Like southern and western Yunnan, the landscape consisted of ridges of reddish-brown clay separated by deep gorges with little villages and cultivated terraces. However these ridges were far higher and the gorges far deeper than anything we had seen before until we came to the spectacular mountains of Yulong Xueshan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain) with a height of 5,500 metres rising 3,900 metres above the Jinshan (the early name of the Yangtse) river, and the Haba Shan. Sadly the mountain was shrouded in cloud.
Tiger Leaping Gorge, the world’s deepest gorge with sides over a mile high, was spectacular despite the huge number of tourists. We got in for free (being over 60) and walked down several hundred steps from a viewing platform next to the car park down to the bottom of the gorge where billions of gallons of water were rushing past
The road continued under towering vertical cliffs with frequent warnings about rock falls and the huge boulders lying at the side of the road were somewhat disconcerting. However nothing fell on us as we followed the Jinshan up-stream as it rushed northwards thousands of feet below. The Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge locality had dozens of guest houses and we saw a number of fellow Europeans.
The road then wound upwards and upwards through a huge succession of hairpin bends as we rose from about 1,000 metres ASL at Tiger Leaping Gorge to 3,300 at Shangrila. Green and the owner of a guest house where she stayed found us a free camping place in front of a block of flats. We went shopping and met Wuling, a tour guide, in the street and he took us to a huge supermarket where we bought some food.
