Category: asia 2019

Real Bacon in China

Day 109 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 11 in China

By Ippy

2 minute read

Big wall of instant noodles for sale at a supermarket in Xingyi

Big wall of instant noodles for sale at a supermarket in Xingyi

Had a lazy day today in Xingyi, Guizhou Province but we had a good dinner.

Xingyi and Maling River Gorge

Day 108 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 10 in China

By Ippy

6 minute read

Huang Long (Yellow Dragon) waterfall at Maling river gorge

Huang Long (Yellow Dragon) waterfall at Maling river gorge

Xingyi (興義). It's a tier 4 city. I had asked a couple of Chinese people I knew back home about it and neither had heard of it. There was barely any information about the city online. Hop on to Wikipedia and there's about 4 lines of text about it. Guizhou province on the whole was completely unknown to us during our pre-holiday research and we had both thought we would simply breeze past it to get to Zhangjiajie. I was told that Guizhou was the home of Maotai, which seemed to be the only remarkable thing to note about the province, which was one of the poorest in the country. And now I know it's also the birthplace of Lao Gan Ma, the famous chilli oil.

A Green Kunming

Day 105 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 7 in China

By Ippy

4 minute read

Bridge in Green lake park (Cui Hu Park)

Bridge in Green lake park (Cui Hu Park)

It was a leisurely day today. Didn't do a whole lot except walk around Green lake, ate Dairy Queen and had a surprisingly beefy noodle soup.

The City of Eternal Spring

Day 104 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 6 in China

By Ippy

10 minute read

Jade Chicken Arch

Jade Chicken Arch

Kunming (昆明) is the capital of Yunnan province and naturally we had to head that way to get out of the province. We decided not to stop in the popular Dali (大理) because it didn't interest us that much. It didn't seem like there was much to see apart from the famous Three Pagodas.

Leaving Tiger Leaping Gorge

Day 103 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 5 in China

By Ippy and A. Bush

6 minute read

Yulong Mountain as seen from Tibet Guesthouse, Lower Tiger Leaping Gorge

Yulong Mountain as seen from Tibet Guesthouse, Lower Tiger Leaping Gorge

Whoo hoo! A could tick off Tiger Leaping Gorge off his bucket list! Our plan for TLG had gone without a hitch and most importantly, there was no rain. Now, having bought our bus ticket back to Lijiang from Tibet guesthouse the night before, it was time to say good bye to this great wonder.

Tiger Leaping Gorge: Day 2

Day 102 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 4 in China

By A. Bush

10 minute read

Stone marker for Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-La, Yunnan

Stone marker for Middle Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shangri-La, Yunnan

Day 2 on the Tiger Leaping Gorge trail and our bodies were still kinda tired from the previous day.

Tiger Leaping Gorge: Day 1

Day 101 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 3 in China

By Ippy and A. Bush

11 minute read

The peaks of Yulong Mountain (5596m elevation), seen from Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge

The peaks of Yulong Mountain (5596m elevation), seen from Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge

Hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge (虎跳峽, hutiaoxia) was something that was on the top of A‘s list for this trip. This was his number one.

Tiger Leaping Gorge is an impressive gorge in between two huge mountain ranges - Haba Snow Mountain (5396m elevation) and Yulong Snow Mountain (5596m elevation). These two mountains are some of the tallest mountains in Yunnan province. The river that runs in the gorge is the Jinsha river (Gold Sand river).

Elephants and Dragons

Day 100 of Asia 2019 trip / Day 2 in China

By Ippy

7 minute read

Yulong Mountain on a bad day.  Overcast and lots of clouds hovering around the peak

Yulong Mountain on a bad day. Overcast and lots of clouds hovering around the peak

We were supposed to stay in Lijiang for one night and move on to Tiger Leaping Gorge. We stayed another night as the power of the sun was not enough to dry our clothes, which meant that it would need another day! It's a bit of a silly reason but I didn't mind so much, as this meant we could climb Elephant Hill, which was right beside Black Dragon Lake and had an elevation of 2700m. Lijiang itself has an elevation of 2400m.