a truck approached the slide area and everyone but the driver got out. They ran across one by one, and finally the truck sped through. About twenty vehicles proceeded in this manner. It had been about an hour since the last rocks had fallen, so last of all Brett and I also made our way through. hmmm maybe I shouldn't tell this story.
We stayed at a nice guest house in the gorge for the night. There, this little girl taught me the correct way to beckon "BaoZi" the dog. She also laughed to herself every time she saw me walking (I developed a limp, not from bicycling, but after walking my knee into a fire hydrant placed in the middle of the sidewalk in LiJiang).
The little farmstead above was around 3400 meters. They raise pigs, horses and a few cattle, and farm wheat and vegetables.
After the gorge, we continued on a backroad towards ZhongDian and eventually over a huge pass. We must have done about 1700 meters of climbing over two days. It was slow going, but the views were great. There were four distinct valleys, scenically and culturally. In one valley an older women dressed in full traditional wear stuck her tongue out at me (this is a greeting I understand?). I stuck my tongue out at her in return and she laughed.
One valley I have named "Friendly Valley" and the next I named "Crazy Valley". In "Crazy Valley" I was accosted by a marauding group of ten year olds. They grabbed onto my panniers and stopped me dead in my tracks. They demanded chocolate. They attempted to open my bags, and then tried to take them off my bike. I humored them for a while and then said my farewell. They immediately gave chase and managed to stop me again. In the end I had to employ a technique that I use on mountain dogs. I pretended that I was going to kick them with one foot as I rode away. It worked.
A man also hissed at Brett in Crazy Valley.
We came over the pass and dropped down a few hundred meters, but everything was different. The houses, the people, the livestock. Yaks everywhere. Monstrous houses. I guess this was the cultural border of Tibet. 30 km later we arrived here in ZhongDian...
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