Two days. Thirty kilometers. The most beautiful and deepest gorge in the world. Tiger Leaping Gorge! I apologize in advance for the monotony of the proceeding images. They are all of mountains.

The first part of the hike was straight up. Or straight up enough that local Chinese people road along the route with donkey's offering rides. At first they were entertaining, but they quickly became annoying. And it didn't help that I was the slowest of the group so they preyed upon me. At one point the path has lots of switchbacks. The donkey drivers warned me that I would never make it to the top of the "29 switchbacks"--I think that was the number--but I eventually did.

Along the route there were small towns that supported themselves in green onion farming and backpackers.

Pretty high up at this point. Along the way, we met three Germans. We would hang out with them for the next few days. One German lady came into China via India is studying traditional medicine. She had hiked to the base of Mount Everest, and said the key to hiking was slow and steady.

Finally after seven hours of hiking, we finally arrived at the Halfway guest house. The views were very impressive. That night the wind howled as never before. It was very intense and sustained.

Being in the mountains, away from just about all light, and shielded from what little light was around me, the stars were very impressive. More impressive than rural Minnesota even.

The Halfway Guest House

Day Two.

Click to see the big image of the entire waterfall.

And we're done! Well two more hours of hiking to get to the ferry that would take us to the town where we stayed the night. But done with the hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge.