Clouds hov­er on the moun­tain­side, drift­ing through the ridges cov­ered in lush green forests, water­falls cas­cade to the rag­ing Jin­sha riv­er below, high above tow­er­ing over you is the jagged ridge­line and snowy peak of Jade Drag­on Snow Moun­tain. Emerg­ing from the for­est you are greet­ed by a small herd of goats graz­ing on the hill­side as you look down on a small Naxi farm­ing vil­lage sur­round­ed by fields of corn. It has rained recent­ly, trans­form­ing the Jin­sha Riv­er far below you into a froth­ing mud­dy beast with seem­ing­ly lim­it­less pow­er and awe-inspir­ing rapids (In the dry sea­son it slows down to a rel­a­tive­ly mel­low turquoise riv­er). Jaw drop­ping views of the gorge get bet­ter and bet­ter around every bend in the trail. Though in the dis­tance you can still hear the sound of con­struc­tion vehi­cles as the nev­er-end­ing expan­sion of China’s infra­struc­ture march­es on.

It is the start of your hike through Tiger Leap­ing Gorge, one of the deep­est riv­er gorges in the world with two peaks Jade Drag­on Snow Moun­tain (5,596 m 18,360 feet) and Haba Snow Moun­tain (5,396 m 17,703 feet) on either side of you, ris­ing in sharp con­trast to the sur­round­ing val­leys and foothills. The gorge hike is very acces­si­ble with an estab­lished trail and plen­ty of lodg­ing options.

Look­ing down into Mid­dle Tiger Leap­ing Gorge 

Mid­dle Gorge Look­ing into Low­er Tiger Leap­ing Gorge 

Helpful things to know:

Time Required for Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Trek: 1–3 Days
Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Entrance Fee: 65 RMB (~$10)

• The Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Hike is a loop. You will hike to the end and then take a bus back, pass­ing where you started.
• Because of this, you can leave any excess bag­gage or heavy items at the begin­ning so you don’t have to haul it with you the entire way. (See “Jane’s Tibetan Guest­house” in Part: 0 below)
• It is a lit­tle stren­u­ous with hik­ing uphill at the begin­ning, but only until Tea­horse guest­house (around halfway), after which it is fair­ly mellow.
• There are ample lodg­ing and food options along the way. No need to camp or bring lots of food.
• Just about every vil­lage along the way (The start and end of each of these “parts”) is acces­si­ble by road. For exam­ple, if you want to skip the uphill por­tion and start at Tea­horse Guest­house to avoid pret­ty much all the uphill hik­ing ( I met a woman who did this with her much old­er moth­er), it is pos­si­ble to get a car to drop you off at any of the vil­lages along the way.
• You can also get your bags dropped off at most of the guest­hous­es along the way  (I’ve been told it is 150 RMB for 2 bags from point A to point B, two points along the hike).
• These are arbi­trary por­tions. You can hike the entire thing in one long day, or if you have time and want to enjoy it, spread it out over 3 days.
• Every por­tion has pro­gres­sive­ly bet­ter scenery.
• I rec­om­mend going down to the riv­er at some point. There are two places to do this; Upper Gorge and Mid­dle Gorge and can either be done at the start or end of your trek. (You can see the Upper Gorge view­ing area before you start your trek and Mid­dle Gorge after you’re done hik­ing. Best option if you have time.)
• Through­out the Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Trek, you will prob­a­bly pass peo­ple offer­ing horse rides or per­haps they can haul your bag for a fee. They don’t seem too per­sis­tent but this could vary by season.
• The trail is pret­ty well-marked with blue signs and arrows point­ing the way.
• At the end of this post, I have added some maps that you might find use­ful. Map 01  Map 02  Map 03

Time of Year to visit Tiger Leaping Gorge — Raining or dry

Don’t lis­ten to those peo­ple who tell you not to do the Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Hike dur­ing the rainy sea­son (Rainy sea­son is gen­er­al­ly June through Sep­tem­ber). If you’re in/around Lijiang/Shangri-La dur­ing the rainy sea­son and you want to do the hike, DO IT. If you have time you can wait for a sun­ny day and head out (they do hap­pen dur­ing the sum­mer). On the plus side dur­ing the spring/summer, the rains turn every­thing green, trans­form the Jin­sha riv­er into a sav­age beast and also can give more of a moody atmos­pher­ic feel to the gorge. Of course, the rocks are a lit­tle slip­pery, the views prob­a­bly won’t be as good and if it’s pour­ing rain you prob­a­bly will not want to hike and there is a dan­ger of mud­slides. If it has been rain­ing a lot recent­ly you can call one of the guest­hous­es list­ed below to ensure the road is open, as some­times if there is a land­slide the road is closed for a few days.

Rainy weath­er in Tiger Leap­ing Gorge

Getting to Tiger Leaping Gorge from Lijiang:

Take bus 8 or 13 to the Lijiang Bus Ter­mi­nal. Ask for a tick­et to the town of Qiao­tou (桥头) 40RMB. This is usu­al­ly the bus that con­tin­ues onto Shangri-La and they run through­out the day. The trip takes about 1:50–2 hours. Alter­na­tive­ly, check with your hostel/hotel and they may be able to get you a bus that drops you off direct­ly at the trail skip­ping “Part 0” detailed below and sav­ing you about an hour of road hik­ing). This should be about the same price (40RMB).

Trails, stairs, and boardwalks in Tiger Leaping Gorge:

The Tiger Leap­ing Gorge trek described below is for the tra­di­tion­al trail on the North side of the gorge also called the “High Trail”. It takes at least 1 long day (With an overnight at the end) or can be spread out into mul­ti­ple days (most peo­ple spend about 2 days) with a few oth­er side trips out­lined at the end of this guide. There is also a low­er flat path on the South side of the gorge, a cement path that runs along and close to the Jin­sha riv­er. This low­er path can be done as a day tour from Lijiang (or on your own), though it may not be open due to con­struc­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly there is an “Upper Gorge View­ing Area” which is a net­work of stairs and a board­walk that goes down to the riv­er lev­el. This is where the pic­tures are tak­en on most of the pro­mo­tion­al posters of the gorge of peo­ple stand­ing on a plat­form amidst a rag­ing brown riv­er. This is also where the vast major­i­ty of the tours go and it will usu­al­ly be full of peo­ple (though in my opin­ion def­i­nite­ly worth visiting).

Upper Tiger Leap­ing Gorge — Board­walk view­ing area

 

Tiger Leaping Gorge Hike:

Part 0: Entrance gate (Qiaotao) to start of the trail

Sum­ma­ry

Approx. time: 1:00 Hour 

Dis­tance: 1.75 Miles (1.6 km) 

Ele­va­tion gain: 570′

This is labeled as part 0 as it is the road por­tion of the hike at the begin­ning and it is pos­si­ble to get dropped off at the end of this sec­tion and start of the actu­al trail, skip­ping this road hike entire­ly. If you are on a bus that con­tin­ues to Shangri-La it will drop you in the town of Qiao­tao and you will need to hike this por­tion. Though a pri­vate car can also be hired to drop you off at the start of the trail.

Con­tin­ue across the bridge cross­ing the Chongjiang riv­er. After the bridge, take the road on the right. Here is the entrance sta­tion where you will pur­chase your tick­et (cur­rent­ly 65 RMB, approx. $10 USD. Half price if you are a stu­dent under 25 with a stu­dent ID. It may apply to just Chi­nese stu­dents but it’s worth try­ing if you aren’t. Bring your pass­port). They will also give you a fair­ly basic map.

Con­tin­u­ing down the road a few min­utes lat­er you will see Jane’s Tibetan Guest­house on the left.

Jane’s Tibetan Guesthouse

Phone: +86 887 8806570 / +86 13988505848

- 40 RMB Dorm bed (Shared Bath)

- Pri­vate rooms available.

You can leave your extra lug­gage here for the dura­tion of your hike for a fee of 5 RMB (if you stay here it is free).

They can answer ques­tions about the hike (Though their Eng­lish isn’t per­fect) arrange a horse to car­ry your lug­gage as well as a mini­van to pick you up/drop you off at any point in the gorge or bus tick­ets to Shangri-La or Lijiang after your hike.

About 10 min­utes down the road just after cross­ing under a red tres­tle turn onto a road that goes uphill on your left with some signs includ­ing a blue sign writ­ten in tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese-Eng­lish trans­la­tion gram­mar that states: “Tiger leap­ing gorge hik­ing high­way thus into”. Fol­low this road as it con­tin­ues wind­ing up the moun­tain through some small vil­lages and passed fields with views down to the junc­tion of the Changjiang Riv­er a trib­u­tary of the Jin­sha Riv­er. After about 50 min­utes the road turns to dirt right after a “Chi­na Rail­way” build­ing (on the right-hand side). On the oth­er side of the street right before the trail, is also a place to eat (Last place before Naxi Village).

 

Part 1: Start of the trail to Naxi Village

Sum­ma­ry

Approx. time: 1:30 hours 

Dis­tance: 2 miles 

Ele­va­tion gain: 1,000 feet

First views of the river

At the end of the paved road, just before the dirt road begins (The dirt road will most like­ly be paved in the next few years as the bridge across the gorge is com­plet­ed) and after the “Chi­na Rail­way” build­ing and a place to eat, there is a trail climb­ing up the moun­tain on the left. Take this path as it ascends, con­tin­u­ing in and out of the trees past small stalls sell­ing snacks, drinks and per­haps some Devil’s Let­tuce (Cannabis). There is a sec­tion with a bunch of trails going var­i­ous direc­tions, though they seem to all lead up to the main trail so don’t fret.

It’s about a mile (1.6 KM) of trail going uphill at which point the trail slow­ly begins to descend through the for­est to Naxi Vil­lage which you’ll get a nice view of from above.

As you emerge from the for­est Look across the gorge at the con­struc­tion of the super­high­way in an inter­est­ing jux­ta­po­si­tion to the beau­ti­ful, rur­al Naxi Vil­lage below you.

If you are tak­ing things slow and/or have vis­it­ed the Upper Gorge View­ing Area in the AM this makes a nice ear­ly stop for your first day. You will also most like­ly have the trail to your­self the next day as most peo­ple don’t stop here or are just start­ing the hike a few hours behind you. Oth­er­wise, it’s anoth­er 2:30 to 3:00 hours to Tea­horse Guesthouse.

Naxi Family Guesthouse

A pleas­ant place with nice views (though pret­ty much every lodge in the gorge inevitably has nice views) Friend­ly Naxi fam­i­ly. The shared show­er had luke­warm water.

-  30 RMB Twin room with shared bath­room (Per per­son. Though I had the room to myself)

- 100 RMB Twin room with pri­vate bath
— 120 RMB Deluxe Dou­ble room with pri­vate bath

Naxi Vil­lage — View hik­ing down into the vil­lage from the trail

 

Part 2: Naxi Village to Bendiwan Village (Halfway Guesthouse & Come Inn)

Sum­ma­ry

Approx. time: 4:00 to 5:00 hours 

The trail winds through town and is most­ly marked with blue signs point­ing the way. Leav­ing Naxi Vil­lage the trail becomes a paved stone path and then after a short down­hill sec­tion begins to climb the sec­ond and final real uphill por­tion of the hike, the “28 Bends”,  an hour or so of uphill, climb­ing about 1,400 feet (427 meters) of ver­ti­cal gain in a bit over a mile (1.6 KM), appar­ent­ly with 28 switch­backs or bends (but I didn’t real­ly count).

At the top of the 28 bends is a nice view and a small booth sell­ing water, snacks etc. From here to Tea­horse Guest­house it’s most­ly down­hill through the for­est with some views of the gorge and Jin­sha riv­er below. After 2:30 to 3:00 hours of hik­ing (from Naxi Vil­lage) you will arrive at Tea­horse Guesthouse.

Teahorse Guesthouse

An alter­nate des­ti­na­tion to stay on your first day.

-  40 RMB Dorm bed (Shared Bath)

-  150 RMB Dou­ble room with pri­vate bath/shower

-  180 RMB Triple room with pri­vate bath/shower

-  268 RMB Dou­ble room in the new build­ing with pri­vate bath/shower

Leav­ing Tea­horse the trail is fair­ly lev­el and mel­low on and off the road with good views of the gorge. It is anoth­er 1:30 to 2:00 hours to Come Inn and Halfway Guesthouse.

Halfway Guesthouse

Phone:+86 13988700522

Halfway Guest­house is usu­al­ly the des­ti­na­tion peo­ple aim for on the first day of hik­ing if you’re try­ing to fin­ish the hike in a day and a half. Though, despite its name, it’s clos­er to the end of the Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Trek than “halfway”. Halfway Guest­house is a fair­ly large guest­house with a roof deck and amaz­ing views. Large groups may come here from the road and it can get busy. Check out the toi­let with a view downstairs.

- 40 RMB Dorm with a glass wall afford­ing views of the gorge. (the best view I’ve had from a dorm room)

- 150 RMB Dou­ble room with pri­vate bath

Halfway Guest­house, view from the dorm.
Wall win­dow look­ing out on Tiger Leap­ing Gorge. One of the best views from a hostel!

 

Come Inn

Phone:+86 18183853151

Anoth­er lodg­ing option you will pass before Halfway Guest­house is Come Inn. From a sign on the trail, they have lodg­ing options from 30 to 300 RMB and a hap­py hour from 5–7 pm with 2 for 1 beer. It also states “BBQ pro­vid­ed when book in advance”

 

Part 3: Halfway Guesthouse to Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge (End)

 Summary

Approx. time: 1:30 ‑2:00 hours 

Dis­tance: 2.5 miles (4 km) 

Ele­va­tion gain: 200 feet

The best views on the hike are on this last sec­tion of trail leav­ing Halfway Guest­house (or Come Inn) with a steep cliff drop­ping away to your right. There are two waterfalls/streams to cross where you might get your feet wet. The trail is rel­a­tive­ly flat and even­tu­al­ly mean­ders down the (some­times slip­pery) hill­side to the Mid­dle Gorge (Tina’s GH etc.) and the end of the hike (with a few addi­tion­al hik­ing options out­lined below).

There are con­tin­u­ous views of the gorge on this last sec­tion pret­ty much the entire way. The trail can be slip­pery but is noth­ing to be afraid of (though you would not want to do it in the dark). You can always check on trail con­di­tions at Halfway Guest­house or Come Inn but if they will ben­e­fit from you not con­tin­u­ing down the trail (hir­ing a car to go down for exam­ple) take it with a grain of salt. You can always turn back if the trail is washed out, a pos­si­bil­i­ty if it has been rain­ing a lot recently.

Descend­ing back to the main road the trail comes out right at Tina’s Guesthouse/Youth Hos­tel. This area is called “Mid­dle Gorge”. You can stay at Tina’s or choose one of the small­er guest­hous­es fur­ther down the road. There are a few oth­er places to eat/sleep with­in 5 min­utes after the Shen Chuan Bridge. (When cross­ing the Shen Chuan Bridge look down­stream to the Jin­sha riv­er below and you can see the Tiger Leap­ing rock and the wood­en bridge that goes out to it).

30 min­utes fur­ther down the road, there are even more lodg­ing options. Tibet Guest­house (about 30 min­utes from Tina’s) has good afford­able food and friend­ly staff. A lit­tle fur­ther down the road are Sean’s and some others.

For a more com­plete list of lodg­ing options, you can check out the wiki trav­el page: http://wikitravel.org/en/Tiger_Leaping_Gorge

Additional trips in Tiger Leaping Gorge:

Up close view of the Jin­sha Riv­er (Option­al — High­ly Recommended):

I high­ly rec­om­mend get­ting down to the riv­er lev­el at some point in your trek, which can be done before or after the main hike list­ed above. There are 2 nor­mal options for doing this. You can do one or both.

Upper vs. Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge Viewing area:

Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge Viewing Area:

 

Upper Tiger Leap­ing Gorge View­ing platform

The pic­ture you usu­al­ly see on posters and ads (on the tick­et as well) of a view­ing plat­form full of peo­ple sur­round­ed by a rag­ing brown riv­er, is the Upper Gorge View­ing Area. When you start your hike in Qiao­tou you enter  “Upper Tiger Leap­ing Gorge”. This is where the gorge starts (at the junc­tion of the Jin­sha and Changjiang Rivers). From Qiao­tou it’s a good 5+ miles (8+ KM) of paved road to the Upper Gorge View­ing Area. You could walk but it seems easy enough to flag down a car as there is usu­al­ly a steady stream of tourists dri­ving this route. I just stood there and waved at cars. If a mini bus/van stops they will prob­a­bly charge you. (One van want­ed 20 RMB so I got out, flagged down the next car and squeezed into the back­seat with their 2 adorable lit­tle kids and tried to teach them Eng­lish as we rode through the gorge.) Have your tick­et handy as it will be checked at anoth­er entrance station/building and usu­al­ly again at the view­ing plat­form area.

The view­ing area here is very devel­oped with sets of stairs going down to a board­walk par­al­lel­ing the riv­er below (which if it’s been rain­ing is quite some­thing to see so close up). Look­ing down at the riv­er, stick to your left, go down the stairs to the riv­er lev­el, along the board­walk and then back up anoth­er set of stairs on the oth­er side of the board­walk. Look out for the memo­r­i­al and short sto­ry on those who have raft­ed and died on the river.

While it is pos­si­ble to have the bus drop you off here on your return trip it might be eas­i­er logis­ti­cal­ly to hitch a ride down here and back on the morn­ing of the begin­ning of your hike, if you have time. If you do want to vis­it it on your way out just ask the bus to drop you off at the Upper Gorge view­ing area. Although you will have to hitch a ride back to Qiao­tou where you can then catch a bus to Lijiang or Shangri-La.

 

Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge — Ray of Sunshine Path

 

Look­ing down into Mid­dle Tiger Leap­ing Gorge

There is a net­work of trails going down to the riv­er in the Mid­dle Gorge called the Ray of Sun­shine Path. If you only have time for one view of the riv­er up close I would rec­om­mend doing it at the mid­dle gorge after you fin­ish your trek. This is also where the “Tiger Leap­ing Rock” is locat­ed, where leg­end has it when a hunter was pur­su­ing a tiger, the tiger leapt from this rock (the nar­row­est part of the gorge) to the oppo­site side and to it’s safe­ty. As you stand on the rock you might won­der if per­haps this leg­endary tiger was part moun­tain goat, as I did. Note that you will be charged 15 RMB for access to the trail (an addi­tion­al 15 RMB if you exit a dif­fer­ent route than the one you entered on) and 5 RMB if you want to use the bridge to walk out to THE rock.

Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Rock. The leg­endary rock where it’s said THE epony­mous tiger leapt from. (5 RMB)

There are a num­ber ways to get down to the riv­er in the Mid­dle Gorge, 5 actu­al­ly by my count. The first is from Tina ’s, the sec­ond from Sandy’s Guest­house and then three pro­gres­sive­ly fur­ther down the road. Sandy’s Guest­house has access to what is known as the “Sky Lad­der”, a few con­nect­ed lad­ders going straight up the side of the cliff with ver­ti­go-induc­ing views at the top look­ing down to the riv­er far below. Going up the sky lad­der on the hike out is the way to do it (there is a trail that goes around it if you want to avoid it or go down around it).

Sandy’s Guesthouse and the “Sky Ladder”

“Sky Lad­der” From Sandy’s Guesthouse

If you just want to go down to the riv­er and back up pay­ing the least amount I think Sandy’s is the way to go. You will pass many stalls on the way down as well as a larg­er “shop­ping” area at the bot­tom. In high sea­son these will prob­a­bly be stocked with ven­dors (They were pret­ty much emp­ty in mid-July). They even have signs for cannabis, although I’d guess it isn’t any good. When you get to the “Sky Lad­der” go around it using the path going down (you can climb up it on the hike out). Even­tu­al­ly, you will arrive at a flat area near the bot­tom, fol­low a small trail to the riv­er. If you go left there is a hang­ing wood­en sus­pen­sion bridge of ter­ror lead­ing out to a rock in the mid­dle of the Jin­sha Riv­er that would be fit­ting in any Indi­ana Jones movie. It cost 10 RMB to use this bridge as it was built and is main­tained by locals. There is a locked gate pre­vent­ing access to this bridge if no one is there to col­lect the fee. It was locked when I was there but just for a cool pic­ture, I’d pay the fee…. for a friend to cross.

Turn­ing right (fac­ing the riv­er) from the trail you came down on, will bring you along a path cross­ing a few small bridges to the larg­er bridge going out to the Tiger Leap­ing Rock (5 RMB). I didn’t pay this fee as no one was there to col­lect. But if there was I would prob­a­bly pay. These extra fees seem exces­sive after pay­ing 65 RMB to get into the gorge. All of these trails and bridges here, how­ev­er, are built and main­tained by the locals (A cou­ple of fam­i­lies it seems). I found myself feel­ing thank­ful that there were trails and bridges here at all and I think 20 RMB (Approx. $3) isn’t ter­ri­ble, espe­cial­ly for the cool look­ing shot of some­one com­ing up the “sky ladder”.

Indi­ana Jones Sus­pen­sion Bridge of Terror

Other options for the Ray of Sunshine Path:

If you have more time and don’t mind pay­ing an addi­tion­al 15 RMB you can descend to the riv­er via anoth­er trail and go back up to the road using the trail to Sandy’s Guest­house. Either start­ing from Tina’s or going fur­ther down the road from past the bridge and past Sandy’s, there are a few more options. About 10–15 min­utes fur­ther down the road, you will see anoth­er sign for a trail lead­ing down to the riv­er on the right-hand side of the road. In all like­li­hood, there will also be some­one stand­ing there to col­lect the fee of 15 RMB. This trail has a kind of alcove cut into the cliff that looks kind of inter­est­ing. I was told by anoth­er hik­er that was the only attrac­tive fea­ture on the trail and that the steep­er trail from Sandy’s was bet­ter. But if you have time and want to see more of the gorge you can start from any of the oth­er options down to the riv­er. (It seems there are a few oth­er trails lead­ing down to the riv­er if you con­tin­ue on down the road.)

Up close view of the Sus­pen­sion Bridge of Terror 

Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Rock 

Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Rock 

View of Mid­dle Tiger Leap­ing Gorge 

Look­ing up from Tiger Leap­ing Rock to the Shen Chuan Bridge 

Sky­lad­der Tiger Leap­ing Gorge 

Part 4: Walnut Garden (optional)

It is pos­si­ble to not go down to Tina’s guest­house and con­tin­ue along the trail going through side gorge and cross­ing a tor­ren­tial water­fall even­tu­al­ly arriv­ing in Wal­nut Gar­den which touts the “High­est Lodg­ing in Tiger Leap­ing Gorge” at the Wal­nut Gar­den Youth Hos­tel. Though I would cau­tion that this por­tion of the trail is not for the faint of heart as the trail is very nar­row in places, poten­tial­ly washed out, has a slip­pery “lad­der bridge” that you have to climb up and it’s hard to know the trail con­di­tions espe­cial­ly if there were recent rains (a small rock slide/landslide could eas­i­ly ren­der the trail impass­able). Appar­ent­ly, the peo­ple at the Wal­nut Gar­den Hos­tel are the only ones who main­tain this sec­tion of trail so you can call them at 18065215732. This sec­tion trav­els along a large gorge with water­falls and a small bam­boo for­est. The oth­er option is to hike down to Tina’s Guest­house (as detail in Part 3 above) and call Wal­nut Gar­den Hos­tel at 18065215732. They offer a free shut­tle and can come pick you up. You can then hike from Wal­nut Gar­den Hos­tel back to Tina’s Guest­house along the trail detailed above, in a few hours.

Walnut Garden back to Middle Gorge via Waterfall

Lad­der Bridge cross­ing a side gorge. On the way to Wal­nut Garden

Warn­ing: This sec­tion of the trail is NOT rec­om­mend­ed for inex­pe­ri­enced hik­ers. The trail is not reg­u­lar­ly main­tained and you must cross a sketchy, slip­pery lad­der-bridge over a rag­ing gorge!

I did this sec­tion of the trail in reverse so I am list­ing it as such.

Fol­low the trail leav­ing Wal­nut Gar­den Youth Hos­tel (The staff can show you exact­ly where it starts). After 5–10 min­utes you will come across an open cement water chan­nel and a pipe. You will fol­low this all the way to the water­fall. There is a trail the descends on the left leav­ing the main trail at: 27.2656, 100.1529 You can walk down to the water­fall and check it out, then return to this loca­tion. Leav­ing the main trail the path descends through a for­est and you’ll get some bet­ter views of the gorge you will cross. Descend­ing through a bam­boo for­est you arrive at a slant­ed log bridge cross­ing the gorge. It’s more of a lad­der than a bridge. Be very care­ful here and on this next sec­tion of the hike as the trail is very nar­row and crum­bling. NOT rec­om­mend­ed for small chil­dren or inex­pe­ri­enced hik­ers. Fol­low this trail as it winds down with more views of this side gorge, goes uphill and arrives back at the pri­ma­ry trail lead­ing down to Mid­dle Gorge and Tina’s Guesthouse.

Leaving the Gorge

Tiger Leaping Gorge to Lijiang:

There is a dai­ly bus back to Lijiang at 3:30 pm from Mid­dle Gorge (Tina’s). Tina’s or anoth­er guest­house can also arrange a pri­vate car any­where you want to go.

Addi­tion­al­ly, if it is a busy day on the road you could try to hitch a ride back to Qiao­tou (where you start­ed the hike) where you can then catch a bus to Lijiang or Shangri-La. Bus­es are run­ning through­out the day, usu­al­ly every 30 min­utes to an hour.

Tiger Leaping Gorge to Shangri-La (Zhongdian)

Get a ride back to Qiao­tou. There is a bus stop in Qiao­tou where bus­es reg­u­lar­ly go to Shangri-La through­out the day. You may also be able to get a ride from Tina’s

Tiger Leaping Gorge to Baishuitai:

Beau­ti­ful nat­ur­al lime­stone ter­races with crys­tal clear water flow­ing from one to the next. A holy place for the Naxi people.

From Mid­dle Gorge, you can flag down a van going East (Fur­ther down the gorge) and ask to go to Baishuitai (40–50 RMB). If there are lots of cars you can try hitch­hik­ing as well. Or arrange a car with your hos­tel. There is a town called “Haba” on the way to Baishuitai. I stopped there and spent the night but unless you intend to climb Haba Snow Moun­tain (5,396 m 17,703 feet) or have a spe­cif­ic trip in mind you might want to skip it. From Baishuitai it is pos­si­ble to con­tin­ue on to Shangri-La via a pub­lic bus on the main road.

Additional Information

MAPS

Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Map — Tina’s Guesthouse 

Tiger Leap­ing Gorge Map — Wangjiang Hotel 

TLG map 03 — Map by Allan Zhu, CCT Tours 

Wik­i­trav­el: Some extra infor­ma­tion and addi­tion­al info on lodg­ing options in the gorge.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Tiger_Leaping_Gorge

Chi­na High­lights website:

https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/china-hiking/tiger-leaping-gorge.htm