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Photo courtesy of Chris Carpenter

Backroads China
Day 11-Lijiang to Zhongdian

Lijiang to Zhongdian - This morning we will depart Lijiang for Zhongdian. The road northward from Lijiang descends to the upper Yangtze River near its first "Great Bend". Here the river widens in a broad ford that provided strategic crossings to the 14th Century Mongol armies and more recently to theCommunists on their Long March. On the way to Zhongdian, we'll stop to explore Tiger Leaping Gorge where the torrent of the Yangtze, displaced from its ancient course, disappears into a narrow defile between two mountain ranges. With more than 10,000 feet of vertical relief between the mountain summits and the river, this gorge is one of the earth's most spectacular. Here the mighty Yangtze is so compressed that, according to legend, a tiger once leaped across in flight from a hunter. After hiking a short distance into Tiger Leaping Gorge, we'll ascend through spectacular mountain country to Zhongdian, a subalpine valley poised at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Zhou Bing Guang or Bita Hotel (3 nights).

 

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Introduction | Kunming | Dian Chi Lake | Burma Road | Dali
Shapin & Lijiang | Lijiang | Jade Dragon Mountains & Lijiang
Lijiang to Zhongdian | Zhongdian | Zhongdian & Kunming

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