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Yunnan Province; China

Mar
2004-09-14 15:37:29

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After 10km I imagine myself in the Roman era riding a horse and wagon (with wooden wheels) over this stony road. We climb up to 3100m two times, and this is the first time we'll get all the credits for going up. It is possible to look down to at least 2000 meters. In the distance we see the mountains that we need to concur in the next hours and days. Suddenly we make a turn around the mountain and are faced again with ... a cable car (which looks more like an old merry-go-round). Horses to go up and down the mountain and drinks stalls are everywhere.

At the end of the day we are treated with a 35km downhill over another Roman road. Raymond's front pannier falls of a couple of times but we reach Daju just before dark. The Tiger leaping gorge ends at Daju (looking at the flow direction of the river) and we planned to cross the Yangtze River and to cycle through the gorge tomorrow. The Tiger Leaping Gorge, also described by the Lonely Planet as, 'the deepest most breathtaking gorge in the country’ is 35km long and spans barely 30m. The surrounding peaks are 5600m.'

30/09/2003. The next day we set off towards the ferry that must take us over the river. We choose for the 'new' or 'winter' ferry, since that sounds better than the 'old' ferry that is shown on our hand-drawn map of the gorge. After a Roman 10km, we reach the ticket office for the ferry. The ferryman seems to accompany us to the ferry, he gestures that we should take our time to get to the ferry. We have planned to cycle through the gorge today, so we actually want to 'hurry' a bit. We pick up our bicycles and start our descent. Most remarkable thing is that the ticket office is located (approximately) 800meters above the river. After 50meters we make a turn and look into the steep gorge and see the brown colored Yangtze running wild with a constant loud thunder and white foam of the many rapids. From this point we see that the road we ...