Yunnan

We got to Lijiang via a short internal flight from Chengdu. This was a picturesque small town in the valley of the mountains, and we had a nice relaxing day wandering round the historic centre and parks

After that we spent a couple of days hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the deepest gorges in the world. The mountain pass we walked for the first couple of days was gentle, but the views were incredible. We stayed at a hostel halfway along the path and got some great views on the sunset on the far side of the gorge.

We walked the rest of the path the following day, catching the sunrise through the mountains, before climbing down to the river level to get close-up views of the water.

Next up, we spent a couple of days in the a small rural town called Shaxi. For some reason I didn’t take many photos here, but it had a beautiful relaxed atmosphere, with the village in the plains and mountains in the near distance. We spent some time in the town learning about the history of the “tea horse road”, as well as going for a walk in the hills to see some monkeys and some grottoes dedicated to local history/myths.