Day 50 Sunday 22 October, Lijiang, Yunnan, China

After driving round most of Lijiang and an encounter with a local traffic policemen from whom Edward seeks direction and in return wants to see all our papers and check out our Chinese numberplates, we eventually find Black dragon pool, where it is supposed to be. Its a large jade coloured lake fed by a spring at the foot of Elephant Hill and the source of the streams which flow through the old town. The lake is surrounded by pleasant gardens and studded with temples and moon embracing pavilions with a beautiful stone arched bridge like something from a willow patterned plate. After taking the obligatory photos of the lake, bridge, pavilion and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain which rises majestically to 5500m as a backdrop, we are off on the road again to Tiger Leaping Gorge.

A brief photo stop at a Tibetan temple, with a magnificent panorama over the Yangze and surrounding mountains, we plunge down to the river and reach the start of the gorge where the muddy slow flowing Yangze is joined by a swift jade coloured tributary. We cross the bridge and pay the entry fee (nothing in china is free) and head gingerly up the road which clings to the side of the mountain and winds its way upwards. There’re no barriers on the side of the road with buses and 4WDs hurtling up and down.

The gorge is pretty impressive with mountains rising sheer on either side, a drop of about 3900m. The river is very swift, confined to a narrow 30m channel. We climb down to river level to see the rock which the tiger supposedly leapt across pursued by a hunter. Its tempting to accept the offers from the touts with pannelquins(?) or sedan chairs to carry us up but we are made of sterner stuff.
It starts to rain so we abandon plans to drive further thru the gorge, much to the driver’s relief, and head back to Lijiang where we have dinner in a Naxi restaurant which won the singing face off and then hot chocolates and pancakes at a more western one.

Weather 16.5, Mainly sunny
Distance today 182km
Distance from start 10,811km
X5s 1