Yunnan on foot: Tiger Leaping Gorge, Shaxi and the Yubeng valley

This article describes the four walks we actually build with, what each one demands, and the season and altitude questions that decide whether a trip works. The full route is set out day by day in trekking Yunnan in 15 days.

The four walks, compared

Read that table as a ladder rather than a menu. Done in that order over two weeks it also happens to be a good acclimatisation programme, which is why our route runs Dali, Shaxi, Lijiang, the gorge and then Meili rather than flying straight to the high country.

Tiger Leaping Gorge, the one everybody comes for

The gorge is a slot in the mountains where the upper Yangtze runs between two ranges, with the water about 10,000 feet below the peaks on either side. There is a road along the bottom and a footpath high on the northern wall, and the difference between them is the difference between a photo stop and a walk you remember for a decade.

The high trail takes two days. Day one starts at Qiaotou and climbs away from the road through Naxi villages and terraced fields to the 28 Bends, which is the hard hour of the trek: a switchbacking climb to about 8,860 feet (2,700 m) with the drop opening up behind you. Five to six hours to Tea Horse or Halfway Guesthouse.

Day two is easier. Three to four hours contouring above the river to Tina’s, with the option of dropping to the Middle Rapids on the ladder sections if the path is open and your knees agree.

How hard is it, honestly. It is a walking trail, not a climb. There is no technical difficulty and no equipment beyond boots and a daypack. There are two things that make people uncomfortable: the 28 Bends, which is simply a long uphill hour, and the exposure, because for stretches the path runs along a slope with a long way to fall on one side. If exposure genuinely troubles you, say so and we will build the trip differently.

The accommodation is simple and we will not pretend otherwise. Clean beds, hot water most of the time, good food, shared terraces with the best view on the itinerary. It is a guesthouse on a mountainside, not a hotel.

Season. April to June and September to November. In July and August the trail is walkable and often wet, and the views come and go with the cloud. In deep winter it is cold, clear and quiet, and the top sections can hold ice.

Yubeng, the best three days in southwest China

Yubeng is a valley under Kawagebo, the 22,113 foot (6,740 m) peak at the Meili range, and it is a pilgrimage destination for Tibetan Buddhists long before it was a trekking destination for anyone else.

Getting in is the hardest day of the whole itinerary: down to the river at Xidang, then up the other side over the Nazongla pass at about 12,500 feet (3,800 m) and down into the valley. Five to seven hours with a climb of about 3,300 feet (1,000 m).

Once you are in there are two classic days. The ice lake sits under the glacier at about 12,800 feet (3,900 m), six to seven hours return and steep. The sacred waterfall is gentler, four to five hours return, and you walk it alongside Tibetan pilgrims who circle it three times. You can do both across two days and most people should.

Getting out is either back over the pass or down the lower Ninong gorge route, a cut path above the Mekong that takes four to five hours and is the more interesting exit.

Vehicle access into the valley has changed several times in recent years and the rules have moved more than once. We confirm exactly what is permitted at the time of quoting, and if a shuttle is running we tell you and let you decide rather than deciding for you.

Altitude is the real constraint here, not fitness. This is why our route builds an acclimatisation day at the Wenhai basin at about 10,200 feet (3,100 m) above Lijiang, and a deliberately light day at Zhongdian at about 10,760 feet (3,280 m) before we go anywhere near the pass. Your guide carries a pulse oximeter and knows the descent options, and if you arrive unwell we change the plan rather than push you over a 12,500 foot pass.

Accommodation in the valley is guesthouse standard. Simple rooms, shared bathrooms in some, good food, and no heating to speak of. Nights are cold even in June. Everybody who has walked it says it was worth it, and we would still rather you knew in advance.

Shaxi and Cangshan, the gentle two

Shaxi was a staging post on the tea horse caravan road and is the best-preserved market town in Yunnan. The walking from it is pastoral rather than dramatic: up through pine forest and Bai villages to the Shibaoshan grottoes, about eight miles (13 km) with 1,600 feet (490 m) of climb, on cobbled sections of the original caravan road with almost nobody on them.

Above Dali, the Jade Belt path runs along the flank of the Cangshan range at about 7,900 feet (2,400 m), reached by cable car, about seven miles (11 km) of easy contouring with Erhai lake below. Four to five hours, nothing steep, and a useful early test of how you are handling the altitude.

Both of these are days you can do with a poor night’s sleep behind you and children in the group. Neither is a compromise version of the harder walks. Shaxi in particular is the part of the trip our travellers most often say they would have given another two days to.

When to walk in Yunnan

Late September to early November is the clearest window, with stable weather and the harvest in the valleys. April to May is the second best and greener. June is variable. July and August are the wet season here, which means the gorge trail is fine and often wet and the Meili peaks are usually in cloud.

That last point deserves a plain statement. Kawagebo is in cloud more often than it is not. There are travellers who spend three nights at Feilaisi at 11,150 feet (3,400 m) and never see the mountain. We schedule two chances rather than one, and we will not promise you a summit view.

Winter is dry and sunny at lower altitudes and the Yunnan valleys are one of the better January destinations in Asia, but the high routes are cold and some sections are impassable.

What it costs, and what is included

A fifteen day Yunnan walking trip sits in the comfortable band of our China anchors, around $215 per person per day land only, which puts a full route with guiding, private vehicles, one internal flight and the trail nights at roughly $3,200 per person. The trail guesthouse nights are the cheapest accommodation on any trip we sell, at $20 to $40 a room, and they subsidise the guiding rather than the reverse. The full breakdown is in what two weeks in China costs.

We include an English-speaking trekking guide for the whole route, a porter option on the Yubeng days, all park entries and registrations, and a pulse oximeter carried by your guide.

Who is on the ground

Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. China is not one of them. Yunnan runs through a Kunming partner team we have worked with for years, whose guides walk these trails weekly and who know which sections of the Ninong path have been repaired this season. We would rather name them than imply an office we do not have.

Mobile coverage is patchy in the Yubeng valley and absent for stretches on the gorge trail. Your travel group works when you are back in signal, and your guide carries a local phone that works in more places than yours will.

Plan this trip

Tell us how far you want to walk and how high you are willing to go, and Asaf will build the route around your legs rather than around a brochure. Free first outline, no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• Trekking Yunnan in 15 days
• China: the complete guide to planning your trip
• China month by month
• What two weeks in China really costs
• Deep China in 21 days
• All our China trips

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